#haven't vibed to it in a long while

[emelinstriker]

First off, I'm really sorry about everything that's been happening around your blog. This AU has been such a huge source of comfort for me in my everyday life, and it pains me to see jerks with nothing better to do than to ruin the happiness of others affect this blog so much. However, on a different note, if you would be so kind as to let me tell you about a daydream I had about your AU, that would be just the most!

So, I was revisiting some old fandoms of mine, and I suppose those began mixing with the ESAU at some point. You know the song "Drift Away" from Steven Universe? I was thinking about how sad it was when the ESAU popped into my mind and OH BOY. I thought about this little scenario! (I apologize for the poor writing):

One of the many Master reincarnations that stuck with Macaque was the long gone Master *Gertrude. It wasn't because she led an interesting life or had special affections for him, but rather that she abandoned him. Fed up with him for being the most affectionate and always in her space, she brought him out into a field. Alone. She smiled and hugged him, something Macaque couldn't have recalled her ever doing towards him in the past, before telling him to stand still in the open field and not to move until she came back. Macaque had wanted to ask her questions about where she was going when she gave him her next and final command, to not ask her questions. With that, she left, and Macaque sensed a feeling of strong joy coming from her and, well, if his Master was happy, than he was overjoyed! And so he waited. Minutes passed by, then hours, then days and a week. And before Macaque knew it, months had gone by, follows by years. Years of standing and waiting for his Master to come back with him, with nothing but the occasional bird or rabbit passing by, which he would snatch up and eat to feed himself and keep himself busy. But Macaque couldn't understand the situation, couldn't understand why any of this was happening, until one day when he saw the other champions coming his way. By this point, the grass in the field was overgrown and the flowers had withered. A few vines reached around Macaque, keeping him planted down to the Earth, as if it was reclaiming him. His fur was filthy and unkempt and he had dark circles around his eyes because it was hard to sleep standing up, in the open, alone. Macaque had watched as his brother and the other champions approached him, Wukong coming forward in swift strides to help pull off the greenery growing on him and hugged him tightly. Macaque... felt like crying although he could hardly understand why.

"Master is dead." Wukong had spoken with his usual monotone voice, but it cracked. Hearing his brother's voice crack broke Macaque and he hugged him back, feeling warm tears running down his face and he asked the question that had been racking his mind for decades.

"Why did Master never come back for me?" Wukong couldn't answer, no one could bare to tell him except for Mink.

"Master got rid of you because they didn't like you. But don't yell at us for never looking for you, because she specifically requested that we didn't and so here we are."

Macaque remembers how he broke down right there, tired after years of standing there with sleepless nights and little to eat or do. He remembers vowing to never trust their Master so blindly again, reminding himself to keep all the qualities Master Gertrude found annoying to a minimum. Macaque won't make the same upsetting mistake twice.

*I'm really sorry if this is the name of any one who might be reading this, I mean no offense! I just looked for a name that isn't frequently used in the modern day and that's what came up

I don't know, maybe I'll write a fanfiction with the next reincarnated Reader comforting Macaque after all this trauma of abandonment, poor baby boy... An AU of an AU, how thrilling!

This could work with any of the champions, in my opinion, because, I think, that if their Master wills it, no matter how harmful it is, they would just instinctually oblige. I only used Macaque because, if this happened to him, I would just break down crying and hug him till I die! Anyways, I hope you liked this, Emelin, and please please please give me validation! Thank you, you're the best!

OOOOOO i love this omg- THE ANGST- THE AAANGSSST- I also love the moment of Wukong's voice crack- it's literally lil moments like this where he shows vulnerability and emotions- fhgnfhgnfhg

Very well written and fitting character choice for this!! :D

But how dare that Master not like Macaque's affection and just abandon him?? HE'S THE MOST WHOLESOME OF THEM ALL- If we ignore the more murderous side of him of course- BUT HE'S SO FLUFFY TOWARDS HIS MASTER AND DESERVES THE BEST FLUFF IN RETURN- HDSFNDSHFNHDSFHNHDSNHSD

Like- this is so in-character for them though- Especially between the monkey bros since Macaque is usually so eager and happy about completing a task to make his Master happy- hgfnhgnfghf the feels of potential heavy angst, man- Gotta love it-

I'd definitely read a part two with a Master who actually gives him the fluffy comfort he deserves and needs gfhgnfhjgf

[ineed-to-sleep]

Some sketches I did to try to get a feel for what I want my Rook to look like 🤔

[sysig]

Wouldn’t want him getting lost now, would we (Patreon)

[keeps-ache]

'please i have a family !! of ocs'

[mud-castle]

There's something satisfying about making fool/jester inspired character designs.

[firebirdsdaughter]

Hmmm…

… Everyone's jumping to shipping for Boonboomger, and I get why, but I'm personally feeling more family vibes. Think this could be a good team-centric season.

[crow-talks-hockey]

wow. well. my interest in the rempe-mania has absolutely plummeted. i was like "oh kinda cool" for round about the first two days and then... then i realized he's just going to be, and really already is, another dirty ass player and the Model R^nger if you know what i mean. the first couple fights were kind of cool and all but holy fucking shit if this is exactly the player we do NOT need coming up in the league. i'm all for bringing some of the rough-and-tough (BUT CLEAN) stuff back to hockey but when it's this? when it's coming into the league and basically making your goal hurting players? and getting away with it? it's bullshit. too many players have lost their primes or their ENTIRE FUCKING CAREER to injury especially related to head injuries, which is what rempe is doing. and he fucking knows it. it makes my stomach sick. and probably the worst part about this is the dops will do nothing. just like how they do nothing with wilson or trouba or perry or kane or any of the other repeat offenders. now, you could say rempe isn't a repeat offender yet but come on. if this continues it's going to happen. but it wont matter because the nhl doesn't care. they don't care. it's disgusting.

[mccoys-killer-queen]

Give Me the Lights (Tommy x Reader)- Part 1

Words: 2,905

Summary: You live with Tommy on his farm in Michigan in the late 70s. It's almost time to start recording the next Styx album, but trying to make music seems to be Tommy's enemy lately. He's not acting like himself, and you know something's not right...

-----

(Michigan, March 1979)

It happens every year; the month of March is cold and gloomy, yet everyone is always surprised. People normally expect it to be springtime the second March rolls around, but mother nature— purely out of spite— never lives up to this expectation. Humanity is normally fed up with the winter gloom by this point of the year, so they like to forget that the majority of the month still qualifies as winter. 

When it came to the inevitable winter gloom, one could normally head indoors in order to escape it. A nice blanket, warm lighting, and a different view were the best ways to do this. You couldn't do this, though. 

The refuge of your own house didn't help alleviate the dreary, early March gloom- because the gloom was now incarnate as a person, and this person lived in the house with you.

Those winter blues had taken the form of your darling boyfriend, and despite the bright golden hair on his head, it seemed the rest of his shine was gone.

You had never known Tommy to experience seasonal depression before, but his strange behavior seemed to fit the bill quite well to you. Often over the past few weeks, you had picked up on him acting rather... differently. He was eating less, sleeping more, and showing little interest or emotion in just about everything.

There was currently a new Styx album in the process of conception. Tommy had been eager to get back to work and get lost in his own musical embryos as much as he pleased. This was normally an infallible source of joy for your bright-eyed lover, so the fact that you rarely heard his strumming or singing these days concerned you just a little. 

You often caught him sleeping in much later than usual, or just caught him in bed too often in general. Nearly every time this happened, there tended to be a guitar on the floor across the room.  He'd tell you he was "just tired", but he seemed to be tired all the time lately.

In addition to his lack of energy and interest in his music, you noticed he had elevated crankiness on some days, too. This side of him would sometimes make an appearance as frustration with an instrument, while other times he'd express self-doubt while attempting to write a song. Even something as simple as cursing out the washing machine or the weatherman let you know how he was feeling inside. A few times, he'd even been short with you over minute things that didn't seem to matter in the past.

What really raised your concern was when you realized that his typical, toothy grins hadn't made any appearances for a while.

Since there was rarely sunshine or warmth at this time in the season, you thought it made sense that a man from the south- who was practically made of sunshine- was acting a bit dulled down. It was no secret that Tommy was a nature-loving man, so you wondered if this meant that when the surrounding nature was down in the dumps, so was he.

You also wondered if he was aware of this himself.

One evening, you softly confronted the subject of his mood problems. You told him you had picked up on how upset and tired he appeared lately, and carefully asked him if something was wrong.

Almost immediately, he became teary-eyed at your intervention. He couldn't deny what you were inquiring about; he was well aware of it himself, and had been for some time.

The ensuing conversation resulted in a lot of physical tenderness from you, and a lot of venting from him. He confessed that he'd been feeling so indescribably "down" lately— both mentally and physically— and that he couldn't seem to be musically productive no matter what.

"I feel so empty-" Tommy told you, head in hands as you held him close, "-like there's nothing left inside me. And my body feels so heavy that I don't wanna move at all. I don't feel like myself, and I can't even tell you why- because I don't even know! Everyone else seems to be doing fine, and then there's me— who just wants to sulk for no reason, can't get out of bed, or write a song to save my life right now."

In addition, he threw in a grumpy comment about the monotonous weather being equivalent to purgatory. It was here you proposed that he might be suffering from a classic case of seasonal depression, and that it was probably interfering with everything; his creativity, his mood, and his energy. You also explained that, since he was acclimated to the mild winters of Alabama, his body wasn't used to being stuck in a real winter like this.

Tommy looked both surprised and a little guilty at your inference, but admitted you were probably right. 

"I'm really sorry, Y/n," he shook his head as he dropped his vision with a sniff, "I know I've been so pathetic lately-"

His eyes sprung open in surprise as you covered his mouth with your hand.

You used your other hand to wipe the wetness from under his eyes, "You're not gonna call yourself pathetic, and you're not gonna apologize for something you can't control, okay?"

He squinted in confusion, then sighed from under your hand and nodded with closed eyes. You uncovered his mouth and kissed him slowly, assuring him that you'd both get him feeling better.

That night, like many others before, Tommy curled in close to you with the hopes that the warmth from your body was reminiscent of the sunlight he didn't know he craved. With his internal conflict identified, he felt less shame about feeling so 'empty' inside. 

Ever since then, you'd done all you could to get Tommy out of this rut. You wanted to make sure he had constant reassurance that there was no need to feel lonely. There were a lot more cozy nights spent inside together where you would both sing for the sake of singing, and nights where you'd play guitar for him so he didn't have to. There were also a lot of nights where you'd simply hold him close to you as you both slipped into slumber. 

All you could do was anything- anything in order to keep his spirits up. Hell, you even got him vitamin D supplements if it meant he might have perked up a little from them.

Something you also attempted to do from time to time was get both of you active and moving. If you yourself were active, then Tommy felt compelled to follow suit. As a simple way to do this, you began to go on walks more often when the winter weather permitted. Your usual walking route made a pass by the nearby lake where Tommy's own little row boat remained covered for the season at the shore. Every time you walked past it, you'd catch his gaze lingering on it. 

"I really miss taking that thing out at sunset," he reminisced one afternoon as you walked hand-in-hand, "I feel like one trip on the ol' boat would automatically cure both of us of any winter blues.

You squeezed his hand, "Well, it is kinda your happy place."

 "We're going out on it the very first chance we get, got it?"

"Maybe on the first day of spring, we can celebrate that way..." you suggested.

There was a quick, fleeting curl of the corner of his mouth at your idea. Getting him to smile at all was always a wonderful accomplishment.

He was appreciative of how much you cared about his well-being, but there were also a few times where he'd whine about being "babied" by you. Sometimes, you had to pull his arms or legs to get him out of bed. One time, you had to roll him. Other times, when his appetite couldn't be found, you attempted to spoon-feed him like an infant (which, at the very least, made him laugh out of embarrassment).

Some days were normal, some days were fine, and some days weren't so fine.

Once, after a rather rough songwriting attempt, Tommy came to you on the verge of tears because he was just that frustrated with himself. He wasn't sure how to exactly say what he wanted from you; what he'd done was take you in his arms and mumble that he needed you to tell him to "stop feeling like this."

Instead of honoring his request, you had him lay in your lap on the couch. As you watched the snow settle down outside the house, you aimed to reassure him that he was simply a little unwell at the moment.

"There's nothing wrong with you, sweetie. You're just a bit in the dark like the rest of the northern hemisphere right now; you just need some light, is all," you reasoned with him. Your fingertips slowly combed through the roots of his glowing locks as you went on, "And someday soon, every little thing that makes you happy— all those little lights in your life— they'll come back. They have thousands of times before when things seemed dark, and this time is no different."

"Hm. Maybe you should write a song," he mused up at you with closed eyes, "You speak like a poet."

"Maybe I should," you joked, "If it'll make you sit back and relax for once."

Tommy hadn't given up on writing songs, but he could also never seem to pull one together. Sometimes there would be random bursts of frustrated ambition, but that usually resulted in papers all over the floor, and Tommy walking away from it all before he tore up another potential idea. 

When you realized him picking up the guitars never led to any good, you suggested he try a new instrument altogether.

"But all my ideas stem from guitar, and I swear I'm close to something!" he acted like what you said was blasphemous, "If I'm finally going to have an idea for a song, it's bound to come from a guitar. I can't just give up on it now...!"

"I get you're afraid the guitar muse won't last, but 'Renegade' did come from a piano, after all," you reminded him, "And I'm not saying give up with the guitar, I'm just saying find something different to take your mind off of guitars for a bit. Cleanse your palette, learn something new, and maybe new ideas will come from it!"

He sighed and shook his head, "Alright... I'll see if anything weird enough catches my eye."

Slowly over a week or two of gently pushing him and nurturing him, you noticed Tommy coming back more into himself. His healthy ambition was returning, he began to eat and sleep normally again, and his usual cheer seemed to be waking up from hibernation. When you first started noticing this, you also noticed Tommy was being more secretive about the potential music he was working on. He wasn't trying to compose often, but when he did, he wouldn't let you peek in on him anymore.

Despite this sudden secretiveness, he told you he still didn't have any songs yet, and that he was experimenting with something new like you proposed. Whatever he was starting to do, you were just glad he found some joy in it again.

One day, you caught a glimpse of a paper he'd accidentally left lying around. In his slightly scribbled handwriting, there appeared to be a few brief stanzas of a potential song.

"Thank you for caring, but tonight the lights will take me where I long to be Just like a thousand nights before

I can't explain It gives me some pain

Give me the lights, precious lights Give me light, give me hope, give me energy

You can turn the wrong into right, precious lights Illuminate me Won't you let me play?"

It was then clear why Tommy was hiding his current work from you; he was inspired by you. Perhaps he was just too bashful to admit it yet.

The lyric melted your heart, not only because he was referencing your own words of comfort in his music, but also because he was now finding inspiration in his bout of gloom. You knew his soul desperately wanted it to be spring, and he knew he desperately wanted to be back to normal. The lights of springtime, to him, meant just that. It only made sense that he was to write a song about this.

As much as you instantly fell in love with it, you didn't tell Tommy that you found the lyrics he wrote. You let it be, and just let him carry on with his own process. You weren't meant to look at it, and didn't want to jinx the wonderful thing he may have started.

After the personal rollercoaster that was the first 19 days of March, the first day of spring arrived at long last. Unfortunately, however, there was still no spring in sight. There was a forecast for freezing rain and wind that day, with no sunshine to be found.

In the days recent, Tommy did show he had more energy for a change, as he could feel the impending season around the corner. Whenever he disappeared to practice whatever new thing he was trying out, you just let him be. That day being no different, you went ahead and slipped out to run some errands before the weather hit. However, the weather did hit while you were gone, leaving your other half on his own longer than expected.

Meanwhile, alone in his own private little work bubble, Tommy strummed his new instrument quietly to himself.

"It's done..." he whispered, "It's actually done... but it's not... right."

It was a particularly frustrating day for him in terms of music- as he was making progress based on your advice, but something just felt off about the finished product he'd made.

Yes, Tommy had finally finished a song. It came rather effortlessly, too- much to his surprise. He was almost proud of it, but he didn't know how to tell if it was truly completed.

He knew you were right about needing to cleanse his palette, so he went out on your word and bought a mandolin. His reasoning for this choice was simply the fact that he knew he was a guitar player, so how different could a mandolin be? He was sure he could play it. The second he tried to, however, he quickly realized that he couldn't. As it turned out, the tuning was otherworldly, it was tricky to try and learn chords on, and it was small. 

In the process of trying to figure out how the hell to play this new tool, Tommy decided to just make up his own chords. The second he strung a few of these 'chords' together, something immediately set off a little spark in his heart.

Finally, at long last, something took to his creative side and awoke it from hibernation. It was something he had wanted so badly, and it was something that felt so wonderful to feel again. 

When it came time to set a lyric to the fresh music, Tommy figured it was only best to write about something else he wanted so badly.

He couldn't wait to play his experimental tune for you and tell you that you were right all along, but there was this inexplicable thing that was missing from it. Naturally, as a musician, he spent several obsessive hours trying to figure out what it was, but had no luck. He just didn't know what needed to be changed- if anything.

On the verge of his motivation burning out on the matter again, sleet suddenly began to pound against the windows outside.

Immediately, poor Tommy felt the musical motivation rapidly leak away from him. His mood and energy suddenly plummeted, and he felt himself slump back into an insufferable, lazy state once more. 

It was here that he realized he was expecting March 20th to be a day of hope and light, but instead, winter was laughing in his face yet again. It was officially spring, yet there he was; still stuck in the cold with another incomplete song.

He missed feeling whole. He missed feeling completely like himself and making complete works of art.

Tommy shamefully hid his mandolin away again, deciding to once again give up for the day. His feet seemed to automatically lead him to the couch, as if they already knew what to do, and he horizontally resigned himself to its cushions.

 You were always telling him to just lay back and relax as best as he could when the thought of making music caused too much stress. You'd additionally tell him, as a joke, to close his eyes and go to his "happy place", just to make him smile. With your voice suggesting this in his head, Tommy figured that at the very least, some extra sleep might flush away the depressive cloud that was eating at him yet again. 

Besides, he had a (supposedly) completed song; he figured he deserved a nice nap as a reward.

Dejectedly letting the sound of the freezing rain scrape against his eardrums, he allowed his eyes to close as every confused thought in his mind began to form the foundation of a midday dream.

----- (Part 2)

[autogeneity]

gonna plan to fuck out of this country next year, I think. if the documentation works out

[sonysakura]

Meadow (2016)

[perpetualxfire]

"You know, sometimes it's just... Hard. Not to think of all of the people I used to know, and feel alone."

[aberooski]

Replaying Shadow of the Colossus again for the first time in an astounding SIX YEARS somehow??? And I'm 10 colossi down, 6 to go, and AUGH it just feels like home being back I love this game so much 🥰🥰🥰

[sysig]

Care for your sparring partner (Patreon)

Bonus:

[fictionadventurer]

Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote books about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

The Lincoln book is about how he was able to work with people from vastly different political backgrounds and turn at least some of them from rivals to good friends.

The Roosevelt book is about how he let differences in politics tear apart one of his closest and most enduring friendships.

That vastly oversimplifies both men (and I haven't actually read the Roosevelt book for further context) but the premises seem to highlight the key difference between their leadership styles and personalities.

[thefirstknife]

Mara said Nezarec is out of the picture so does that mean it's over? That was all there was for Nezarec :(

Pretty much yeah! We might get some extra info on his role in the Collapse, but he is not going to be an active character in the future. Link to the video where she says it.

And he never was an active character! This is something that I actually wanted to touch on because I've seen way too many comments and sentiments about Nezarec that are incredibly incorrect. A lot of it is on Bungie's handling of this lore, which I and others have spoken about at length before; the introduction was clumsy and disjointed and left a lot of people wondering about how relevant he is.

But also a lot of it is on the fandom mystification of random story elements and characters, as well as the fandom's inability to distinguish between important topics and curiosities that exist to spice up the setting. This is a problem in general with media, not just Destiny. Fandoms tend to not have a filter when it comes to things mentioned in the story and the setting. The truth is that some things that are mentioned are simply not important or are less important and will never be brought up again.

Long post below where I go into details about this trend in the community and specifically about Nezarec, tangentially related to the ask:

A really good example for this is Suraya Hawthorne. I know. I want more about her too. She was a really cool character and I love getting updates about her. But is she relevant and important enough to have more special storylines dedicated to her? Not really. A part of it is on the fact that she has fulfilled her character arc back in vanilla. She served as the human element to the Red War and was a face for the civilians impacted by the invasion. She served as someone who survived due to her exceptional skill and reluctance to join the rest of us in the City; she was not there when the attack happened, which saved her. Her survival skills in the wild helped her survive while on the run and allowed her to save others, including us! She fought alongside everybody to retake the City, a place she shunned but nonetheless felt connected to.

It ended with her accepting her role as an exceptional human that can help the City grow; she accepted that her potential is fulfilled when she joins everyone else in the City and helps humanity, instead of pretending that everyone should live on their own in the wilds. Destiny is inherently about people coming together against insurmountable odds and Suraya's story showcases that and ends with her understanding that message. Her story is over. There is nothing more to be said. Outside of small lore snippets that are really nice to see (Suraya playing Guardian Games, Suraya visiting her dads often), there is nothing to add to Suraya's story and theme. Sometimes we have to understand when a character arc ends. It's a good thing. The story has been told in a cohesive way and it ended.

There's also meta reasons such as VA availability. Amanda fills almost the same niche as Suraya and her VA is available since she also voices Caiatl so Amanda featured more often than Suraya. This also doesn't mean that no story can ever be made involving this character; just that expecting her to be a part of some big ongoing plot is not reasonable. Getting minor updates is fine.

There's a lot of this in Destiny. The game has A LOT of characters. There are plenty of others that fit the same issue as Suraya; their stories have concluded or they weren't as important as people thought in the first place. We always want more about our blorbos, no matter how niche they are. Sometimes, the more niche they are, the more attractive they are. The element of mystery often makes the interest skyrocket.

This is where Nezarec comes in. I want people to fully understand that Nezarec was just a name mentioned twice. He was never a character. It's highly unlikely that he was created with the idea of him being a disciple in mind; he was created as a mystery. It's a cool sounding name on a cool looking exotic with a mysterious lore tab. This immediately sparks people's curiosity. Nezarec's Sin was literally the only information about this character we had.

I've seen a lot of people claiming that Nezarec was a huge thing being set up for 5 years; this is simply incorrect. He is definitely a concept that was of personal interest to people who like digging and imagining solutions to mysteries, but he was never "set up." It was a cool name. The fandom created and enhanced the mystery around it, trying to "solve" who that was for years. The game did nothing to encourage this until Season of the Haunted.

There was a brief mention in Y2 where Drifter mentions that he's been to the "Fourth Tomb of Nezarec." Or rather, Shin mentions that Drifter mentioned it. This was meant to sound cool. That's all. You can tell because Shin mentions other mysterious things that Drifter claimed he's seen, none of which have ever been given the same scrutiny because people understand that they are supposed to be cool names;

"He says he's seen the deep side of Jupiter. Been to the Core Mines of Saturn. Name drops old myths no one's heard—the Luvial Crux, the Shift Chasms Below Elios, the Fourth Tomb of Nezarec. Goes on about the Idols of Lower Sul, the Treasure of Exodus Prime, the Solar Engine of Dead Star-Six.

Every single one of these is a "cool name" concept that you can speculate about for a thousand years. They don't mean anything, or at least they didn't in 2018. Nezarec only popped out because the exotic exists and people started imagining, again, that this is some incredible set up for epic reveals in the future about a character that will become super important and relevant and be the raid boss or whatever.

In a lot of writing, especially big ongoing MMO games and projects that last for years, things will be mentioned to spice up the setting and its mystery and size without the writers actually knowing or even planning to ever know what those things are. But then later, if they ever need to use something, they can look at those unexplained mysteries and pick one and use it to explain current content. It's easier than coming up with something brand new AND it gives you credit with the diehard fans who will see their niche blorbo being explained.

I can't confirm this obviously because I don't work for Bungie, but this is most likely what happened to Nezarec. He was never planned as a disciple, he was never planned as a big player or a huge character or a huge reveal. It was a mystery to make the setting exciting.

When they needed mysterious cursed artifacts for the pirate season AND they needed to tie that in with the current big story (Witness and its disciples) AND they needed to tie it with a location they can use AND that location has to be something known to people and mysterious in of itself AND they need a reason to talk about a very important historical event that shaped the world (the Collapse) which was also reframed in the current expansion by Savathun telling us we don't know anything about it = "revealing" that Nezarec was a disciple tied to the Lunar Pyramid whose body is used as evil artifacts is the perfect solution. Why invent a new character when you can name drop people's niche blorbo?

I'm mentioning this because people still insist that Nezarec was some huge mystery planned for years that kept us teased and primed for the eventual huge reveal. In reality, it really wasn't. That's personal bias talking, which I am also a subject to because I was obsessing about a name mentioned in two lore tabs as well. But it's important to recognise when the game is actually setting up an important plot point and when it's not.

All that said, you'd think that it doesn't really matter HOW it came to this. It only matters that now, Nezarec is no longer just a niche lore tab; he is a character! Which is true, to a certain extent. Once again, people tend to overblow the importance of something that is perceived as a big reveal.

Nezarec is certainly a character, but he is not an active one. He has been established as dead and gone ever since he was first mentioned. There have been vague hints about how he persists after death and how "he shall rise again." Persisting after death is not uncommon in the Destiny universe (Ahamkara are the most notable example), but it doesn't mean the character is active. Hints about him wanting to return are there, but don't necessarily signify that the character WILL return. Just that he wants to, as our villains tend to want. It's not exactly something to write home about? Taniks came back like 8 times and he's not even a disciple of the Witness (that we know of...............).

In Plunder, it was definitively established that Nezarec is dead and has been dead for a millennium. It was established that his body parts still have residual energy that whispers and influences people, but that keeping them apart effectively nullifies it. It was also established that these things can be cleansed and used for good, effectively ending Nezarec's influence and ambitions to return. Which is what happened and was always going to happen.

He is a character from our past who was always meant to be a mystery. Any further extrapolation of what that means is purely fandom speculation and fandom overhype of a name. He doesn't have a personality, he doesn't have a character arc, he doesn't have a story, he doesn't have relationships. Some of these might be explored in the context of the Collapse if they're relevant. He is part of our history and always was. Whatever the fans decided to overthink about him is on the fans.

And that's fun! I still like overthinking about him and speculating. Enrichment! The problem is when Bungie eventually says "there is nothing more to this" and people get disappointed and angry because of ideas they themselves conjured out of thin air. Bungie never gave us any reason to think that Nezarec is the next big villain that we will talk to and fight in the game. No more than they are implying that any of those mysteries mentioned by Shin are going to be new in-game locations or raid bosses.

Again, a lot of this is obviously on the storytelling itself. While there are obvious markers of stuff that's just here to enrich the setting and make players think and speculate and imagine, sometimes these markers aren't clear or they don't land well. I think with Nezarec a lot of this has to do with the additional hype created by the relase of Nezarec's Whisper glaive in Haunted that casually dropped flavour text about him being a disciple after not having heard of this niche mystery for 5 years. People lost their minds (me included) because that was an obvious hint that he is no longer purely a mystery.

And then we had to wait three more months in which people speculated to hell and back and conjured a story about how he MUST be an incoming next big bad disciple for us to fight. Only to be told, in Plunder, that he's a corpse. People's instinct is to say "No WAY they brought this guy back after 5 years just to have him be body parts." But there was never anything to "bring back." He was a name. Plunder gave information about that name. It's not like there was a treasure trove of information before or a promise that this specific concept will be the next villain.

Much like Destiny community insisting there's a secret mission when there isn't one, they're like that with this type of lore as well. Parsing through the overwhelming amount of information to figure out which bits and pieces are relevant and which are flavour for the setting is difficult, but it's something that has to be done. Every character is the most important character to someone in the community, every niche concept mentioned once is the most important next big hint to someone. And sometimes they will be correct! But in most cases they will not. And instead of sighing and moving on, a lot of it turns into "the writers are bad" spiel.

And sure. Everyone makes a bad storytelling decision sometimes. But that includes the fans as well. We can all be exceptionally bad at recognising and distinguishing between intended important events, plots and themes and those that are background information meant to enrich the setting.

Personal example would be the Aphelion. I desperately want to know more. I want an entire expansion about this. I think this is one of the most fascinating things in the entire setting. But that's just my personal preference. Bungie never explicitly stated that the Aphelion is some incredibly important concept that will be explored in the future. It's a flavour. It's meant to be mysterious. It's meant to be a cool scifi concept. I would love to see more, but if I never do, I will understand why that is. Bungie can obviously flip the switch and actually turn this into a big plot if they want to at any point in time, but we can't be angry with them if they don't.

This was not entirely related to the ask, but I had the need to write something about this anyway and it sort of fits. I've seen a lot of this recently especially with Nezarec. People have been claiming that Bungie "wasted" the potential of a super important character like Nezarec to end with him being turned into soup. They also tend to insist that it's impossible that his story is over and that he will still be some big villain or that it will turn out that he is possessing Osiris or something. The latter of which makes zero sense since Osiris had a storyline akin to this already. He will not have it again. I hope we can put that to rest. Osiris is Osiris and he will remain Osiris.

And the truth is that Nezarec was never an important character. He was never set up for anything extraordinary in the future. He is a curiosity from our past that has ties to the Collapse. He certainly WAS important in-setting for whatever happened back then, but he is now dead. Bungie didn't "waste" anything; whatever importance the fans projected onto Nezarec was the fans' own invention.

Remember back in Splicer when a completely new dialogue dropped where Mithrax mentioned the old Eliksni legend about "Skira the Watcher" and how it terrorised the Eliksni for a long time? And how it sparked about 7 billion posts and videos and theories about who this is and how this is hinting to the next big bad and how it has ties to everyone and everything and how this is obviously the next raid boss or whatever? Yeah. Does anyone remember now? Not really. It wasn't a hint for the next big bad. It was what it said on the tin; an old Eliksni legend.

Furthermore, Mithrax explained how it was defeated before the Eliksni had the Traveler and they did so by staying silent about it. I don't think that really spells "raid boss" or "big bad." Whatever it was, pre-Golden Age Eliksni were able to deal with it. It's probably not the Witness' next greatest agent.

Curiously, the new dungeon is called "Spire of the Watcher." I could make a clickbait video about this. Is there a connection for real though? Unlikely. And Bungie will not have "wasted the potential" of it to be, because it's not supposed to be. There's a difference between something being possible and something being probable. It's always possible because Bungie controls the setting, but it's not very probable.

You can genuinely make any connection to anything and blow a single mention of some lore thing out of proportion. And sometimes you'll be correct! A single lore mention of something called "Nefele Stronghold" led me, and others, to the conclusion that Rasputin has to be involved somehow with the story of Neomuna before Lightfall and that Rasputin needs to be brough up as a season this year. And we were correct!

To an extent, we were also correct that Nezarec was more than a flavour text on an exotic helmet. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's the next big thing. Sometimes things are mildly important, or just temporarily important or important just for specific context. Just because something exists in the setting or was important in the setting once before, doesn't mean that it will remain important forever or that its narrative arc can't end.

[sollucets]

look is this just an audience of me post or did p'jojo see the 365 fresh MV before directing 3 will be free