#her character is actually going through a corruption arc

[permanently-stressed]

i can trace the exact moment Sophie's identity became grounded in being the moonlark and that moment is flashback.

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[asidian]

A little heartbroken by the news, not going to lie.

But I'm going to keep creating for this fandom, because the characters have made a place in my heart, and I suspect they'll stay there for a good long while. This show and the fandom have been such a joy to partake in during a really rough time in my life, and I appreciate that more than I can say. I appreciate all of you who make the fandom what it is, too.

I guess in the end, Season 2 gets to be whatever we make it. So you know what? Let's all share our Season 2s. Nobody's going to stop us or tell us we're wrong.

So here we go. The Season 2 in my heart, in no particular order:

Desire shows up and puts Charles Rowland through the absolute wringer. He is losing his entire mind, he wants Edwin so bad. This boy has 17 different crises and finally a realization that he has been head over heels for some decades and he is just an idiot, actually

Payneland confession and a first kiss

They get Niko back from the Neitherlands. She's some flavor of undead, and she is having a grand old time, actually

Jenny sets up a butcher shop in London and goes on a date that doesn't try to kill her. With the Night Nurse

Crystal has a corruption arc with David buried in her soul-tree soil and at first they don't realize what's going on, but in the end the boys find a way to go into her heart-space and help her resolve the problem

The boys dance on-screen with some of those skeleton choreography dances

Mick mysteriously also has a shop in London. It straddles time-space and also realms. The characters are all ????? but no one ever figures out wtf is going on with that

Tragic Mick saves the day like a big damn hero with a bazooka like in the comics

The Cat King is around, generally being his trickster self, causing problems for funsies. He dies again and comes back as a fluffy white cat with glam white fur clothes

Charles gets kidnapped somewhere and Edwin has to go and save him. It's very dramatic and parallels S1 Ep7

Monty makes a showing in crow form. He has so many cute bird mannerisms. He gets fluffy in the London cold

The boys return to St. Hilarion's. They find their respective remains and come to terms with their deaths. They decide that, however tragic their deaths were, it led them to the only place they'd want to be: together

Crystal and Niko lay the boys to rest side by side, under the same headstone

[musical-chick-13]

I hate Raúl/Sofía :)

[mapoeggplant]

skip to loafer chapter 62 analysis // spoilers

skip to loafer reiterated its message of "i love you as a person" in a soft and fun chapter. and with that, takamatu-sensei prepares us for a new arc that promises to be full of unforgettable moments.

(since the translation is still very fresh, i'll try to focus more on using the raws not to spoil anyone. i hope you understand that!!)

honestly, i find light chapters like this the hardest to analyze on their own, especially ones like chapter 62 that brings back several loose ends in order to tie up another knot before continuing the journey. so, instead of analyzing the chapter itself, i'm going to bring back some old debates and fit them into this new phase of each character.

even though friendship was the main point of the chapter, in my opinion mika also deserves her own spotlight since, in one way or another, she basically served as a bond between the two groups.

in the case of the boys, her name is brought up when shima reveals that he invited her to his travel group, without much thought of the consequences. this causes a certain amount of anger in mukai, who was the person who witnessed very closely mika's reactions before and after the confession (and even later, when she was talking to nao by the beach). however, he’s also one of shima’s oldest friends, so he knows exactly what he been through, which is te exactly reason why he acts impulsively. 

it's as if he were between two different oceans, not knowing which way to go, since both are too turbulent for him to navigate. it's hard for mukai to completely side with his friend, since mika's feelings are still very vivid to him, but he knows all the difficulties that shima went through regarding her own internal terrors, that’s why he holds himself back to not curse him or anything. what he ends up choosing is the safest rote, which is to scold him with an open heart, making sure to show that what he did was wrong. in the end, he won’t explain it to shima the exact reason why he’s mad because he knows he doesn’t have the rights to speak for mika, that’s why the message gets a little confusing for shima, who’s still learning and growing (and honestly, the reacting of stop to understand where mukai was coming from is actually a big step for him, which i appreciate). 

in the case of the girls, mika is also the only one who, up until now, knows about the events before and after the confession. she can see the sincerity and kindness behind shima, who continues to respect and see her as a friend, but it's hard not to assume a protective position when the new person to be affected by the same feelings is mitsumi, someone who she became so important to her. and that's where her growth as a character is slowly revealed.

mika has always created her own barrier and has had difficulty opening up to the girls. and that didn’t start recently, since she have been dealing with her insecurities for as long as she can remember. mika spend most of her childhood alone and had a hard time to make friends when she started her teenage years, which led her to have a very abrupt start when she met mitsumi, yuzu and makoto. for her, it has always been very difficult to see herself in a group of friends and to be comfortable with herself to the point of expressing her mind clearly. 

as the story go by, we can see how comfortable mika is now with the girls, but old habits are hard to erase. even with all her conversations with nao and the peace she feels around her friends, there are still a lot to be unfold and a lot to grow. 

however, for her to grow, she needs to keep trying. and that’s when she choses to shine in this chapter: she finally manages to open up to mitsumi and reveal the secret that corrupts her so much. 

ever since mitsumi confessed the relationship she and shima had, mika has been struggling with indecision about whether to open up or keep the event forever as a bad memory from the past. it's hard for her, since she doesn't want to lose mitsumi's friendship or the other girls', but she also needs to accept what happened in order to finally say goodbye to them. it's not that she doesn't have her feelings cleared up inside her or that they still have a chance to blossom again. what really hits her is the fact that she's hiding something she considers important from her best friends, which might results in a awkward situation later on. 

the moment mika admits out loud that mitsumi is much more important in her life than any past crush, mika is finally saying goodbye to this weight she's carried for so long and can finally start another chapter in her life. now, she no longer has anything hidden or needs to walk on eggshells — the love she embraced and the love she receives are enough for her to stand tall. 

the development of skip to loafer's friendships is indeed something that needs to be celebrated. throughout the narrative, we are constantly reminded that the story itself is built on the idea that love doesn't need to be romantic to be true, it just needs to be felt. loving someone is accepting their flaws and understanding their scars, like mukai and shima; loving someone is being vulnerable, like mika and mitsumi; loving someone is going out together to buy clothes for a trip they've been waiting for.

it's beautiful to see how the girls care about mitsumi and her feelings, but still root for her happiness and are excited for her. it's beautiful to see how they're always together in difficult times, whether they're big or small (or even medium, like what's the right outfit to wear on a date. that's very important for a teenage girl). 

and for shima and mitsumi, it’s cute to see how shy they are around each other and how they are allowed to slowly understand their feelings. the narrative doesn’t force them to anything at any point or rushes them to a resolution, what it does is explore the nuances and difficulties of dealing with your first ever romantic love, specially when you were never allowed to explore your own feelings in the first place (like shima), and the fear of losing a best friend that you cares so much (like mitsumi feels). 

i don’t think this is the calm before the storm, but i do believe takamatsu-sensei is getting us ready for what’s coming next. i do believe this will be a very decisive arc for a lot of characters, but it will also birth many more plots for us to explore.

thank you so much for reading 💛 don't forget to support the author if you can and also thank the translation group!!

and if you're interested, i wrote a while ago an analysis about skip to loafer's "i love you as a person" message. just click here to find it!

[dr-spectre]

The Corruption In Splatoon.

Hypno Callie - Sanitized Agent 3 - Marina Agitando Analyzed.

(Note: this post may get edited over time if i need to fix grammar errors, get new information or anyone corrects me in a fair way. I'm not gonna listen to those who say "erm you're wrong actually." There will also be sources at the bottom.)

One of the biggest issues I've seen in the Splatoon community are the misconceptions and misinformation that spread around so quickly and i see it a lot when it comes to the corruption arcs found in Callie, Agent 3 and Marina. People throw around the words "hypnotized, mind controlled, brainwashed" interchangeably between the three, and it kind of damages the stories the developers wanted to tell. I see people say that Marina was hypnotized, which isn't the case at all, and same with Agent 3.

So in this long post I'm gonna go into a deep dive and analyze these characters, go into their personalities while under their corruption, distinguish between their "afflictions" and how they got to that point. There is a lot of depth to this and most people (not all ofc) overlook it which is a shame and i wanna change that.

We will first start off with a character i feel very strongly towards, the one i feel gets the most amount of misinformation in the community and is overlooked the most. A character, suffering from mental distress and isolation, the loser of the final Splatfest in Splatoon 1. An antagonist born out of her own volition and free will despite what many say about her.

Hypno/Octo Callie

Hypno/Octo Callie is where most people tend to slip up and only look at the surface level info the game presents, and that information barely scratches the surface into what happened to Callie and what Callie is like under the influence of the shades.

First off, how did Callie end up like this? She was isolated, got kidnapped by Octavio and then brainwashed right? WRONG! Although this is what Splatoon 2 suggests, it's entirely wrong and paints a pretty gross picture if you think about it for more than five seconds. Implying that Octavio is some freak and monster who waited for the perfect moment to snatch up Callie and then brainwash her against her consent, forcing her into things she didn't want to do, like wear that revealing outfit, brand her with that tattoo, and join the Octarians as a mind controlled slave for their goals. Yeahhhhh... you can see why i have an issue with this implication and the interpretations this created in the fandom...

It's really disgusting and I'm honestly quite shocked that people wanna paint that picture of Octavio and leave Callie as a victim with trauma from those events. Callie in her dialogue never EVER mentions being kidnapped, and only Marie says that because from her perspective, she's gonna think that's what happened cause she worries about Callie all the damn time. They only say "kidnapped" in outside media to make Octavio more of a cartoony evil villain and to simplify things which makes me kind of frustrated. If Callie truly suffered from trauma and had resentment for the Octarians, it would display in her dialogue. She would say shit like, "If i see another Octarian... oh, I'm gonna SPLAT them to pieces!" or "I'm gonna get those Octarians for what they put me through..." It also explains why she even thought about putting the shades back on because if she truly suffered from trauma, she wouldn't DARE put those shades back on. The "plenty!" Line she says in Splatoon 3 when Shiver asks what's wrong with them is a joke line and most likely references her putting the shades on again and again, but the canon on the rematches is unclear but I'm gonna treat them as canon.

However I've seen people bring up this concept art to dismiss these arguments where Callie is seen putting on the Hypnoshades without her knowledge and then is "turned evil ooooo!!"

This is just a SINGLE piece of concept art that the developers MIGHT have used to explain the rematch of the final boss. This art is disproven from Callie's dialogue in the rematch across various different languages as if Marie asked her why she put the shades back on, she would likely have a different response if the shades were put on her in that way.

There is also other concept art showing Callie being alone and comforted by Octarians which also disproves that single piece of concept art that suggests the weird gross narrative online that people push about Octavio.

Now that we've cleared up the misconceptions, how did Callie end up wearing those shades? Well, as shown with the Sunken Scrolls, Callie falls apart when she's alone, she overthinks and gets stressed out.

Callie is a person who seeks companionship and always looks on the bright side, even if it's a detriment on her mental health and causes her to bottle up her emotions to an unhealthy degree. Waking up extremely early and working all day, being surrounded by paparazzi, damaged her mental health, and Marie wasn't there for her as she had a different schedule. Their relationship slowly broke apart and the Splatfest probably didn't help with that either. There might have been some resentment that Callie hid.

At some point Callie must have met up with Octavio after she stormed off in the Squid Sister Stories on chapter 7, and Octavio, being the master manipulator that he his, probably convinced Callie to join the Octarians and appealed to her sense of isolation and pressure from being a star. He didn't force her into anything as shown with Callie's dialogue not showing any hints towards this, Octavio just pulled the right strings and Callie willingly joined to escape her life as said by her line in the official relationship chart "OK, fine, I'll hear you out."

If Octavio tried to grab her or put the shades on her by force, he would get absolutely eviscerated. Remember, Callie is not some weak little girl, she's a trained agent who's a roller main, a weapon that requires a ton of physical strength to wield. Inklings and Octolings do not have bones and are carried purely by their muscles, and because Octavio is way older than Callie and can't even walk properly due to him being stuck in his octopus form, Callie would be able to physically overpower him and turn him into a cooked octopus with rice on the side by the time she is done with him.

Callie finds the Octarians cute and Octavio knows that if he could get her on his side, he could help his troops and save his race from destruction. Octavio uses music to motivate his troops to battle and Callie's help in this would help him a lot. And that's where the shades come in....

The Hypnoshades are very vague and we're not fully sure on the effects, however judging from their name we can guarantee that they involve hypnosis in some form. Either it's because of the animated parts at the front which Callie can see or some other sci fi bullshit that is not explained. They are not "brainwashing shades" that turn a person evil. If that's the case then they wouldn't be called HYPNO shades.

Now let's dive into hypnosis and explain what it is. Hypnosis is being described as being put into a deeply relaxing state where your mind is more prone to suggestions. It's not like in popular media where some dude swings a watch around and goes, "You are getting very sleepy oooo," and then they become a puppet and are mind controlled. No, that's not what happens. Yes, you are more prone to listening to suggestions and taking them to heart, HOWEVER! ONLY IF ITS ACCEPTABLE TO THE HYPNOTIZED PERSON! THE SUGGESTION CANNOT GO AGAINST A PERSON'S MORALS AND IF IT DOES THEY WON'T LISTEN!

If the person who is getting hypnotized doesn't wanna follow through with the suggestion by the person behind the hypnosis, they won't listen to the suggestion. If Callie didn't wanna wear that outfit, she wouldn't. If Callie didn't wanna decorate Octo Canyon, then she wouldn't, but she does because she loves art. You can't make a hypnotized person wanna murder their friends and families unless they secretly want to.... you cannot get a guy on stage to get nude in front of an audience as shown with those stage hypnosis acts, it is most likely faked or the person was in a really good mood and wanted to have fun.

Callie, while under the shades acts more like her normal self than not. She is still energetic and even decorated Octo Canyon as she is a fan of art. Her chaotic nature is still intact however she is more violent and harsh which was teased in her Splatfest dialogue in Splatoon 1. If she was brainwashed then she would be more like a mindless robot that follows Octavio no matter what, like a specialized sleeper agent. However, she snaps back at him multiple times when Agent 4 attacks the Octobot King II and doesn't even wanna kill Marie but instead get her away from her because of their broken relationship. But she tries to kill Agent 4 because she doesn't know who that is and has no personal attachment to them.

The shades do NOT control Callie and do NOT force Octarian ideals into her head. The shades are there to further manipulate Callie, and Callie heard out the suggestions by her own free will. If Callie's mental health and life were better she would probably not listen to Octavio and turn him into a paste on the road with her roller.

Hypnosis is also incredibly relaxing and helps with disorders like anxiety. Maybe it's why she kept putting on the shades again and escaping with Octavio. She might be addicted to it, as shown by her rematch dialogue. However, they don't go into any depth with it unfortunately.

I know people tend to bring up Octavio's line, "i remixed Callie's brain!" to disprove my points, however,

1. Its probably bad translation as the English localization team makes mistakes often as shown with Octo Expansion with Commander Tartar's and Marina's dialogue, and Side Order as well. The line is also different in other languages and some of those languages mention hypnosis, we also don't have a retranslation of the Japanese script for Splatoon 2 so I'm give the English script a HUGE grain of salt on the dialogue.

2. Octavio is a DJ. He says musical terms to describe things. the "remixing" of Callie's brain is to show that Octavio has got Callie on his side via manipulation and not direct brain "washing" if you get what I'm trying to say here. He didn't literally warp her brain with some bullshit evil shades. He just pulled the right strings and pointed her in his direction without directly or forcefully doing it.

There is also Marie's line, "Why would you put those stupid brainwashing sunglasses back on?" In the rematch. However, this is only in the English translation of the original Japanese script, and in other languages, Marie just calls them the Hypnoshades or glasses. The localization team of Splatoon is known to make mistakes, like I've stated previously.

I also wanna go over the design for a little bit, it's honestly really well done and aside from the weird icky implications people just love to make about it, it does a good job at being an "Evil Callie" look. The colors are really appealing to the eyes, the way the design flows together is nice to look at, the octopus tattoo is striking and has become iconic in the fandom, with some believing Callie kept the tattoo as a popular headcanon. The glittery leggings and spikes on the waist and neck are a nice addition. Flipping the grilled squid pattern and placing it on her chest. And the shades are just the cherry on top with their hypnotic patterns, giving you the feeling that a person you knew is different... and off... They took the child like and joyful design of Callie and made her into a more mature and intimidating presence.

Now i wanna quickly go over when the shades get shot off of her as some people say that Callie lost her memories when the shades were put on her and removing them brought back her memories.

When it comes to being put into a hypnotic state, it's very dream like and incredibly relaxing, its essentially similar to a flow state when you're deeply concentrated on a task. So imagine a god damn ink bullet flying at your face at incredible speed, flinging you out of that state quickly and seeping ink into your eye. Yeah, it would hurt like hell and leave you completely dazed, right?

Some people who go under hypnosis can experience headaches, dizziness, nausea, and if you look at Callie when the shades are removed, guess what, she's holding her head in pain and is completely dazed, unable to properly speak and is left to only sing and dance as it comes natural to her cause she's an Idol.

What i think is happening here is that Callie, after being removed from the hypnotic state, starts thinking more rationally for a moment and realizes that Marie does care for her and has come to get her. She remembers all the good memories they had together from hearing the Calamari Inkantation, the song doesn't free people from brainwashing or mind control as some people tend to believe, it's just an insanely catchy song that motivates those who hear it. It probably gave her mind a positive boost and she remembers all the wonderful memories she had with Marie, getting rid of the negativity and darkness in Callie's head that flooded her rational thinking and made her more emotional and impulsive. People who experience mental illness have foggy minds and you can ask someone who has or had anxiety or depression on what it's like. Trust me, it's not fun.

After Callie returns to the outpost, she shows regret and tells Agent 4 that she's sorry for trying to kill them and promises that she's on the "up and up! Promise!" If Callie was truly kidnapped and then brainwashed against her consent she would be putting all the blame on Octavio and would show some amount of anger towards him, but she doesn't. I wonder why huh? Hmm. Maybe that popular narrative online is far from what actually happened huh?

With that information laid out, it makes the Bomb Rush Blush remix, Tidal Rush and Spicy Calamari Inkantation work way more as emotional tracks. The Bomb Rush Blush remix still having it's cheery sounding elements but mixed with more sinister and dark undertones, even including the Onward! jingle to show how far Callie has descended into villainy. Tidal Rush being an emotional and powerful song where Marie reaches out to her cousin in a very sad sounding way as her voice sounds broken and desperate. Callie trying her hardest not to listen to Marie and shutting her down as she wants nothing to do with her anymore after their relationship has been damaged.

Spicy Calamari Inkantation sounds more triumphant and joyful if you take all the context into account, Callie finally breaking free from the darkness clouding her mind and singing alongside her cousin in a much more expanded version of Calamari Inkantation that sounds more full and complete, including new sections by Callie and Marie and the melody of City of Color spliced in there for good measure.

With that LONG explanation of Hypno/Octo Callie, it's now time to move on the next character, and this where things somehow get more weird than a pair of hypnotic shades...

Sanitized Agent 3

Now this is where things get really tricky because the whole concept of sanitization is quite unclear until Side Order and it's basically boiled down to "zombie mind control goop" created by Commander Tartar in order to remove "life's energies" and effectively have lifeless zombies under it's control. However Agent 3 was only partially sanitized so it's unclear on what is exactly going on here. But before we can get to that, we need to discuss how they got to that state.

Before Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish turned into a nice strawberry smoothie, Agent 3 came to save them after receiving a distress signal from Marina. Agent 3 slammed themselves into the blender, rendering them unconscious which becomes important later on.

After some time Agent 3 gets taken away off screen and then gets partially sanitized and ties up Cap'n Cuttlefish.

So what is happening here? Is Agent 3 brainwashed here? Well not exactly, what i think is going on is that Commander Tartar put that sanitized ink on Agent 3's head to have a direct connection to them to take control over their body and use them as a vessel, to protect it and stop Agent 8 from destroying it's plans. Agent 3 while partially sanitized acts more cold and aggressive, even disabling their special limiter as told by Marina.

An important line of dialogue from Cap'n Cuttlefish states that Agent 3's mind was "hijacked" meaning that Commander Tartar has taken over their body and is using them like a puppet to stop Agent 8. While i don't like to base all of my evidence on the English dialogue, from my knowledge there is no retranslated dialogue of the fight online, if there is let me know so i can have a look at it.

Agent 3 was most likely completely unaware of this as they were knocked out and only woke up at the end of Octo Expansion after the NILS Statue was destroyed. They had no idea on what happened and were probably told about it after it was all over.

Agent 3 was also NOT hypnotized as sanitization has no hypnosis element to it. People who say they were are flat out wrong. They were not necessarily brainwashed either as they were completely unconscious and could not have had their ideals and morals warped by Commander Tartar. You can't really pressure an unconscious body to follow your ideals you know?

We don't get a lot of screentime with Sanitized Agent 3 but from the small moment we did get, it definitely left a strong impression and the amazing Splattack remix helped as well. Taking the once iconic song and mixing it and blending into a distorted chaotic track with elements from the DnB genre such as fast drum beats and loud wailing sirens, showing the danger of Agent 3. It really shows that Agent 3, our player character from Splatoon 1 has been morphed and twisted into a sanitized monster that's trying to murder you. It's like a virus has invaded the song and is taking control, much like what happened to Agent 3, unconscious and put to sleep as their body is being used by Commander Tartar to carry out it's goals.

Now it's time to move to the final character, the loser of the Final Fest, The Administrator of Order...

Marina Agitando

Now much like Agent 3, its sort of vague in terms of how exactly Marina ended up this way as we don't see it play out on screen. What we know is that during the development of the Memverse, Marina created an ai that would be the overseer of the Spire of Order. However due to unknown circumstances it went rogue and got into Marina's mind according to her, either she meant it literally and Overlorder possessed her, or it brainwashed her and took advantage of Marina's deep desire to yearn for a world of order and stability and warped her mind to accomplish that goal.

But, from the hints we do have as well as an interview from the developers after Side Order released, Marina was not brainwashed or hypnotized, but instead was knocked unconscious and then possessed by Overlorder. You can hear it's voice during Marina Agitando's dialogue under Marina's, heck the dialogue she says is more robotic and static, much like Overlorder's. She speaks like a robot in this form which is vastly different from how Callie speaks when under the shades where she's chaotic and loud like her original self times but on another level.

Marina being unconscious and not remembering what happened is also supported in the Side Order Famitsu interview released a while after the DLC came out which states that Marina doesn't remember making her solo song "Unconscience." When she is rescued and freed from the Controller VM, she appears like she's woken up from a bad nap.

Marina as Marina Agitando acts very robotic and cold, her movements are jittery and mechanical as Overlorder uses her body like a giant meat puppet. Her attacks are in time with the music and she shakes all about when firing attacks. It's pretty gross to see the once cheerful and adorable Marina in a state where she's this giant woman entangled in a giant pulsating tentacle that beats and restricts her. It's both sad and pretty damn scary.

She doesn't even recognize Pearl and Agent 8 unlike Callie who still recognizes Marie while under the shades. Marina just calls them "intruders" and is immediately hostile towards them.

Aside from that, there really isn't that much to talk about when it comes to Marina Agitando because she has arguably the shortest amount of screentime out of the three. But i will say that the design is excellent, using the Order outfit as a base and adding body horror elements to it, with her being trapped in a giant tentacles and weird metal pipes coming from the sides that pump out this weird red energy, like veins. Her constant smiling during the battle, the little DJ poses she does but they've become so lifeless and robotic, much like the ai possessing her. The sweet and funky girl is gone, replaced with a machine hell bent on order and will kill anything that gets in it's way.

The song too "Unconscience" is an absolute bop and is a stark contrast from Marina's usual music. It's an ear worm of a song that will get stuck in your head, and if they designed it like that way on purpose than bravo on the music team for Splatoon.

Conclusion.

Why did i make this? Why spend the time and effort to make something like this? Well, as a fan of these characters, i wanna see them well represented and their stories shared properly in the community. Seeing people use the incorrect terms when describing Hypno Callie and Marina Agitando despite the two literally being so vastly different in personality and "affliction." Making Callie's situation way worse by saying she was snatched up randomly, then brainwashed while struggling and losing her memories, treating her as some victim of abuse when the story the writers wanted to tell was a story about the broken relationship between Callie and Marie, and them finally coming together for each other and maturing, it's literally shown in the songs Tidal Rush and Fresh Start for god sake. I find it incredibly frustrating when i see people put in the effort to make these giant timeline videos, translate interviews and then they drop the fucking ball for Callie in Splatoon 2 for some god damn reason. Every. Single. Time.

While i don't feel as strongly for Agent 3 and Marina Agitando, Hypno Callie was the catalyst for me to look deeper into these corruption arcs and find all the interesting details and tidbits about these forms. Marina Agitando was such a hype moment for me when i first played Side Order and it took something we all expected to happen but gave us a little twist on it by making her the very first boss of the dlc.

Seeing Agent 3 again and the Splatoon devs wanting to look back on the past in an interesting way was so exciting to see. It paved the way for the series to reflect on itself and celebrate earlier entries.

Because of the misconceptions online about what truly happened to Callie, i felt this pain in my chest, i was unable to enjoy the concept of an evil Callie, i was unable to listen to the Splatoon 2 hero mode level music without feeling some sort of uncomfortable pain. It literally impacted my day to day living because my brain became SO attached to this squid woman. I couldn't accept the false narrative online, the abusive and disgusting view on my comfort character. A character i find joy and love in. Twisted and turned into something that brings me genuine discomfort.

Splatoon 2's story was handled poorly and caused literally EVERYONE to think that Callie is some abused victim that got kidnapped and turned evil by force by a creepy old ass octopus, when its SOOO far from the case.

There's probably people out there who feel the same way towards Marina Agitando and Sanitized Agent 3. No one likes to see their comfort character misrepresented and i hope you feel heard and that your views matter too. It's okay to look deeper into these characters, it's okay to not wanna accept the common narrative and find and present your own findings to everyone. If it makes you feel better and that chest in your pain subsides afterwards, then go for it. Please.

Thank you so much for reading this, I'm sure there's gonna be some people who disagree and share their own evidence and that is okay. As long as you don't try to push your views onto me or others then you have a right to have your own perspectives about these 3.

Seriously, thank you for spending the time to read this and hearing me out. I hope you have an awesome day : )

Sources:

[third-generation-female-warrior]

Okay, so, fair warning, this is an anti-Reylo, anti-Kylo Ren, long analysis of The Acolyte, so if you choose to read this and get mad at me for bashing Kylo Ren, that's called a you problem.

Basically, seeing people compare the "situationship" between Quimir and Osha with whatever the fuck Reylo was and putting them on equal pedestals gives me the ick and I think I figured out why.

For clarity, I can't fucking stand Reylo for a lot of reasons, but for the sake of my analysis, I'll keep it condensed for why I can't stand Kylo Ren.

He is the warm mayonnaise of characters.

Don't get me wrong, he was generally interesting in The Force Awakens, when he was framed as the monster with a human face, and that's because the narration in TFA treated him like the goddamn villain he was supposed to be.

And then the pants were shat and the spine was broken when the narrative with The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker was doing backflips on a trampoline trying to give him pathos, trying to make him empathetic, while also decimating literally every other character to put him on a pedestal he didn't deserve on his spit-washed "redemption" arc.

To me, it was like they didn't know what to do with him. Those movies might have been okay if they just stuck with making him the villain and continued to treat him as such. But they didn't, even when he was making bad choices and did nothing but make BAD choices up until the actual last fight, and instead, framed all of this BAD CHOICES as "he's complicated~~ <3" and that's where it all fell apart because the narration didn't like, punish him AT ALL for making these bad and barely even framed these as objectively bad choices.

Now, the Acolyte is different.

In the middle of lavishing us with the eye candy that is Manny Jacinto, and Qimir's apparent lack of threat and honesty to Osha, the narrative did something interesting and brilliant that I hope they continue to lean into.

While showing us how non-threatening Qimir can be, we are given a very rude awakening.

When we cut back to Khofar, it is a very long, very uncomfortable lingering shot of Jekki's dead body, as she is positioned towards the audience with open eyes, not quite looking at the camera, but forcing us to look into the eyes of Jekki all the same.

It is a rude awakening, a reminder that Qimir is a deceiver, and, most importantly THE VILLAIN OF THE SHOW!!!!

Under the facade of the hapless sidekick to Mae was the Sith Master waiting to strike her down should she fail.

A reminder that, through his honesty and intentions with not harming Osha, he is a murderer who could remorselessly justify his own slaughter of an actual child.

We look on as it shows Yord in the dirt, and the pile of dead Jedi bodies and we see that what Qimir has done was terrible and devastating he does not care, even if we do.

And THEN, ohohoh!!! AND THEN! We see how his dark deeds were not solely committed on Khofar, but he is continuing to do terrible things on Ahch-To the Unknown Planet.

Oh, we thought, we thought Osha was safe because she could pin him with his own lightsaber, she could kill him, she could leave!

But it becomes very evident in the last 30 seconds that Osha was never safe as she puts on his helmet, surrounds herself in dark, and symbolically succumbs to it as she closes her eyes.

He has been corrupting her this whole time and that's treated AS A BAD THING, and THAT'S where The Acolyte succeeds and The Sequels failed!

Qimir for his apparent defensiveness, is still treated as the villain, his act of corruption and seducing Osha to the dark side is treated as a scary thing, where you shake your head at the t.v. and beg her to not do it even if you know she's going to anyways.

And then you realize the answer to his riddle to Mae.

You realize this is how you kill a Jedi without a weapon.

And it's all very very wrong.

And, better yet, to finish this off, even though the narration establishes MOTIVE for his anti-Jedi stance, with his scar leading to his supposed backstory of betrayal (that we have to take at face-value for now, even if I think there's more to reveal), the motivation is just narratively justifying him or his actions, and he is STILL THE VILLAIN WHO MUST BE STOPPED!!

[katyspersonal]

In defence of Shadow of the Erdtree + Getting my grudges with the fandom's bad takes off my chest

(! if you are seeing this caption it means the post was shared via queue feature, thus I must be STILL on my hiatus! will respond to comments when I am back online and thank all 5 of you for waiting for me! )

*deep, tired sigh* Allllright so... Ever since SoTE came out, it has been a rocky patch for me growing past initial shock, absorbing new lore and above all, dealing with some conflicts that transpired over it! In the end my grudges, as well as disagreements with popular attacks on this DLC accumulated enough to make me feel like smoking volcano, I swear.. You might have observed some anger already slipping through the cracks, but I've decided to place ALL of my opinions in one easily skippable post instead of turning my blog into a toxic pool with endless negative posts, so I'll just get to it!!

YEAH YEAH I know, a TRUE comedy genius remaking my DLC predictions bingo post to structure what I want to address fdhhdsf This is basically a 'so how is checking Elden Ring tag going today? :)' bingo but... it is easier to put it like this. I just need some way to simply vent my own frustrations because I hate everything featured in this image with THE burning rage. Putting my opinions and everything under cut but fair warning, not only it is going to be very long as if anyone who knows me is surprised dfhshfsd, but also very ANGRY! ANYWAYS!

1) "They excused genocide by giving Marika a sad backstory"

Sigh… Instantly off to a terrible start, and it is truly the most Tumblr take out of all Tumblr takes imaginable. So let me suggest something actually ground-breaking here… Giving your villain reasoning not only makes for a more realistic and interesting character, but is also crucial because nobody is just BORN evil.

sorry I had to I understand the temptation of wanting a villain whose sole drive is power control preserving privileges etc because it resonates more with the narratives proposed in real life and people's struggles, but not only even in real life things are FAR not as often as simple… but even if they were, Fromsoft is always dealing with more complicated matters that touch the nature of existence in general, and not just power and control over it someone could gain! Marika was not "just" evil even in the base game either, giving off the impression of someone wanting to build a perfect world of light, life, safety and abundance even at the expense of oppressing "potential threat" species (Omens serving as…. well, omens of the threat of returning to the primordial state of things or Albinaurics, creation of Nox, who angered the Greater Will itself once).

She waged war on the Fire Giants who had 'evil god of fire', caused natural disasters and whose fire existed as anathema to the Erdtree and declared her victory the start of the "better age"! That already spoke of a lot of complexity, without forcing the audience to agree with her motivations and actions but instead understand what weight they held in the grand scheme of things! Again: much like Gwyn who destroyed Dragons thus creating time, light and life the way it is known now and who for all his agenda against humans had a pretty solid reason to fear the darkness within them, which effects we've seen across the trilogy!

What DLC did add was simply a lore on Marika's origins as a Goddess, and what made her vulnerable enough for the Two Fingers to seek her! Divinity is further stated to not be a great thing via Miquella's whole arc, but the wish to change the world to the better hits harder when you personally were a victim of its fundamental corruption! She did not instantly become a good person over DLC lore, nor she was just evil person and nothing else in the base game! War against Fire Giants (maybe Dragons?) was the means to topple the current powers and establish her reign, oppressing certain species was the mean to preserve it. She searched not solely to take revenge on the Hornsent, but to build a different world where what they did would not happen, ironically ending up causing more injustice ANYWAYS! Miquella fell into this trap. Heck, GIDEON fell into this trap!

Even then, her machiavellian character does not explain why even after Hornsent were completely defeated that war continues forever through Messmer and his forces. Could this be just what Messmer insisted on and THUS she cast him away, or she lost any and all sight of what pusher her to it initially? In either case, even the game itself makes it very clear that Marika/Messmer are not heroes here in the SLIGHTEST!

On a more general note, detached from the specifics of this game: I do still find it more strange to be angry about villains being given sympathetic traits, as a concept. People who are just "born evil" are such a minority that they hardly can say anything about nature of men. Bad people, by proxy, are a combination of some sort of unhappy event (trauma, bad upbringing, faced oppression, mental illness that was not treated if not had its negative traits amplified due to environment, growing in propaganda and ignorance, abuse etc) and person's unwillingness or even inability to heal and stop the cycle of pain by refusing to cause more of it. It is not that simple, and often, people who were hurt so are past the point of not letting it make THEM evil, or lack resources to do so, or have their attempts to change if they WERE bad actively sabotaged.

This IS the true horror of existence: freedom of will itself being put in question. We might be not defined by our pain, but how we will respond to it might be defined by prior events, information we had, circumstances and society around us. How can ANYONE tell what they would be like if they endured the same? Can we be sure that we "endured the same but reacted differently" wasn't predefined by other, nicer factors? To be angry at the fact that a bad person who did bad things had a reasonable, even sympathetic explanation at the core of it all is to be angry that one's privilege to use "born evil" to mistreat and emotionally distance from those people is put into question!

In any case, 'explanation is not an excuse' works not only as a tool to still judge someone's sins, but ALSO to explain that writers making a character more elaborate is not a demand to like this character or excuse their actions! Everything has reason… This is why no one is entitled to declare they know what is good and bad for everyone. Not just people like Marika or Gwyn, but even us.

2) "Hornsent are dangerous and deserved extermination"

…okay, look, yes this is another heavy topic, and it does deserve a separate post which I did make already in the past ( x )! It is another topic that sort of transcends the boundaries of this story (another common Fromsoft W for making people question life and society themselves)! To put it down simply, of course no race is inherently evil, what is the reoccurring topic here is the culture! And what is on the surface is that Hornsent as culture and species, in many ways, are victims of its own oppressive religious institution and questionable traditions. Bonny Village's potentates are hostile, dangerous cult serving as a the weapon of """justice""" and """purification""" within Hornsent! They possibly go back-to-back with their religion but except they are extremist. We cannot tell whether general face of the religion, the Inquisitor hags, would do anything about it had they have more control, whether they tolerate it for convenience, or whether they encourage and utilise its existence. But what we CAN tell is that not only "impure races" are punished/killed, but even "unfaithful" Hornsent themselves!

Yes, definitely there are also Hornsent children who would have no choice regarding their upbringing, information, nor much agency over their actions, and we know they did not spare the children either from the story of Hornsent NPC that we follow! But even then, it is clear that Hornsent that were in disagreement about their culture's demands had to be quiet about it either, or else they'd likewise be persecuted!

"Why could not they just have started a revolution" is a very unfair criticism towards a culture/place oppressed by corrupt religious (and military?) institution on many levels! As someone from the country ruled by a tyrant feeding the civilians propaganda excusing genocide and promoting xenophobia, as well as very corrupt and oppressive religious institution that yet is hardly a HALFWAY as awful as some countries I could explain how hard (impossible) it is to reliably as much as gather enough people to rebel (with no results but legal troubles down to getting imprisoned). Let alone gather enough people to go an die for the cause. Especially when almost everyone with ANY power and weapons is already by the government's side completely rotten by propaganda. Feeling outnumbered, not having any resources because they're all in the hands of people who ARE corrupt, knowing even out of other people who disagree most would not risk leaving their children and sick relatives and alike in trouble rising up against the enemy they can't reliably take down is already a huge problem here. Even considering the (very idealistic) sentiment that dire consequences doesn't erase the blame that comes from not speaking up, it doesn't change that there are real and reasonable people who don't agree! Let alone the separate topic of how even people rotten by propaganda deserve a chance for rehabilitation! Propaganda is a horrifying tool and not having immunity to it should not be automatic death sentence!

Shadow Realm is already full of burn Hornsent spirits questioning what did they even do wrong and claiming they only wanted to live and didn't do anything, further proving that they might not even be much aware of what their Inquisitors and Potentates do, let alone not being a solid monolith race of those who agree with extermination of the "impure"! They are people, living in conditions of the culture held by the throat of those truly evil! It were a bunch of civilians burnt, as well as Hornsent's (NPC) wife and child who 99.99% didn't do anything. To think of it, it makes it very bitter that Bonny's Village and Inquisitors in the Tower clearly were able to recover and bounce back, when it were civilians who payed the price. Very grim yet clever remark about the real world as well, but I am sidetracking. In general, yes, a culture that considers itself holier than others with extremist forms of it deeming them unworthy of living should be stopped and criticised, but genocide can NEVER be the answer!

^^^ It fact, something already suggests there was a different answer, an even obvious one. Marika's "betrayal" suggests a long social game on her part, as well as the fact that Hornsent culture were trusting her! Maybe they knew she was a shaman and things were happening past the point where they stopped persecuting them, maybe they had no idea. Yet, in any case, Marika held enough social power to bridge the gap between the cultures, to let them evolve beyond their past, traditions and prejudice against 'outsider' cultures and instead learn from them!

^^^ In fact, the gap was bridged, since Crucible, THE Hornsent thing, WAS considered divine even as Golden Order was established! That was like… after getting Elden Ring instead of Dragons (whatever the reason was), war with the Fire Giants and murder of the Fell God and removal of Destined Death from the Elden Ring? Nonetheless, with the power to stop vicious cycle and to let the horrible practices and past be buried and dissolve in her new order of life and radiance, so-to-say "civilization", she chose the path of genocide and revenge that has not ended even to this day! As well as essentially became "the very thing she sworn to destroy" by keeping those like Omens and Albinaurics oppressed!

And to bring back the previous chapter of this post, it is not an invitation to say 'aww then it is fair that she hates Omens so much 🥺', but a pointer that what she did was wrong. And so, yet again, the cycle continues, take Vengeance-Seeking Hornsent that swears to kill not only her and her family, but everyone affiliated with her in any way even if they were innocent and simply were born under such order! He mirrors how she/Messmer did not simply stop at punishing those who WERE guilty, how violence and revenge will always only birth more of violence and revenge, until someone decides to stop it and chose to solve the situation the pacifist way to their best ability. Even when some people claim that within this option those who will want their power back can survive and ruin everything again: likewise, if culture is exterminated, victims will survive and come back with revenge. Either way suggests the risk, but only one of these ways has even a CHANCE of better future! What IS certain is that humanity could never be at better place unless we as species keep trying peace over and over, that won't banish all evil from the first try, but we must choose peace and not genocide over and over!

3) "Miquella's character was assassinated"

No, it wasn't.

OKAY FINE but it is one of the topics that are hard to approach seriously, when someone mistakes the arc of the character falling from grace to a complete rewrite of the character's personality! How falling from grace inherently suggests there was no grace to BEGIN with? Character assassination suggests Chloé Bourgeois from Ladybug that the character has been written a certain way, but then deliberate effort was done by the writers to damage their image and make the audience hate them or no longer care about them!

What we learned about Miquella from the base game was all information about him from the times long before we, player, arrived in the game, and before his departure in the Shadow Realm! He was kind, he cared about his sister to the point of creating a new school of magic and then creating Unalloyed Gold all to heal her, he wanted a gentler order than the Golden Order and created his own tree that welcomed everyone but first of all those oppressed by the Golden Order, he wished his brother Godwyn could die honourably instead of being a growing virus to all living past death. At the same time, he naturally needed military force to protect his Haligtree, as well as was able to bewitch people with his powers!

In Shadow of the Erdtree, nothing that followed erased that information! In fact, he still boldly stated that he wanted Age of Compassion! What we DID witness though were two things: 1) the fact that he had to get a bit machiavellian, something that already was obvious from the base game because kindness alone is not enough to survive in this world and you HAVE to do some planning as the leader up against the current order with its own fans, as well as people who hate the compassion as an idea and 2) that he has been leaving behind what made him the person that he was, including his feelings and attachments, which logically included caring for Malenia for example! So, the dearest sister is 'loyal blade', because he abandoned his love! He does not still love Radahn either, but Radahn was a part of the promise; a very pragmatic thing and memory that did not have to go as his feelings did. He simply was part of the initial plan to ascend to Godhood; Miquella sounded scared of the idea when he asked Radahn to be there for him, but abandoning his fears and doubts would not automatically erase the OATH. Effectively, a "contract".

Miquella was hyped up as that kind, almost perfect, noble person, for us to find out that he is not anymore. The 'anymore' part here is crucial! Fromsoft have previously did the trick with hyping a character up to be great but us finding out they were not with Vendrick and Gwyn (and very briefly with Artorias who didn't DO anything yet was hyped as THE hero when he was in fact defeated)! Miquella repeats the trend with reveal that he did charm Mohg back then (was not perfect in his actions, but I'll get to it later), but also has the story of further descent from that not-perfect-yet-GOOD person that we follow! He is effectively the most elaborate incarnation of the concept, and we know Elden Ring includes Fromsoft learning from their previous games a lot, polishing the concepts they want to use! Miyazaki confirmed that Elden Ring is "close" to the dark fantasy game of his dream, yet is still not it (someone stop this madman fhfdhs)!

To suggest that revealing him as complex, as well as adding the tragedy of repeating Marika's mistakes no matter how much he was running from this sad fate, equates the devs wanting us to hate him (that is what CA is) is ABSURD! He REALLY did not want to be Marika, he was AVOIDING it, yet no matter what, it caught up to him... How comes you equate tragedy and imperfection with suggesting that you should hate him according to the writers' intention? I will go further and say that if your expected reaction to finding out your fav was never perfect in the world where perfection doesn't survive, and had road to Hell paved with good intentions is 'oh devs made him hateable' it only speaks of your own lack of understanding and compassion. Miquella is as much of the victim of this wretched world as everyone else, where you die a hero, remain a lazy fence-sitter or try to do something but only drastic means to do it make a change. Really, this is just Fromsoft's world and Elden Ring is in no obligation to change their philosophy of existential horror!

4) "Fromsoft failed fans by not making it [insert a thing from a wishlist]"

It could be a bit subjective, but personally I think this is simply not how creativity works as a concept. This kind of criticism suggests that upon deciding on the DLC, developers were supposed to look at the fandom's discussions, determine what would be most emotionally satisfying for them, and go that route regardless of what their vision of the story was or what…? It feels like a very entitled kind of thinking for me. Creator's one task is to bring their own vision to life and tell the story and messages they want to deliver! Not to cater to the audience, not to tell them what they want to hear, not to do what sells well or, god forbid, fanservice. (and you can probably see in which paragraph I will need to touch this one too!)

Miyazaki has a rather grim vision of the world and humanity, that is not completely nihilist and devoid of hope, but never gives the coherent answer to what the better future IS either. Character Aldia from Dark Souls 2 (and vaguely in DS3) is probably the best personification of his philosophy. The world is wretched, but the means to change it are so terrible that one might question whether it is even all worth it and whether the new world built on sacrifices is truly better, toppling the corrupt power just replaces it with the other corrupt power unless you decide to straight up destroy the world, but there must be something, right? We just lack insight to understand what it IS, but how can we obtain that knowledge without losing our humanity? Happy ending or blunt message about how if you remove corrupt authority things will magically be good are not his style.

And… regarding smaller things, honestly? He had a right to throw in a random ship that didn't have any foreshadowing if he wanted! It is HIS story and HIS characters! Creator must not obstruct THEIR vision and preferences for anyone, but it is OUR choice whether to take it or leave it. Just because we gave Elden Ring that kind of popularity and influence with huge amount of support and bought copies of the game doesn't mean that now Miyazaki is under obligation to serve us and think about our reception and tastes as sort of "gratitude" or whatever… And on a relevant note, it is his choice which topics he wanted to explore in SoTE and which topics he was done with and decided to leave be.

Again I might be different, as the very moment we had a DLC confirmed I emotionally distanced from Elden Ring knowing that any headcanons and expectations could get jossed at this rate! Getting invested into series that is still in development suggests obvious risks! No one is obligated to ENJOY whatever choices he made, but what we should do is to remember that he had RIGHT to HIS choices.

5) *claiming all hinted that it obviously should have been Godwyn*

I've heard it often that base game all foreshadowed that Miquella was departing in the Shadow Realm to bring Godwyn back to life, Eclipse thing and all, therefore SoTE "betrayed" fans by not focusing on Godwyn. Everything was supposedly set up for him to be prominent or maybe to be a final boss instead, even if he'd be a through and through failed attempt of resurrecting him! But…

Even in the base game, it was suggested that 'Eclipse' was already attempted, and failed. Nothing to suggest that they would go and try again via different means. And, in fact, there is another piece of evidence that Miquella was not going to attempt another way of resurrecting Godwyn! 'Please die a true death' suggests that Miquella wanted Godwyn to not exist as Prince of Death, but to die fully; with his body too, not only his soul.

This is certainly not about resurrection, so it is safe to assume that Golden Epitaph was made as Miquella gave up the hope of returning Godwyn's soul to him! 'Eclipse' was attempted, and it failed! Moreover, 'Eclipse' is a thing associated with the Castle Sol / Mountaintops! Nothing to suggest that it is properly done in the Shadow Realm, it is very much Lands Between's thing to do. (could it be relevant that Fell God of the Fire Giants was killed, and even before Furnace Visage thing his fire was shaped like an orb, so like a sun? no sun to eclipse to begin with? now Erdtree is THE source of light? some fuel for interpretations)

This is not the only reason, as we have a more bold one, that is Fia's quest getting broken! One of the endings is Fia laying with Godwyn and bearing a Rune to bring Those who live in Death back in the Elden Ring, and one of the remembrance bosses is Fortissax fighting within his dream! If Miquella's goal was to go and try to resurrect Godwyn, that would already remove his body from that area by the very existence of the DLC! So, should have Fia's quest/ending and Fortissax battle been timed events only for pre-DLC era? Or, again, if you say that event would only happen if we followed the entire DLC story to the final battle: Fromsoft's DLCs typically do not have any significant effects on the base games, it is usually just some extra dialogues here and there. And what would be about Godwyn's "virus" growing in Stormveil, as well as on some enemies and deathroots in the ruins where Mariners resided? What is considered his body goes FAR beyond just Deeproot Depths, should they have programmed removing of ALL that to not contradict their own lore, then? It really doesn't feel like the case even from technical standpoint already!

From narrative standpoint, both Godwyn and Radahn should (have) stay(ed) dead for the story and emotional weight, however, elaborating Radahn didn't make his presence overbearing for Fromsoft's standards! On the contrary, he got more role besides kinda 'just being there' compared to other Demigods! Godwyn had a lot of impact and presence all over the story in the base game and one of the endings being tied to him! I will get to it in the paragraph about devs allegedly 'abandoning' some things that needed elaboration though!

Yet even then, devs still added Godwyn bits with Knights of Death getting sort of rebranding to still stand by him in death and the bit about Godwyn having custom-made medallions for his special knights! It is very clear that devs have not forgotten or forsaken Godwyn but instead keep reminding us how much he mattered for the idiots living in this fictional universe! However, they know where to stop so the character isn't devouring the story too much as they have their own style with balancing characters' presence! Saying that "only" adding Knights of Death going to protect what's left of their Lord like sort of fucked up plant culture in Shadow Realm is some sort of grave insult to his fans is just weird, because in fact devs were not supposed to add this EITHER!

6) "Scadutree fragments is a cheap way to force players to explore the map"

I don't think there is anything wrong about rewarding the players for exploring the open world map that is meant to be explored! And, yes, it is rewarding, not forcing! The bosses COULD be beat even without Scadutree fragments if you know what you are doing! Like, what surprises me the most is that this take typically comes from the gamers! You know, THE people who would know a thing or two about imbalanced builds or weapons, or have enough time and patience to memorise every single movement by the boss, let alone liking to challenge themselves!

Even then, Scadutree Fragments are supposed to be discovered naturally as you walk around, check niche places on the map, do platforming and search for optional enemies and bosses! If all you wanted from this DLC was to run very straightforward to just beat the boss already with ease so you check the remembrances faster, are you sure that you actually like PLAYING this game? Getting into an open world game when you don't want the 'open world' aspect seems counter-productive to me :/

Bonus mention: some people finding Abyssal Woods sequence frustrating and annoying! It is somewhat relevant to this complaint! Losing Torrent in this area perfectly adds to the sense of not being able to escape, and stealth game with Aging Untoucheable is straight up horror stuff! How are you supposed to experience getting into the forbidden area infested by the force that every living (and dead!) being in the setting fears, if you just can run straightforward to the boss willy-nilly without any buildup or obstacle! It feels like the same sort of complaint as Malenia being unfair boss when she should be hard as someone who "never knew defeat"! Fromsoft is very good at using gameplay elements to confirm what the lore says! This "criticism" just looks like straight up impatience to get your dopamine injection already instead of enjoying the process of learning this story like devs intended!

7) "Miquella has always been evil"

I suppose it goes as a sibling paragraph to 'Miquella's character was assassinated', except this time from the standpoint of those who either liked the "twist" or were indifferent to it… I think this is just a confirmation bias at play from the people who assumed this about the character from the start, often including but not limited to Berserk fanboys. I agree that the fact he has never been perfect was plain to see either, with Bewitching Branches being a sinister power as a concept and Haligtree Soldiers suicide-bombing being a bit too fanatical, but yet again: nothing erases the notion that he had good intentions!

Ansbach kind of reminds me of the same effect Kenneth once had; Kenneth described Godrick as pathetic and everyone agreed completely ignoring the bits that suggested otherwise, and now Ansbach described Miquella as a monster and this is what some people believe! Honestly, how do I develop this level of charisma to make people believe me uncritically fhfdhhfsd In any case, the "unreliable narrator" effect is very prominent in the game, and it is important to remember that developers make the character say what the character would, not give us the directions on what opinion to have!

Miquella's power is further elaborated upon in SoTE, as not inherently brainwashing one but a very strong remedy for someone's problems! Leda's fanatical murderous fixation, Hornsent's obsession with revenge, Moore's insecurities and Ansbach's fixation on avenging Mohg's "honor" (which is likewise a very questionable concept lol) all were muted, giving them peace and friendship instead of attacking each other OR himself! The key to them being pacified and happier being to fix their love on someone else doesn't make Miquella evil megalomaniac wanting an army of loyal dolls.. on the contrary, often caring for someone else IS the feeling that brings out the best in us humans!

Again, this one is subjective, and of course people can read the character any way they want! But I start to take an issue with this reading when people claim that it is canon and dig at the base game saying how he never cared for the compassion but just was sort of narcissist seeking the oppressed to make an army of admirers from or whatever… The DLC accentuates on how he has been abandoning the 'humane' parts of himself, that were making him vulnerable and as Demigod more human than God, so we meet him at his "lowest". Even then, he states his motivation to make a better world full of compassion and free of evil! He would make everyone hold hands in more peaceful ways if he could, but even from the base game his arc was basically trying and failing to heal his sister. Besides, Dane's last and only words are asking him to make a gentler world, without his spell in the effect-

Like, there are enough things that show he had enough reasons to make people see him as symbol of hope even without MAKING them to. With Radahn, we are repeatedly told that "he and Malenia helped him to cosplay Godfrey" stems from the oath they shared and Radahn agreed to! Whether you see Caelid battle as him wanting to die (to go to Shadow Realm) in a battle, or him rebelling against Miquella's world of shining flowers and kissing bunnies in the end as a warmonger but twins not having this "change" it still doesn't straight up speak of evil intent. Could be taken as despair and reaching that 'giving up' state! With Mohg we are not sure either. Maybe Miquella just wanted to "heal" his pain but his personality persisted and obsession/kidnapping happened, so he knew he was beyond help and TOO soaked in blood and sin! Or he was beyond help / didn't want help from the start, so EVENTUALLY (key word) amounted only to sacrifice in Miquella's eyes on his path to Godhood as he NEEDED one, maybe it was even seen as 'mercy'. Help is to build a better world as a honor and all.

He very likely wanted to make a better world for him too! Both their goals were connected to "love" after all! The reading of the character as evil is not as cut in stone and evident as some people make it look like!

(In fact, shortly after BASE game released, Miyazaki confirmed that Martin wrote some nice characters and Miyazaki wrote the ways to corrupt them. So, Martin wrote the kind guy, and Miyazaki put him through corruption arc. But I will get to it in due time -_-.....)

8) *views Messmer as just another (boring?) victim of Marika* (and variations)

This one I kind of saw in two forms: people who dislike the character or not care about him writing him down as "boring" for this one, and simps who kind of lift agency off the character in order to be able to like him! This is to put it roughly, as again, there are various variations but with the same sentiment at its core!

I do think that Marika having enough influence over his actions, and even having abused him emotionally in some way, is entirely palatable interpretation! The nature of Base Serpent, as well as supposed connection with the Fell God, is debatable and can vary from truly harmful thing to simply a force of nature that exists to ensure forces like Erdtree can't live forever. Regardless of interpretation, would a kind, loving mother truly allow for her child to hate himself so much?

Marika has….. a problem with fire. Waging war to put down the Flame of Ruin because it could burn the Erdtree and removing Destined Death that was fire-affiliated power already showed it; as 'Eternal', she of course wanted to live forever, same for her Erdtree! Messmer manifesting fire element would certainly be a problem for her, but was it though? Base Serpent is malicious but for this reason Winged Serpent exists, no? Can another side of universal balance be something that must be removed from the scheme of things? Can fire, or death, truly count as 'evil' things? Are not they simply forces of nature that Marika being the MILF Gwyn that she is did not desire personally, in her vision of a brighter, bountiful world?

My point is, even though she created many Divine Blessings to help him, she did likely inflict some sort of negative self-image on him anyways. Maybe it was not her intention, but she always feared him and eventually that brought her to hide him away!

So like, how does this NOT make Messmer just a victim? Okay, so here is the error that kind of started it all:

User drenched-in-sunlight explained it better in this ( x ) post, but the point is that taking up the Crusade that Marika wanted was Messmer's own initiative and not something she forced him to do like English localisation made it sound! So, she was still possessed with the wish for revenge, but Messmer was like 'hey no need to make your hands dirty, I can do it'! Like drenched-in-sunlight explained, Marika's 'wish' here is the same as in the description of her braid (same symbols), so Messmer sees what is hurting her, and ASKS to be the tool of her vengeance! I'd say that even without this bit, simply the fact that he is a grown ass man should give him agency and hold him up to proper judgement, but nuance is always important!

This does paint an interesting picture though: Marika has been trying to "heal" him (which is a debatable concept considering her character and what fire, save for Frenzied Flame, means in the setting, but I don't insist), he asked to deliver her vengeance FOR her, but also despite having sealed the Base Serpent within him she was still scared of him and sealed him away making everything connected with him heretical and warriors standing by him still shunned, and Messmer lived in hatred, begging her forgiveness before crashing her seal yet cursing her name upon his death! It looks to me as though she grew truly scared of him and decided she wanted him gone BECAUSE of seeing him in action during crusade! Him hating her for ditching him implies that was not something he expected, so maybe seeing him in Crusade made her go 'wow, my son is actually more scary than I thought'!

That speaks of Messmer as someone who can get carried away with cruelty in blind, fanatical devotion! (that also makes Queelign an interesting mirror into his youthful, more """innocent""" self but that's not the point fdhfhds) Marika might have been horrified by it, or horrified by her own ugly reflection in the monster she (unintentionally) created with her parenting, but nonetheless it describes Messmer's personality more. Someone whose reaction to his mother's trauma and yearning for vengeance was to not only take such terrible plan in his arms, but also to go too far with it, maybe even too far for HER. Not everyone would react the same way. A better person would've probably focus on helping his mother to heal and move on, or maybe even turn around and refuse to comply with such harmful intentions. But he, being a grown man who could think and choose, chose to commit genocide. He is evil! He is not JUST evil, either. He is NOT boring tool of Marika with no agency, though!

And on a relevant note, for the simps..

No but seriously fdhfhdfds I understand how that sentiment could have left a sour taste after SA Mohg truthers kept saying 'hey guys you aren't real fan of Mohg if you ignore what he did 🙄' (that certainly aged…….), but I still want to remind that a fictional character doesn't need to be stripped out of his agency to be found attractive! With Messmer what he is doing is a bit more direct, and it is NORMAL to simp for the characters you could not stand in real life! What is the fun of engaging in fictional worlds if you turn it into a morality contest and sort of a "practice" for what kind of endeavours and relationships you'd want in real life? It is for going wild and satisfying curiosity and dark impulses. No limits needed. This is just an advice if anyone needed one like this, because we just never know really.

9) *"corrects" people's interpretations (especially of Nanaya)*

Sigh...

This kind of behavior in the fandom is certainly not exclusive for the past-DLC era, but it really felt more relevant to address again and- yes, like I said, with Nanaya thing it is something I've witnessed the most! Not long ago I said that despite hearing people question why there are so many uncharitable takes on Nanaya I haven't really seen any? But yes, like usual, it happened because Tumblr bubble is often different and you need to catch updates from Reddit and Twitter to have full fandom picture! An example: not reposting the art of course, but here is a cute comic of Midra reuniting with Nanaya in spirit after death ( x ). And do you know why the artist had to add a caption to ask people to not correct their headcanons? …..because on Twitter, they got pestered with people "correcting" them that Nanaya was aKtUaly evil / Shabriri / etc. 🤡🤡🤡

Honestly, I approve of correcting people when they legitimately, objectively contradicted or missed something stated in canon! I disagree with the notion that canon is just a suggestion and the whole fun is to just use names and concepts from it to create one's own thing! I am one of the guys that wears the T-Shirt that says "Just make an OC then" because primarily fandoms are about studying and enjoying the source material! A good headcanon knowingly differs from canon, know rules to break them at the right places, all that. It is especially relevant in Fromsoft's games because the information in them is very scattered and obscured. You WILL miss something, and so communicating with the fans, double-checking wikis etc is crucial! Similarly with fanart: there is a difference between giving a character heterochromia and more interesting look to add flavor in design and drawing them incorrectly because you haven't SEEN their datamined face and need a pointer (looking at you, white Henryk Bloodborne fanarts all because not everyone checked datamined faces!)!

As I got this off my chest that I am not an absolutist with the 'let fans do what they want' because if someone doesn't need canon that much they can always make OCs or original settings…. …when something is not canon but simply a popular interpretation, don't "correct" people! Midra asks Nanaya to forgive him when he succumbs, and it is anyone's own choice whether they take it as her never having wanted him to succumb when she was still alive or her having been secretly lyinh and ensuring long endurance would made him explode into more "sufficient result"! Fromsoft's lore often leaves bits of information that can be used to justify any interpretation! And discussions, even debates, to prove why your version is better are very interesting! Fromsoft's lore community at its best feels like we are all academics defending our thesis before the audience! But the whole "well aktualy" + "there is no proof so your headcanon is bad" + "let me educate you media illiterate casual" + "but [popular loretuber] said this" attitude just isn't it.

The last example is important! This problem IS also often the result of latching onto what a popular loredigger says. Usually Vaatividya (video lore), charredthermos (wrote a popular Bloodborne interpretation document), Lokey's Lore (has whole website with his interpretation of Fromsoft games bits) and so. And I often see people hate these popular Youtubers too, but I think that the blame lays on the crowd! It is none of these guys' fault that the crowd decided to promote them to the fandom's idols and give them this sort of influence! They were not loredigging to gain this kind of power, they probably never expected the popularity, and they would sure be unhappy to know that their work is used to shun creativity and start fights in the community that they care about! Yes, even when they 'lokey' (haha geddit?) speak in the manner that suggests being close-minded to other interpretations, they are not forcing and CAN'T force fans to idolize them.

In the end, they were just doing what they loved, and popularity probably came from them being pioneers. But instead of spilling vitriol towards them and saying how they should be "dethroned" as if they damage the fandom, why not turn our anger towards THE people who idealize them? We are all angry when we are "corrected" and they use lore of someone popular as a "proof", but this is the fault of THE people who "correct". Discourage this behavior, encourage thinking like individuals and not like sheep. No one asked for the popularity or the power to stomp out any curiousity and creativity. Don't hate the big guy AND don't take the big guy's word as a gospel. In the end, we are all just guys looking for answers in the places where they were NOT given.

10) "Mohg beating allegations made the story worse"

Sibling paragraph to 'they've failed the fans by not making it a thing from my wishlist'. Themes of sexual abuse and incest ARE quite interesting and important, but not inherently THE most important, or more important than any other themes! The information about Miquella having put Mohg under spell opens up equally interesting things to talk about and look for! How did he end up like this? Was it an accident of him trying to "heal" Mohg and it no working, and then he decided to just use what he had when he followed his plan? Had he written Mohg down as only working as vessel sacrifice for that mad plan from the start? What was the backstory between Miquella and Mohg considering this? There are still interesting things to work with, regarding relationship of the two, but now with added spin of Miquella's fall from grace arc that starts with following the plan with Radahn. Because, I remind you, requirement for a vessel, so, someone powerful dying and being used, was part of it from the start! Since Radahn needed to die! It is dark, just in a different way, and divided between two characters instead of just clear stated victim and abuser without shades of grey or nuance!

I say 'divided between two characters' instead of 'they've switched' because Mohg didn't instantly become a GOOD person over this reveal! I praised him as a valid character to point out that not all victims of awful childhood and mistreatment are automatically good people, which is a good way to diversify the characters! Make things more realistic than black and white thinking. Similarly how Rykard or Dung Eater are evidence that not all people up against the oppressive system are automatically good people. That benefit of Mohg as a character didn't evaporate, he still serves that point well enough! Nothing in the DLC said that all the kidnapping of surgeons, corrupting people with the blood and bringing in sacrifices happened because of Miquella's charm. Ansbach, in fact, confirms that the blood cult madness existed before Miquella's charm! When we admit to him that we killed Mohg, he also states that such were understandable risks of seeking Lordship, implying that Mohgwyn Dynasty, so, attempt to insert himself into Golden Lineage through mad, violent means, was also already a plan before! To think of it, SA accusation is the one and only thing he beat x) Reminds me of this meme: ( x )

Again, the story allegedly becoming "worse" solely boils down to 'they've made it about a starter point in Miquella's descent from grace and not about sexual abuse' that is simply not true. It is still interesting and valid story, just in a different way! I would normally argue that as far as fandom life goes, it should have in fact improved things; whereas Mohg was never addressed and explored as a character beyond "mohglester" thing, now he should get proper respect and analysis by the fandom, right? …right? WRONG, now people do often simplify him in a different way and forget that he DID do all that other bad shit! 🤦🏻‍♂️

And I can imagine that complaint about this reveal is not limited to but INCLUDES fans being annoyed by how people simplify Mohg and make him a good guy now! But fandom's habit of selectively reducing characters to just one trait ("mohglester" before, "victim of brainwashing" now) is not the fault of writers. How exactly the fact that we, as a community, are too shallow and unprepared for complex story and characters Fromsoft offers to us, is the fault of Fromsoft? Creator should not simplify their writing or direct it a certain way just because of the notion that majority will lack attention span or insight to understand it! We are the ones who should do better! Mohg offered enough complexity in SA allegations era, he still offers enough complexity now, it is right there in the source material for those who seek and care!

11) "Why some people are still coping instead of admitting the writing is bad???"

Yeah very mature of me to single out this paragraph by making the headline sound like the speaker is having a fit, I know. 🙄 In my defence, this particular one also truly got on my nerves, but it lacks the same huge gravity as the topic of approving of Hornsent genocide did so it is just… it is certainly something right.

Certain kind of fans that I lovingly call 'Twins Cultists' (as opposing camp to 'Chadahn Simps') has been terrorizing the fandom with the attitude of singling out and shaming other fans for "wrong" interpretations, saying how they "disrespected story and characters" with the awful sin of not reading characters Malenia and Miquella deeply enough while at the same time reducing Godrick and Mohg to a bad punchline and insulting fans that read deep into THEM, trashing everyone outside of their echo chamber, putting characters/ships malicious ragebait takes in the TAGS and then playing victims of the "toxic community" and such and such. And you would expect this kind of behavior to get significantly humbled up and them to self-reflect on how they were treating fans when THEIR takes were disproven? And I am glad that some people DID!

Full respect to the guys who reconsidered the attitude of swinging their One True Reading at the heads of "heretical" fans like a bat now knowing Fromsoft always has some cards up their sleeves! Especially if they apologised to the fans they were rude to! But also enough people didn't and now not only hate differing fans harder, but also are furious that writers sorta took away their privilege to be mean to "media illiterate weirdos". I wish I had the patience to accept the fact that of course people are angry, because something so important for them was……. no, fuck that lol I don't.

Okay jokes aside, yes I am aware that it is not possible to care about something passionately without at least somewhat slipping into the territory of defending your understanding from "threats". All we can really do is to draw the line between getting too carried away by our passion and outright obnoxious toxicity in the fandom and TRY to not cross it. To CHOOSE to not cross it when we see it, and step back if we did cross it. I do, however, take an issue with people who refuse to try and even encourages the mentality of seeing fellow fans as "enemies" and gets proud knowing they angered someone or discouraged them to check the tag. In Fromsoft fandoms, it is almost exclusively Tumblr behavior, we are sure luckier than every other fandom in the internets, but I still want to get it off my chest. Like I said, this particular attitude developed a new form after SoTE released, attacking the fans who seek reasoning within the writing decisions they deemed badly written or fundamentally wrong.

And these instances are EXACTLY where I put "just caring passionately" as their motivation into question. Because if someone says it makes sense to say that Miquella and Malenia admired Radahn's kindness when they all were younger and thus he likely faced a negative character arc since then into becoming obsessed with war instead, and you get mad at them for "coping when calling a warmonger kind is dumb and makes no sense"…? Sorry, but who cares about characters MORE in this situation: the person offering proper thought about them given some new information, or the person who is mad that their one-dimensional vision got broken?

People finding creative, interesting and reasonable ways to incorporate new information into lore, in the ways that do not contradict the base game (!!!) is not "coping" or "seeing through pink glasses" or "refusing to admit their fav dev can do wrong" or whatever you choose to call it. It is simply using analysis and imagination, it is adapting and accepting. If you can't do it, you are welcomed to do rewrites of SoTE reveals and characters and ending, it is not illegal! But don't go and say that the writing is so awful and broken that everyone who accepts it "never actually loved Elden Ring" or other nonsense just because for YOU this writing didn't work! The one and only unforgivable thing the devs did starts and ends at the fact that Radahn thing was not foreshadowed, and yet even HERE his relevance is EASILY incorporated and developed into backstory if you are willing to put in effort! This retcon is such a nothing thing compared to what some other writers do glares at Ladybug retcons for comparison. Like, working with it is possible, and if you don't want to it doesn't mean others shouldn't.

And in fact, at first I saw a lot of enthusiasm regarding the rewrites, AUs, "fixes", dwelling on pre-existing lore ignoring SoTE and all that. I really did, and it was valid. But then what I saw, personally, was that flame dying down and amount of such posts shortening but out of those who left this brand of toxicity followed! My interpretation of this change is that when initial shock and frustration waned, more people started to notice SoTE was not bad.. and THAT made people who continued hating SoTE feel less validated, in a way. When people started to warm up to certain plot twists and decisions, to elaborate new information into their vision of the lore… people that still hated and disapproved of the thing lost the image of being "the saviors of the fandom from Miyazaki's garbage writing" and became simply people who do their own thing. And for people who are driven with negative impulses, 'just enjoying the things they like' is usually not enough. They need to be "right", they need to "contribute to the fandom", they need to be "better" and so on. It is a known thing about fandoms even aside of SoTE and Soulsborne fandoms altogether, and I feel like this situation is the return of it, personally.

Of course, this is all speculation and the dynamic I've observed. Maybe someone observed different processes entirely! I just think it is safe to assume as I've seen absurd level of toxicity even despite staying away from 'active' fandom (no 'cool kids' circles, no following popular creators, no open Discord servers, no checking tag or Reddittube etc)!

Still, "I'll fix awful creators' writing because I actually love and respect the characters unlike they" is already a very questionable sentiment, but to attack the fellow fans over this is beyond any patience and understanding! Eventually there is no "right" or "wrong" way to love the characters and story and to be passionate, even if we are naturally inclined to believe in our own vision the most! Perhaps you express your love by putting in a lot of effort to give the characters different writing entirely, to "save" them from decisions of creators you don't agree with. But it is an OPTION, not the One True Way, and… really, it is strange to be mad at people for being happy and satisfied with the story and finding a lot of valid things in it and call them blinded Fromsoft dickriders incapable of critical thinking or whatever! Bonus points when such sentiments come from EXACT same people who resent the Youtube bros that bash every other new TV series AND insult people who dared to enjoy such aaaaawful product or whatever… You guys really hate the type of YouTube "critics" who take personal insult in people who enjoyed a thing and even reasonably justified the parts that THEY declared disgrace to the series and disrespect to true fans? Yeah most reasonable people hate them. We all know at least one modern TV show whose fans got this sort of treatment. But don't you guys see how you've became exactly the same type of "critic" at this rate? Unacceptable behaviour, not justified by 'but it comes from place of passion'! I am passionate about Soulsborne as you could tell and I disapprove of it, no correlation!

12) "Fromsoft became woke" (and variations)

For startes, I have to wonder whether we've been playing the same games all along. Where was it when Gwyndolin was intersexual and affirmed himself as a trans man later? Seath is also blind and has what is a disability for his species? Where was it when Pharis/Evlana was a very GNC woman in Japanese original, but for you she looked a trans woman because English localisation made Pharis a he/him a removed Pharis' nametag from "female archer" in the woods? Where was it when our good friend intersexual trans man was literally killed by the church? Where was it when they had female doctors, church leaders and scholars in Victorian era? As well as strong female hunters like Maria or Gratia? Gratia and Rom are also confirmed intellectual disability rep via Japanese script? Or when both male OR female hunter could propose to Annalise? Or positive sex worker representation in Arianna being the only kind person to step in Oedon Chapel? Where was it in the BASE Elden Ring with Ranni being bisexual, Malenia representing severe physical and mental illness, Miquella being GNC at least and trans+neurodivergent-coded at most, Dolores being a return of GNC woman, Blind Swordsman, Niall being another prosthetic-using fighter and Marika/Radagon? Speaking of blindness there were also Maiden in Black, Firekeeper, Irina 1, Irina 2 and Hyetta? Where was it when through their whole games they never sexualized their female characters and the ONE exception in Gwynevere was not even on purpose? WHERE WAS IT WHEN TRANS COFFIN???

...okay, I can continue and I'd love to be reminded of more examples. But on the serious note, this complaint has two ways to go about it: 1) an understandable fatigue with writers and stories placing pseudofeminist agenda on bland unsympathetic female characters, retconning pre-established characters to pretend to care for diversity and generally hating the audience for merely being born cis/white/male and 2) people being upset at diversity in the cast to begin with and complaining about "forcing the politics in art". And in both cases, this just doesn't apply to Fromsoft.

In the first case, they simply aren't hating their "privileged demographics" audience through characters and narrative, and doesn't seem like they will. They write very compelling, nuanced and even sympathetic characters, as well as the stories that make you ask questions to yourself! They insist on messages against corruption of religious institutions and fascism, but even THEN they'll give sympathetic characters on that side (!), show that not all people who oppose them are good either (!!) and make damn sure to recognise at the start of it all were good intentions (!!!!!!). From this angle, you could argue they are not woke ENOUGH, actually, because of how merciful, open-minded and non-forceful their messages are! They deliver their points through characters who are actual people, rather than writing characters as bland plot devices that hate you!

In the second case... Yeah, as memey as the phrase is, but "they've always been woke". Just because Miyazaki loves motherly woman archetype and and Fromsoft games always had compelling married hetero couples doesn't mean they are your allies in "preserving traditional values"! Again, messages against religious corruption and preserving long-overdue order of things fearing change are plain. Elden Ring had a slight increase in diversity, but to think of it, Elden Ring is also a bigger game with bigger cast. I do want to point out though that the very concept of worrying that with more diverse characters somehow cis and white cast will no longer be a part of From's stories is strange. They'll never make it all about JUST one demographic because they cover nature of humanity in general, but if anything, adding way more angles than their staple Medieval Europe culture route gives them more power for TYPE of the messages they want to tell! Because their power is, and always been, showing the situation from different perspectives.

13) COMMERCIAL BREAK LOL

14) "Devs artificially increased difficulty instead of WORKING to make battles"

This is very unfair criticism already from the very concept! Players had two years to advance through the base game, and if you play consistently, it is enough time to become ridiculously overleleved! Overleveled to the point of not being able to enjoy playing SoTE at all, as all enemies would drop dead instantly! It was easy to sabotage the challenge and simply not let the devs give us the fun experience they intended. But, no! Devs cared to make things so that even if you are 300+ level and have godly build, you'll be down in two hits by the first Furnace Golem, let alone bosses! So, yes, you either need to run around and collect Scadutree Fragments, or seriously study your boss and come up with clever strategy! I am still proud of a really smart way to fight Rellana I invented x)

This complaint did have a period of initial shock when it was really blown out of proportion due to the comfort zone of being overpowered broken, but this opinion still lingers and I just find it strange! Why NOT make sure that players of any level physically can't be too strong to actually PLAY SoTE, instead of just running through it with ease? Even then, how comes they "didn't work on bosses"? Boss battles like Messmer, Bayle and Midra are absolutely wonderfully well done on every level! Romina, Rellana and Putrescent Knight are really great and have super interesting battles even if not as epic and show-stopping, aesthetic and moves alone are immaculate. Non-remembrance bosses who are also very fun and beautifully designed! There are annoying bits about Scadutree Avatar and Gaius, but you can't seriously say they did not WORK on them! The bosses are challenging not only due to artificial difficulty, because even at high Scadutree Fragments level you still need to give them thought! And while you do… right, you can admire the sound and the battle design!

I am just really confused about this complaint because it could only be applied to reusing Radahn for the final boss.. but even then he is not fully reused, and sure not so reused for Stage 2 where you can't see shit because of Miquella's spells. One "kinda mid" boss can't and should not eclipse all those awesome bosses! If anything, he feels more like a hard to get joke! Fans have been saying things like 'oh if only we could fight Vendrick at his prime', 'oh if only we could fight Gehrman at his prime' etc etc… now, as they ALSO did want to fight Radahn at his prime, they got an option to do so, and he is not all that impressive, right? :p Let's be real he only sucks because Leonard isn't here hgfhhhgb

15) *admiring how fanatical Leda is while hating other (male) characters with the same quirk*

Sigh... I will just leave this meme by the user wraith-caller here: ( x )

Yes, fandom does have decent amount of simps for this type of male character, I know. Lautrec, Alfred, and D twins. (Coincidentally, all women-killers x) Even if Devin is actually justified) I suppose Queelign would go here too if people didn't write him down as a joke character by proxy over a cursed cleric haircut? 🤔 skill issue btw So of course it is not to say that they are not given enough love/lust/other positive interest…..

…but for some STRANGE reason, people who feverishly admire Leda and simp for her or at least hail her as such compelling character that ALSO hate Alfred or D for being such horrid fanatics are almost a staple by now! Why!!! This problem existed to a smaller extent with people who hated Alfred while simping for Adella and even shipping her with her victim- and no, it is cool and based, one does NOT get into a media with dark themes to demand healthy characters and healthy ships, but why so many times gender defines it? I don't care if you are a lesbian; whether you give character a justice should NOT depend on whether you are attracted to them, or else you are no different from straight girls that would like a male character and hate female character with the same issues! And sure I don't care if you are a feminist and are inclined to give "pay back" for years of misogyny in the fandoms by applying double standards!!

16) "Why could not we have JUST ONE genuinely nice character?"

Alllllright so… apparently, I was wrong this whole time about SoTE. I was convinced that it had no impact on the base game beyond like, Leda greeting us in Mohgwyn Palace, but I suppose I was misinformed very much? Because turns out that this whole time I was not aware that SoTE removed existence of Roderika, Hewg, Boc, Melina & Torrent, Latenna, Albus, Thops, Jar Bairn, Millicent and Enia from the base game!

….fine, okay, sarcasm is not my forte at all, but what I said still stands from both subjective and objective standpoint. Subjectively, I don't think counting out minor characters does any good for enjoying and analyzing the story! Should anything only "really" count when it is a significant, major character? This reminded me of that time when someone said it was 'incredibly fucked up how Bloodborne only had 2 non-white characters' when in reality it has 13 but minor characters supposedly didn't matter much…?

I want to specify though how this bit is more about how I interact with fictional worlds; I take them as just fictional realms that I enjoy exploring and "living through", I do not put much emphasis on how much 'weight' characters representing certain demographic OR worldview in the story as someone able to love every other minor gremlin genuinely! Maybe it is autism, maybe it is the fact that I am naturally hesitant to interact with the 'big guys' anyways with real people too. I enjoy tending to flowers and I suppose for most people the point or representation they want to see should be visible from every angle, like Erdtree x) With major characters, I think Rennala and Godwyn are the closest we have to good people, yet they were not able to be 100% good conceptually due to their high status.. much like Miquella himself, which brings me to a more objective point!

Conceptually, it is already impossible to be fully good when you as much as hold a lot of power! Some people have to be neglected if not straight up stomped out, for your own safety or safety of others, and it won't be a good thing *regardless *of intentions! Some sacrifices have to be made because if you are nice to everyone while having a lot of power, bad people will try to use you! Some social games, if not straight up violence, have to be applied if you want to make a change in the world! The big, important person can't be perfectly kind, because in that case they will no longer be big and important! It is just cruel truth about how society works! And Miquella HAD to be big and important. He had huge plans for the world, and as much as keeping himself and what tribe he has built within the Haligtree safe implied some morally questionable acts, let alone making his path through the position where he can change anything!

Pacifist character with unyielding principles who has a say in the fate of the world can often be portrayed from a very unpleasant angle, like, 'hug and forgive war criminals with unreal body count :3' angle (Steven Universe comes to mind first of all). Like, such decision make you wonder how this is being a GOOD guy here! But at the same time, is taking down those war criminals truly good either? When the character combines being the force of good AND being the force able to effect fate of the world, they inevitably are faced with the dilemma of either getting their hands dirty, thus sullying their grace at the very least, or making a decision that would feel like betrayal for the victims… which, again, sullies that grace but in another way. Miquella was already conceptually doomed to act Machiavellian by the virtue of being an Empyrean who wished change, much like Ranni except more subtly so!

And this is why true goodness could only come through the little guys. They don't have to make morally questionable decisions with no outcome that spares their innocence; their field of influence is to just care about their closest surrounding and to do their little tasks! They can't change the world, but they can change just the lives of their friends and their own.

Malenia, one of the key figures in the story, was faced with the choice to either "abandon her dignity" and nuke the continent to deliver Miquella's plan in full (the route she did end up doing), OR to preserve that "dignity" but thus hinder their plan that I remind you was against the Golden Order, to build a better world (which is also sort of morally questionable decision in the grand scheme of things)! She could not win and with all information we were given, more suffering in the setting would ensue no matter what! Do a drastic sacrifice for the greater good, or forsaken that greater good to preserve more lives but doom them to live in the same bad conditions forever was her picture! Yet Millicent, effectively a 'little guy' version of Malenia, had the privilege to die with her integrity intact without any big consequences for the world and great scheme of things! True good, certainly, can only exist in the smaller scale.

When it reaches the higher plane and higher decisions there is no way to remain 'unalloyed'. So, yes, we could NOT have 'just one genuinely nice character' out of people with huge power and importance. Not because Miyazaki allegedly hates hope and hates you! But because he is a writer that seems to understand such fundamental things and philosophical dilemmas from the track record of his games so far. ANY mature, insightful writer knows that the idea of someone 'important' forever being good might be a thing the audience wants, but not a genuine thing. "No matter how tender or exquisite a lie will remain a lie" and all.

17) *hating Radahn's inclusion because "dudebros got validated" and not over the story*

To be honest, this IS something I am also familiar with. I won't play the "unlike you snowflakes I don't care about online discourse uwu" persona because I SURE do! I used to dread Mariadeline ship because fans of it were easily the most toxic and unbearable type of Bloodborne fans, choosing to remain willfully ignorant about Gehrman's character actual lore, showing near-biphobia regarding Maria, having era of acting personally attacked when their ship was implied to be anything BUT cottagecore fluff dynamics without corners, playing victims of hate and "misogyny" when they themselves maliciously rage-baited fans that were just enjoying themselves, and doing that ableist 'no reading all this get a life' thing when shown where they were wrong! I had a period of really disliking Leda because she was an in-universe manifestation of aforementioned 'Twin Cultists' who act very similarly to common Mariadeline fans with spreading the "us CORRECT fans with MEDIA LITERACY who RESPECT story and characters vs them WEIRDOS" toxic mentality, with the whole joys of echo-chamber stuff, playing victims when they knew they were PROVOKING anger and feeling attacked when anyone dared to as much as to look at their favs as anything but perfect. I dealt with both and enjoy the ship now, and like Leda now. These are just two recent examples, but I faced a similar problem often, in previous fandoms as well. And I will be real here:

What helped me every time was to distance from the 'vocal' fandom, gather around a few friends to private chats and bounce around the ideas on our own. Without any outside influence, without deliberately skewing interpretation to "spite" anyone, without any motivation in it besides trying to look at things with clear gaze. The cure against the sour taste that bad fandom experiences have left is not to have the writers to "validate" you or to "spite" your opponents or whatever. The cure is ALSO not to completely abandon the ship/character/concept/etc giving up on it as if it was rotten and "not worth the stress". The cure is to hide away from this negative influence for a time being and build your own vision, that might have only like 3 other fans but be immune to everything! Us very few people here who like Mariadeline the different way keep FAR distance from its more 'common' fans, and we are pretty glad that we grew a Halightree in the contrary to their Erdtree x)

I do not really see why could not the same be done with Radahn as a character. In fact, it feels like there is an unspoken DEMAND for it. For 'reclaiming' him, even! My friend heraldofcrow made a post ( x ) about why Radahn is not 'Chadahn' at all but actually a sad character in his own right and just LOOK at the notes! Clearly, he does not have to remain a "mascot" of those dudebros and remain associated with the dumbest discourse you ever had to read!

I think the fandom really has lost the objective when prior the DLC you guys started to hope for certain outcomes based on the fandom experiences! People hoping for Miquella to be kind to make 'annoying Berserk fanboys' shut up, people hoping for Miquella to turn out evil to be vindicated after his annoying fans were toxic over "wrong" interpretations of him, people hoping for Mohg to be confirmed bewitched so everyone who called them media illiterate could eat their words, people hoping for the answer to Caelid battle to invalidate Malenia haters from Reddittube…… Like, how comes that we have forgotten that the first priority is to hear what the writer has to say and try to accept it as fans, or at least to have objective, reasonable wishes for the story rooted in our knowledge about writing and NOT in fandom discourse? It should not be a matter what group of fans gets validated or screwed over, it should be a matter of what it does to characters! It should not be important that now Malenia haters will NEVER shut up, but it SHOULD be important that we now have a better context for her moral failing and can work with it. She is not THEIR to trash on, she is YOURS to cherish as the girlfailure now with extra information!

There is a Russian saying: "Мышки кололись, плакали, но продолжали есть кактусы" (literally "(the) mice prickled themselves, cried, yet kept on eating the cacti"). It is a figure of speech describing someone who keeps stubbornly doing something that only brings them suffering without a reasonable purpose to it. This is exactly what those dudebros have been doing thinking about Malenia within the context of their fav and what they have been doing complaining about how hard it was fighting her when no one forced them to. But this is ALSO exactly what Malenia fans have been doing engaging in bad faith "debates" started by those guys and checking Reddittube knowing full well no good takes exist there!

If what you wish from it is effected not by your knowledge and tastes, but by your bias stemming from fandom experiences… really, distance from the fandom and heal. Characters are their own entities, not your tools to own other people in the fandom. It goes to both Reddittube AND Twitbr, to both people who started it and people who merely developed negativity as reaction. Fans are NOT part of the story and should never be, we are all just people observing it and reacting to it.

18) "They clearly gave Radahn spotlight because he was popular in (western) fanbase"

It is absurd to assume that Fromsoft would turn the planned story around because a lot of people on Reddit and their YouTube lore influencers declared 'Chadahn' their king. In fact, judging by the merch they're offering, Malenia is recognized as equally marketable if not MORE marketable! Besides, had they cared about Western fanbase's reception specifically (which IS where Radahn is loved), they would have likely avoided the potential backlash by that type of fans regarding making their fav LGBT+! With half-brother, no less. I've also heard a theory that they included Radahn as the very last moment solution, but I doubt that baking in Freyja into the story with her and Ansbach's questline, as well as creating Gaius, could've been something done in the last moment! I am not a game developer so correct me if anything, but it looks like a lot of work to do. Besides, there is not enough cut content in SoTE to suggest the plans were far different! And we all know that cut content always still lingers in the game's files with Fromsoft!

They can care about marketing- heck, using Vargram, an existing character with his own lore, to portray the "Tarnished" in promo materials because his set is more catchy than Knight/Tutorial set, for example! Or how replacing an option to murder Orphan of Kos as an infant with 'shadowy presence' because it felt too grim didn't undo the option to kill Arianna's infant and other celestial children, nor it undid how horrifying Fishing Hamlet was. They also obscured the fact that Annalise's baby got aborted, but not the fact that Queen Yharnam's baby was stolen while she has a bleeding wound where a big belly used to be. These are examples of making posters more eye-catching and dodging potential scandals about promoting abortion respectively, but nothing about nuking the plans for the story!

You know what sells even better than Radahn? Big boobs! Yet over and over they make their female characters have smaller chests, even Marika, and the ONE exception Miyazaki ever made, Gwynevere, was done because the guy who drew her concept was too happy! Heck, assuming that Miyazaki included Radahn because his coworker wrote a Miquella x Radahn fanfic he liked is more realistic assumption than him wanting to "sell better" jggfggfhgn In any case, my point is, they follow the vision they like and don't sacrifice integrity of the story!

(+On the relevant note, back then there was a scandal with press calling them "homophobic" for Mohg supposedly perpetuating a negative stereotype with incest/pedophilia accusation….. but while they debunked that impression, they've added consort thing with Radahn that falls for the exact same issues potential lol!!!! You know the only reason "Radahn is a groomer" takes don't exist is because people who care about Radahn aren't the discourse-starters of the fandom. They didn't escape certain side-eyeing even when they COULD and it is funny)

There is another thing I want to address though!

The screenshot is from this reveal trailer, and the excerpt is from Miyazaki's interview ( x ). I assume that this COULD be used as a reasoning behind thinking adding Radahn and final Miquella cutscene in the "last moment"; like 'you see, there was an ending where he 'reveals' (?) the Scadutree, but they cut it, and offered that unfinished clip of Miquella asking Radahn to come with him!' ..okay, sure, but you know what else was in that interview?

The confirmation that there would not be an extra ending for Elden Ring, of influence on the main game! Right off the bat, right after this trailer! Miquella "unveiling" the Shadow Realm or anything like that would have had consequences on the main game, certainly! They might have animated this prior because they wanted to add a new ending but then decided to not touch the main game under any circumstances but kept it for the cool trailer, or they animated it for the trailer from the start (like if Miquella is unveiling a new location for us, metanarratively)!

19) *refuses to use information and lore from the base game while looking at the DLC*

Yet AGAIN, "Free my man Mohg from SA allegations (he did do all that other shit though)". XD True, when it is not that people reduce (?) him to just a victim upon learning Miquella's Bewitching lore for the sentiment alone… it is then because they sort of forget. :clown: Ansbach's entire existence and what information we receive from him confirms that Mohg's scary bloody cult existed before Miquella's spell! It is up to anyone to interpret whether 'love' theme about his cult also existed before what Miquella did, or was, in fact, a side-effect, but kidnappings and sacrifices definitely were not caused by Miquella!

Another example off the top of my head is Maliketh and even Hoarax Loux / Godfrey basically evaporating from Marika's backstory, as though nothing ever existed besides her time at the Shaman village, Messmer and Fell God. And the latter one makes it especially odd, because base game hammered it down in every other Fire of the Giants' incantation that the motivation to put that fire down was because it was capable of burning the Erdtree and existed as anathema to it altogether, but now it got basically forgotten, as if all that ever existed about it was Messmer's presumed connection to it! I even got """corrected""" once when I stated that war with the Fire Giants happened to establish and protect the Erdtree, with something along the lines of 'we don't actually know what the motivation was but very likely to help with the curse that he caused on Messmer'! Also seeing the turning point of Marika's story in her becoming a God through Divine Gate, when in reality it was first her being chosen as an Empyrean by the Two Fingers! So, first someone now qualified to create the new order, and then actually creating it by entering the Divine Gate!

There were also Miquella things such as saying that he abandoned Malenia when she described his absence as "he will keep his promise", or saying that him forgetting Godwyn was a weird decision when the base game already suggested he failed and gave up with failed Eclipse and Golden Epitaph with words 'please die a true death'! To be honest, with Malenia one I myself fell for it at first, but… yeah, base game suggested he was going to return to her after/if his plan succeeded. Romina "creating" Scarlet Rot I also found to be often disconnected from (Outer) God of Rot existing 🤔

I suppose this could be justified because many people finished Elden Ring significant time prior the DLC, so many lore details got blurred and only general impressions of specific fixations stayed! It is just how memory works, and revisiting the source material from time to time is necessary! Even then, SoTE is so full of new information that it is easy to just completely fixate on it! I just think that it is important to remember that SoTE is still not just a whole game despite its absurd side and saturation with the new things, and things in it add into the base game! Not always like missing puzzle pieces but sometimes in a way that makes the puzzle itself bigger, but still. Gaius existing didn't replace Alabaster Lord that was Radahn's Gravity Magic teacher and Ogha, but he was also a "classmate"! Radahn being stated as an important sibling for Miquella and Malenia didn't replace Godwyn, but rather is added as someone also important! Hell, maybe he even became so close with them after Godwyn's assassination, but I'll get to the "it doesn't contradict stuff" in the meantime! Dryleafs and Needle Knights aren't supposed to make anyone forget about Loretta and the plan to find "proper" Haligtree Knights but never finding a master for such sword! They are just people who put faith into him after Erdtree started to die and his police force respectively! (Also no if I saw that Needle Knights are police then so have to you all, fuck you)

20) "How could they abandon [insert a thing that had enough place in the base game]?"

This kind of happens frequently, and usually it is about Godwyn! Sibling paragraph to 'it obviously should have been Godwyn' I suppose! Godwyn is not the first character who is very significant for the story yet everything happened behind the scenes, through descriptions and dialogues of other characters. In fact, meeting him in "person" is already a luxury by Fromsoft's standards! He had enough of spotlight already with his death triggering the VERY events of the plot with Shattering, one of Miquella's failed plans being about 'Eclipse' to bring him back, being grieved for by other characters, making peace with Ancient Dragons and thus a whole type of incantations in the game being linked to him, haunting the environment via Deathblight and being core figure in the questlines of Ranni, Fia and Rogier who are pretty significant characters all! He had enough development and presence in the narrative, I'd say to the point where bringing him into SoTE would overload the story with his presence! Not making him a core figure in the DLC and limiting new information about him to his most significant Knights rebranding into Knights of Death to protect the places where Prince of Death "grows", again, not some grave insult to his fans because what was there to tell about him happened in the base game!

With Fromsoft characters, THE tragic culmination of their story often happens behind the scenes and we are intended to meet the character at their lowest point, or just dead! With Godwyn, that culmination did happen behind the scenes, with such beloved, important, enigmatic figure getting assassinated and sending Marika over the edge, and we have a second emotional culmination for the character that we get to experience where we DO meet him at his lowest - an abomination on all living and mockery of former self, knowing Miquella did not get the wish to either return his soul OR let him die a true death! He did not have enough screen time, but he had enough presence in the story and feelings!

A similar complaint could be made regarding 'Well, Miyazaki said that Miquella would be a focus of the DLC, but we only meet Miquella in the end and he just sits on Radahn's back instead of at least fighting us himself'! (no not me making up a guy, it was an actual claim towards Miyazaki allegedly "lying") First, you people take it BACK about a very clever Dark Souls 3 reference and Miquella's spells not letting me see shit. Second, like I said, his presence is all over the narrative! All core NPCs talk about him, we follow his traces and find flowers growing from his blood, we learn more about him and his past, Radahn's story is now connected to his and Mohg's story with him given some insight, Trina is inseparable part of him, Dryleafs and Needle Knights are HIS covenants, we see effects with and without his spell… How is all this NOT 'being focused on the character'? Fromsoft's style of giving character time and space is not specifically to show them on screen or let us battle them or have dialogue with them!

Personally, I also at first wrongly assumed that they forsaken Miquella and Malenia's connection for the sake of Radahn, but this is, again, the case of one not excluding another! His connection had enough weight in the base game: he started Fundamentalism with Radagon primarily as a sort of magic to heal Malenia and abandoned it when it was not working, she always identified as 'Blade of Miquella' and it is the only thing she holds onto as she is falling apart, her clothes, prosthetics and armor pieces are made of his Unalloyed Gold and it even digs into her very body, all which he created for her, Ephael is full of statues depicting their younger selves holding each other, she was the one to have his needle (different from the gold needle) and she awaited him to keep his promise since he was "the most fearsome Empyrean"!

(Cut Rico's dialogue in the base game's files ( x ) ( x )) The original intention seemed to give Trina less of a 'personality', making her more inseparable entity from Miquella or even straight up just his disguise like with cut Merchants' questline, so the plan to ascend Miquella to Godhood was already in the plans! They have changed the dream realm thing since, recontextualizing Miquella going to sleep to ascend into presumed dream realm into Godhood with dream Trina persona to Miquella departing into the realm where rather all dead drift to, but the POINT of him leaving for that mad plan rather than mysteriously vanishing and Malenia not knowing why was there from the start! Writers didn't just "randomly made him abandon her" - he ALREADY did so in the very early draft of the story!

In the interview ( x ) about SoTE, Miyazaki also confirmed how many things that were planned from the start were cut from the base game's story because it was getting too big:

Miquella also abandoned not just her but everything, and Radahn logically got special treatment because he was part of the plan from the start! Miquella, who left every feeling that made him the person that he was, did not need to love Radahn or care for him to remember that a God requires 'consort' (in this setting's lore). It is not outlandish to assume that he wanted Radahn to share that fate (a fate so bad that Trina begged us to rather kill him that allow it, mind you!) and not Malenia because she already suffered enough for him in his eyes, for example. She depended on him for everything, so why not ask the other tough guy rather than a person that never knew independency and true agency outside of his influence?

My hot take is that not asking her to hold his hand through horrifying ordeal further proved him caring about her with all the context! He maybe ideally would not have asked Radahn either but if you need the Second Guy as a God, who will you rather ask: a person that already never knew life besides self-identifying as your tool or a kind tough guy who was the second most reliable figure for you BOTH after Godwyn? And would Godwyn be interested in the idea to abolish the Golden Order anyway? Radahn presumably changed his mind later in life, but Godwyn was THE Golden Order guy since the start! But my interpretation is not so relevant, it is subjective and again saying 'there is no glaring problem that people think there is, it comes down to interpretation'. There was still nothing else to add about how Malenia and Miquella were connected in SoTE, it was already all said in the base game!

I might be talking from the standpoint of someone who very much used to the way Fromsoft reveals information; they are very minimalist and precise, they give as much of it as needed to understand the gist, and bringing up something not in one description of an easily missed item but several times across unskippable lore is generous for them! They said enough in the base game for everyone to get the point and decided to not milk the same thing in SoTE, nor they erased or contradicted the information from the base game!

Wanting more information for the sake of it is valid and natural for fans, but Fromsoft doesn't give it just for the sake of it! They didn't abandon these topics, they simply finished talking about them! Even so, Godwyn got now got confirmed to have his version of Cleanrots/Redmines, and Romina offered a fantastic narrative parallel with Malenia as someone unable to bring Scarlet Rot to blooming from the buds state yet cherishing it, when Malenia wanted nothing more but to get rid of Scarlet Rot yet it kept getting through no matter what! They added some extras without exhausting the point itself!

21) "Sote was a mistake" (and variations)

YOU take that BACK about Thiollier and Ansbach. You take that back about Leda and her potential of interacting with Loretta, about Freyja, about insight on how Tanith looked like before marrying Rykard, about Moongrum having a twin sister- heck, about RENNALA having a super cool badass sister! You take that back about Midra and Nanaya and the whole cool Abyssal Woods location, about cool Midra's Manse lore and the best fucking boss battle and soundtrack ever. You take that back about Messmer and the Fire Knights. You take that back about cool battle mechanics additions with many two-handed arms, hand/legs combat mechanics and throwing weapons mechanics. You take that back about Romina and super cool insight on Scarlet Rot. You take that back about Ymir and super messed up cool cosmic eldrich stuff with cosmic fingers and Metyr being a return of Ebrietas archetype no one could expect. You take that back about how everyone finally pays more attention to the Fell God and worldbuilding in general. You take that back about immaculate aesthetic and captivating lore of Hornsent. You take that back about meeting Trina. You take that back about how significant and important topics they managed to raise- no, honestly, how cool is that that they got us to discuss the topics of fascism and genocide, as well as cycle of revenge and dilemma of limiting free will vs accepting cruelty of the world so hard that we FORGET to simp for [choose Messmer or Rellana or both depends on you] during such passionate debates? You take that back about coolest fucking sets ever and ability to become a dragon. You take that back about Igon, Florissax, finally getting an explanation about why Dragon Communion was a thing if Golden Order made a pact with Ancient Dragons and BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYLEEEEEEEEEE! You take that back about Gaius- actually no screw that man, remove his battle lol

…sorry had to add that punchline.

My point still stands: you cannot objectively say that SoTE was a mistake. Subjectively, you can; if you were a fan that solely cared about Miquella only through a certain lense and nothing else, then sure, SoTE fucked your headcanons over and all the cool stuff won't make you shift your hyperfixation. For you, it would have been better if SoTE never existed, you would've been better off in previous state of things, endlessly debating Radahn's fans and bullying people with charitable Mohg interpretations and whatever. But people like this do NOT represent the fandom as a whole at all! Not even in relevance to the gaming-only part of it, I am talking about artists-writers part of it as well! Objectively, SoTE contributed a lot of interesting lore and characters without breaking pre-established lore; as I stated earlier, importance of Godwyn and Malenia did NOT get erased just because Radahn had a retcon to also be important person! SoTE answered some questions that required answers, like origins of the Formless Mother, Dragon Communion, Trina's nature, what happened with Mohg, what was the reason for Caelid and what were these darn weird crawling hands enemies!

No I am not rofling, I was seriously very confused about them and made at least three attempts to solve the mystery of their nature, but SoTE finally freed me from that torment!!

Adding more characters absolutely was not a mistake! None of these characters broke pre-established things, they are merely more 'dolls' to play with! Answering some questions was also not a mistake; whereas people might not like what the answers ARE, tying some loose ends of the story was a good call! It is not as if they've written elaborate document explaining every single bit of lore to the point no one can make interpretations or create new stories anymore! All they did was putting an end to some arguments, however new questions arose in their place; questions more interesting than who is "misogynist" and who is "media illiterate".

From the gameplay standpoint alone, I do not understand this claim either. How exactly SoTE would ruin base game, which is intact and still accessible map without changes? Shadow Realm's map exists separately from the base game, none of it breaks the main game's locations and bosses! I doubt that new mechanics and weapons from the SoTE completely ruin the main game and make it imbalanced either! For most of them, having a strong weapon doesn't automatically make you skilled and even base game's bosses could still kick your ass. And as for "imbalanced" ones, gamer bros of the fandom have been doing great so far self-regulating themselves to shame people who used Mimic Tear, Comet Azur, Blasphemous Blade etc 🙄 Their field of creating artificial "honor"-based difficulty and challenging themselves would not suffer because of the weapons from SoTE! They are able to make the challenges and PvPs what they want within themselves, encourage or prohibit anything. It is not as if Miyazaki is holding them at the gunpoint telling them to use mechanics introduced in SoTE that they believe "ruin" the playing process! Simply not use new weapons or not go in the Shadow Realm altogether if you don't want to - and Elden Ring will remain what it used to be for you!

I guess I can only agree with the notion that aside of SOME story loose ends, base Elden Ring was not lacking in anything. It was a very huge game, with many characters, many locations, many worldbuilding things to touch upon and discuss, many mechanics, very contained and packed with things for years ahead to dissect, discuss and create art and writing and videos for! SoTE just made it even bigger! We were mostly living fine without these characters and new information, save for the frustrating arguments I've mentioned!

Mohg fans against SA interpretations could disagree entirely because as SoTE aired they all said "the night, and the hunt, were long…" But, like I said before, fandom experiences should not define what we want from the story! Some questions remaining unanswered was bearable from the STORY standpoint, but it is objectively NICE that they did get answers! And… just adding more characters is definitely not a problem. Not characters that break the story, just MORE characters. There is a Russian saying, "Кашу маслом не испортишь" ("you can't ruin the porrige by adding more butter in it"), and it applies here very much. Unless some people, for example, hate Messmer and are frustrated that they have to remember about him when writing Marika's backstory or anything.. I would not get it either way because giving a character a couple of sentences of acknowledgement and tossing them away feels like the easiest thing to do in my eyes. Fandom is always doing it, they have always been doing it, so why NOW this is something so hard to do?

22) *blames Martin for all the parts of the story they hate*

As funny as the joke about Martin being responsible for the "incest ship" is, considering his track record, Miyazaki actually confirmed in the interview right after the first SoTE trailer that Martin did not have anything new to add to the DLC story! But then, just because he didn't turn in to add new lore for SoTE specifically, how could we tell that he didn't write these "plot twists" previously? For this, we need to dial back to when his contributions to the Elden Ring were discussed after base game's release!

(Start watching from 6:00 to 7:25)

“Elden Ring was going to take place in, let’s say the present of their game universe. But what they wanted me to write was what happened like 5,000 years before that,” he said. “So I went back and wrote a history of what happened 5,000 years before the current game, and who all the characters were and who was killing each other and what powers they had. They had these runes that were at the center of the game, and the rune got split into many pieces, and that’s what screwed up the world. I laid all that out.”

So, he wrote the base premise for the backstory - what happened and existed before the Shattering, and up until that point! So, how characters got corrupted, how their plans changed and what happened to them later etc was up to Miyazaki to create! Take the concept of the character - who, what power, what status - and put them through the arc and development! Not Martin wrote the events that unraveled after the Shattering AND unravel as we play the game! Miyazaki himself also confirms this, according to this ( x ) interview:

“So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, ‘how did they become such inhuman monsters? And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?’ So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not.”

"…if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that.”

I recommend reading the whole page, but this is the gist of it! So, not only what events we are following are Miyazaki's work, but also their fall from grace, their sins, their mistakes and everything you might hate ('you' mostly as in, people upset that Miquella was not as perfect and pure as you wanted) is ALLLLLL on him! YOU leave Martin OUT of this! we also all know he only writes hetero incest fsdhfdghsfdg

23) "SoTE contradicted the base game's lore [example that doesn't contradict it]"

This one is less focused than it may seem, because it is not just about Godwyn and Malenia! In fact, it is rarer about them as complaints about them mostly do the "they got abandoned" route that I've already ranted a lot about! god it feels so good to finally rant lol I've seen some instances of people JUST throwing the 'ohh my GoD this new info is SOOOOO contradictory to [thing]' and refusing to elaborate, pouting and playing victims of blinded fanboys when questioned, which is in itself very infuriating! Regardless of how you are frustrated with SoTE, how it screwed your expectations and preferences personally, you are a garbage critic if you just waste your emotions without any real argument to your point, there is no way to put it lightly! That being said, for this particular reason, it would be easier to address concrete examples that HAD some explaining behind them from the critical people! But, it NEEDED to be said!

Personally, I've stumbled into a couple of things, in which I managed to add my say! The first was a claim that the whole story of the base game was not supposed to happen because if Marika got driven by the impulse of revenge and despair, she was supposed to succumb to Frenzied Flame but she didn't! And this is NOT some groundbreaking discovery about how the story is allegedly fundamentally broken, but simply a huge overlooking of pre-existing information, if not confirmation bias! Frenzied Flame and Three Fingers are very interesting topic in general, that I've covered in a couple of lore posts already, but for the subject: whereas the sickness of Frenzied Flame, aka the 'become too sad and you will start to burn' illness, is the case in the Lands Between and started because of Shabriri's crime, the story of Marika and Midra's Manse logically happened before Shabriri! Abyssal Woods and Midra's Manse have the eyeballs that are evidence of being directly grasped by the Three Fingers as the only eyeball items, whereas the Lands Between has Shabriri Grapes as eyes scorched from within but being grasped by Three Fingers became not a staple but an exception (Vyke)! Marika was contacted by the Two Fingers, not Three Fingers, to have the power that she does. Even then, is not it logical to assume that even after Shabriri caused his curse on the Lands Between, a God would be immune, especially if the "counterpart" of the Three Fingers is their guide? Not to mention how Messmer did take a lot of burden off her by doing her wish for revenge by himself-

Alright, you got the point. It is very easy to logically conclude why there is no glaring contradiction at all, and you don't even need to dig deep into lore to find out why! This is the brightest case from my memory that is best described as 'if you WANT to believe that Fromsoft completely broke the story, you WILL find a backup claim for it'! But unfair criticism that doesn't address the possible counter-evidence is not the way to analyze! When you want to make a claim, you need to scan the overall volume of information for possible objections to your claim and deal with them! Explain why they do not work, or why they are not truly saying anything! Sometimes, as you deal with the potential counter-evidence, you find that there are things you cannot reliably argue against and it might make your initial claim appear less solid or lose validity altogether! And this is fine! As big as the temptation to "prove" something is, the true purpose of having a claim should be to make sure that it is valid all things considered!

Just because you are already too upset with the story and the writers to give it proper effort and analysis doesn't mean you can just toss a bold, easily debunked statement and expect to not have any objection! This is not in particular to the 'Frenzied Flame makes Marika's backstory impossible' person at all, but about a behavior in the fandom I've also noticed; where someone's response to the information that deconfirms their criticism is 'well, but I am already too hurt and disappointed to dig deep and analyze, so…' No, not how it works. You are making a claim about existing piece of writing and thus put skill of the writer up to scrutiny, not writing your own AU/headcanon, therefore be ready to deal with counter-evidence if there is any!

Another example off the top of my head was that existence of Gaius allegedly contradicted the pre-established lore about oppression of Albinaurics! I want to point out though that the person who originally made this claim was nice and never denied validity of the counter-arguments! But as for the subject, I will repeat that it is very easy to assume that there would be some double standards put in action! Like 'oh yeah Albinaurics are cringe, but this one is nice to me so he is an exception'! Or 'yeah we all hate Albinaurics, but this one is HELPING us in the Crusade against those spurned of Grace, he is paying the price for being an impure species himself, let's be nice to him guys :)' (🤡🤡🤡).

In this case things are easy to explain not through digging into information in the game further, but through putting into consideration how humans tend to work! Though Messmer, for one, has his more humane traits stated with how he respected the wishes of his Fire Knights when some of them protested against burning Rauh Ruins, and Gaius might be an extension of that sympathetic side of him! Opinion that saying Radahn was admired by the twins for his kindness contradicts the lore falls apart even EASIER; it is not hard to assume he maybe used to be kind! Miquella even specifically revived his younger version, and it is very telling!

All in all, the writers do not need to overexplain every single thing to prove that there is no contradiction or things make sense! Elden Ring is entirely written in such a way where by just digging deeper, connecting the dots or even applying your imagination and experiences you can easily explain why things work! I just want to really, REALLY accentuate it that before you cry 'bad writing!!!' or 'contradiction!!!', give it SOME extra thought! And if you are not willing to because of disappointment/weak attention span/anger/etc, then don't make the claim to BEGIN with! What is the point of making a claim when you are not in the right state of mind to make SURE it is valid? Bashing a story or a writer while willfully not being fair to them with your effort and research is something better reserved for private chats with the friends just to let it all out, but not for the public blog for all other fans to read and REACT at!

24) "If fans have to fill the gaps and think themselves it's a bad writing"

Sigh… This is relevant to the earlier addressed complaint about fans 'coping', and somewhat relevant to the complaint about 'they should have given more information', AND reverse complaint to how they've answered some questions in SoTE, I suppose. For starters, this argument could not be further from truth at all! Do you really, genuinely, want to say that instead of provoking you to think, to express creativity and curiosity, to apply your knowledge or experience for understanding, writers should have just spoon-fed you every single thinkable bit of information as if you are a toddler? For sure, the discussion about how writers treat reading comprehension of their audience cannot come without addressing the demographics that supposedly would benefit from "over-explanation", so I'll jump RIGHT into it, skipping through the normies:

As an autistic person, I do have my own problems with sometimes skipping through a subtext or an "obvious" clue in the writing, this is true, and maybe people who want to state this are also autistic, I can't know for sure. But.. do we REALLY want to have our intellectual abilities insulted, as a group? Accommodating to autistic people should come locally, like in teaching the society to be more patient with 'stupid' questions and explaining the 'obvious' social cues! It SHOULD be about society being better! It should NOT be about quality of fiction in videogames and movies and TV shows dropping! It should NOT be about writers sacrificing the amazing language of subtlety, nonverbal storytelling and speaking through assumption that our own experiences as human beings will fill in the gaps! We can understand subtexts and unspoken lore, even if it might be harder. When we cannot, autists that did understand the subtext explain it to us! When THEY cannot, there will always be the guy on Youtuber or elsewhere musing about what they liked or disliked in the writing, revealing the information that we might have missed, and we will go 'huh'. We can help ourselves and each other!

Instead of being mad at the writers for not giving more spoken information and evidence, let's place the pieces of the whole puzzle that we did find together to discover a full picture and teach others AND themselves to be patient instead of screaming "reeee media illiterate!!!" at every sneeze! I have insulted another autist's intellectual abilities over not reading the clue I managed to. I had MY intellectual abilities insulted by another autist over not reading the clue THEY managed to! We should strive to be better and kinder as society, AND we should have pride in the ability to do so and ourselves, instead of implying that complicated, subtle writing is "too hard" for our "tiny toddler brains"!

Aside of the general sentiment that the writing that provokes you to use your brain/heart/both to fully comprehend it and gives fuel for debates and discussion, I want to address specifically Miyazaki and how he approaches writing, and why he does so. I want to link the video by Zullie regarding the topic, too:

To paraphrase it: Miyazaki, in his youth, loved reading English novels, but because he didn't have as great knowledge of English language at the time, some words or even sentences evaded him and he had to use his own imagination to understand what might have happened in the parts he could not read! The experience of having general layout and understanding of the story, but details being missed here and there and left up to you to think about, is precisely what he wanted to emulate! You might guess "the words lost in translation" correctly, or you might end up with a completely different meaning than the actual one, but what matters is the fun of this process! To include YOU, an individual, into completing the story! Bloodborne was the first Fromsoft's story I've gotten into, and even before knowing this information I had the feeling like, 'ah, they've written the full story, but then dragged an eraser across random parts'… and so, the hunch was correct!

Miyazaki doesn't just lazily drop ingredients in your direction expecting you to cook anything from them and then praise it as though it was HIS brilliant recipe, that some writers WILL do to sorta take the credit for your creativity! Nor he just cooks the full meal and gives it to you. He removes some ingredient from it so you CAN eat it and enjoy it, but you are always tempted to add something! Something feels missing, but it is up to you WHAT spice you add to complete it! Yet this meal is coherent enough for you to have a hunch on whether you should add something sour, sweet or salty, it is not quite JUST anything! But if you don't think hard about it and add what YOU like, regardless of whether you think it fits the meal or not, the meal won't necessarily taste bad… There IS recipe that exists. He DID write the story. He just lets you choose your own experience!

^^^ It goes in line with how he creates the games; he stated they are not adding the difficulty levels so players can overcome the challenge in some way that suits THEM as a player. Whether you want to cheat, or to grind levels until you become a God, or to cleverly use the tools and items you are given, or to study every move until you dodge them all or whatever! There is no "right" way to beat these games, though we could conclude from levels designs and tools what was 'intended' way to beat them! A 'suggestion'! You might end up going just the 'intended' way, or you might not! You might just happen to guess the missing story bits 'correctly', but also not, and this is okay!

We are endlessly teased with this feeling that if we think just a bit harder we will discover that hidden "right" way, and we all want to believe that we did! Fandom has two extremes between people who DO believe in One True reading of the story and stomp out every alternative suggestion AND people that claim there is no story and you can do whatever and canon doesn't matter and doesn't exist and all. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and it is so frustrating, it is so torturous at the times… but also, so clever and beautiful.

This approach is why discussion about the meaning of Dark Souls and Bloodborne is STILL alive a decade later and even "apparent" lore questions constantly get revisited, and Elden Ring will meet the same fate! Every boss will be beaten but there is always a different way. Every lore question will be answered, but there is always a different answer. Isn't it much better than if we just cOnSuMeD cOnTeNt in a short time and forgot it all, waiting the next one?

25) *frankly unfair toxicity towards creators, down to racism against Japanese*

(Jeez.. I am REALLY paying a hard price by not saving the screenshots of the terrible takes I am referencing, aren't I. -_-" Everyone will just decide that I've made up a guy because a take like this sounds too awful to be real, doesn't it…..) Look- Some lines should NOT be crossed. Say all you want about the writing quality, but how DARE you to bring in this sort of anime fetishes into this discussion? I am just without proper words, and I will not tolerate this slander of Miyazaki! Everyone, EVERYONE knows…. that his fetishes are feet and dying in absurd ways.

sdfjfdhfdsh OKAY OKAY SORRY I HAD TO, but in any case! Did you guys miss the part where Miquella's ever-young body was a curse, was acknowledged as a curse, was a counterpart to Malenia ever decaying as inability to change at all, and something he transcended when he became a God? At NO point his curse was brought up as something quirky and attractive, at NO point Radahn or anyone was addressed as someone finding guilty attraction to him! We had one (1) guy suggested to do that, Mohg, and they confirmed that his behavior was result of enchantment, but even if it was not: without the new information, it already looked like a BAD thing. Like a HORROR thing, even! Miquella wanted Radahn to be there for him as a consort/king, by STATUS, that we know as much! Nothing is there to outright state any of 'that' brand of attraction! It can range from 'yeah they kind of pulled the dynasty-preserving incest thing, very authentic to medieval royal dynasties vibe' to 'it was innocent and not romantic or sexual in any manner, consort is just a status of the second person after a titular God in this setting that doesn't have to be a partner'. You know what is missing from this range? This being a "fetish" that you could flail around in that 'well what else to expect from jApAnEsE developers, you know jApAn has a problem with such things right??????' (🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡)

________________________________

*long, relieved exhale*

So..... yeah, I am done I suppose fhhfds I know I forewarned it as sort of super angry and rude rant, but in a way, it turned out to be more of a love letter to SoTE than a hate letter to a certain kind of fandomry that I just was not able to avoid..

It is funny how it turned out, as at first I've had strong negative reaction of shock, and Radahn consort reveal even soured the first days of playing this DLC for me, heh. That disappointment hadn't vaned yet.. I do not vigorously oppose weird, problematic ships of course, I still stand by what I said about creative freedom. But I guess I kinda did not want Miquella to have any "ship" in canon...? It is hard to explain why, since I do not insist that he is mentally a child too. Maybe I've fallen for the person he WANTED to be, a 'God' that 'loves everyone equally / no one', so him singling out someone disagreed with that "possessive" streak more than I disagreed with how random Radahn felt?

Even so, aside of this, I've been slowly understanding writers' decisions more and more! And those I did not understand I've found to be valid and not broken at all as well! But despite warming up to SoTE more and more with every day and becoming a fan, I was not able to avoid the "window" to VERY toxic and awful takes, some from very toxic PEOPLE, that was my (ex) mutual abundantly reblogging them and.. I guess when I've finally snapped about how strongly I disapproved of that behaviour and how it was all passive aggression all along, my very only inhibitor was just- *snaps fingers*

Moral of the story: if something rubs you a very wrong way, do not keep it in and ADDRESS it. Because if you hope that the alert factor will go on its own, all you'll end with is telling each other very unpleasant things. Pent up aggression ALWAYS breaks through.

In this case, I just feel relieved after having finally written all these thoughts down SOMEwhere. They were eating me from inside, reducing my HP by randomly appearing in my brain even when I was busy and I just could not help but rotate them. Venting is good and healthy. I have some bad troubles with both mental and physical health these days, but at least now there is one LESS thing to siphon my energy away. 🛏️

[sapphic-agent]

I'm mainly upset about the whole Endeavor arc thing because:

1. Endeavor doesn't deserve the time of day, let alone an entire arc. This arc would've been better suited for someone like Mount Lady, who grows into her role as a pro hero and learns not to be vain and in it for the fame.

2. With all that Horikoshi put into his backstory, Endeavor could've been an example of a corrupt hero being brought to justice and his actions having actual consequences.

3. Endeavor, who seemed so determined to become a better person, never once properly addressed how he screwed up. Not once when he talks to All Might about being the new Symbol of Peace, not once after he saved Natsuo from that nomu, and not once even after Dabi exposed him to the public.

In fact, #3 is very upsetting when you think about it. Endeavor is going on and on about changing, but he never really aired out his dirty laundry first. Be honest. If All Might knew the extent of Endeavor's abuse towards his family, would he really have encouraged Endeavor like that? And what happened with Natsuo is really manipulative. Telling your son that you don't expect forgiveness while people are watching after saving his life? Ew! And those people don't know the context of that sorry, so Natsuo saying that he'll never forgive Endeavor may have made him look like a spoiled, entitled brat in the witnesses' eyes.

It really grinds my gears.

Right, so the problem with Endeavor's arc is that he never had to face the full consequences of his actions. Similarly to Bakugou, plot convenience spared him the entire brunt of what he did.

Someone tried to tell me that people losing faith in heroes because of Dabi's reveal was him facing consequences. And?? No. Not really because a) all the heroes faced backlash, not just him and b) the people's reactions towards what he did specifically were really tame.

And similarly to Bakugou, he has other characters making him look better. We see him and Fuyumi having a nice (almost sweet, even) relationship with no buildup or effort. The plot went out of its way to have Rei praise him for remembering her favorite flower despite the absolute hell he put her through. Even Izuku was conveniently placed to tell Shoto he's ready to forgive Endeavor.

And that's not even mentioning how sympathetic Touya's backstory makes him look. No small part due to the actual retcons in that backstory.

There's also the fact that what he did was never really talked about again until the Endeavor Agency Arc. It was brushed aside until it was barely relevant anymore. That makes it a lot easier for the audience to push aside the severity of it.

Endeavor fan boys, for whatever reason, can't seem to realize this. If Endeavor didn't have all these narrative advantages, his "redemption" wouldn't come off as good as it does. It's the same thing with Bakugou, if it wasn't for plot manipulation neither one of them would be as revered as they are

[liesmyth]

Anon with the friend who's reading tlt on the reverse order: Yes, he knows he's being a lab rat, he doesn't keep motes on the books because he's very much a casual reader (and thus perfect for the experiment) and so far we have only done Nona The Ninth and The Unwanted Guest, plus some chapters of HTN & Doctor Sex. There's the slight chance of osmosis corruption because I occasionally reblog modern au memes on my main blog, which I think is how he got Palamedes' whole deal.

There's not much he guessed, and even less he guessed correctly. He did call the fact Crown and Ianthe are related a pleasant plot twist, and he initially thought John was Varun.

The most interesting guess he had, which he arrived through flawed means, was Paul's existence, and the fact Pyrrha had some sort of connection to Gideon The Ninth — mostly because he guessed the average Lyctorhood to be Camilla and Palamedes', and with the reference of Gideon and G1deon as 1) permanently dead, in a setting where he's aware necromancy exists and he thought zombies to be actual resurrected people 2) connected to Pyrrha, and 3) the fact Pyrrha had "some weird vibes" (he refused to elaborate) led him to thinking Pyrrha was half Gideon, half someone else, and the reason Kiriona was vaguely off-putting to people was because she didn't have a full soul. Anyways he did think the same would happen to Palamedes and Camilla, which it did, and that Kiriona was pissed at Pyrrha because of an ambiguous degree of relationship

We have paused rn, as the labrat experiment is in return for me reading a webcomic per book

Oh yeah also im doing this because i either dreamt a post proposing it up or actually saw it, and honestly i wanted to see how much biases and previous narrative impacted the relationship of the reader with tlt characters, their relationships, and worldbuilding, as i absorbed tlt by osmosis as an agender aroace. so yeah giving a gay guy tlt without previous context in the reverse order to complete the trifecta (lesbian woman reading it in the correct order, aroace agender getting to know it by osmosis and figuring out the plot best I could before reading it, gay guy reading it in reverse)

ANON THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK! @mayasaura and everyone who wanted a follow-up to the first part.

"Thought John was Varun at first" is soooo big brained actually! I'm always thinking about John's more RB-like traits. I'm also very amused that he cast Pyrrha as the zombie puppeteer, I bet he's going to love tiny Harrow walking around her dead parent's bodies for a decade.

I also feel like the worldbuilding in NtN is veeery different from the general #vibe of the first two books — it feels like an "anime filler arc" kind of sidequest plot — and I'm very curious if going from NtN to HtN is going to make the settings vibe changes feel stronger or weaker than reading it normally would.

Anyway, I love that you decided to do this, and please let us know what he thinks about HtN! I hope you enjoy the webcomic :D

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I loathe CoD Hector

Something I really wanted to write a proper blog on, is Hector. I answered on another blog on this before, and wrote a shorter thing about this before. But I really wanted to write something on its own. Because I will once again iterate: While Hector in the animated series definitely gets to finish out his character arc, he works a lot better as a character than his game counterpart. And that even though the game came out at the time, where Castlevania tried to go more for storytelling.

Yet, there is this thing, and that mostly comes from it still being an old action-centric game... How the need of making the main characters of action games until sometime in the 2010s into the stoic kind kinda made them worse characters.

I said it before: The Castlevania games for the longest part never really were that interested in telling characterdriven stories and focused more on the gameplay. Which is very much fine. But even when they tried to include more story, for the most part they still keep the brutish, stoic protagonist. Even Alucard, despite looking like a beautiful princess, is very much the stoic male protagonist. This is just a thing with action media that was going on for way too long. Sure, even stoic characters could make for good fan interpretation in stuff like fanfics, it often is an issue that the media itself does not want to actually explore the characters emotions.

Or, to make it fairly clear: This has very much to do with this idea of toxic masculinity. A lot of old action media (not only games, but also movies and such) will not allow male action heroes to show emotional vulnerability, because that would be unmasculine in the eyes of the writers. Which then boils the characters down onto the supposedly "masculine" emotions, like anger and the urge for revenge.

And this is kinda where we get to Curse of Darkness.

We have this whole backstory through the manga, that goes into Hector's background and all that. While I will say that here I prefer the animated version, too, I will fully admit that this is just a subjective thing (I like that the animated version draws some clearer cultural aspects into it, while also giving Hector the agency of killing his abusers, rather than having it happen as an accident), because I definitely can see why people would prefer the manga version.

Where this ends, however, is already at the moment when Hector joins Dracula. Yes, I will fully admit that I am not a big fan of game!Dracula in general, though I will not go into the why here. He works as a game villain, I will admit that, though.

No, what I dislike about Hector's story with Dracula is more the: "And he becomes like the best forgemaster. Like he is so amazing and so strong, and did we tell you how amazing he is?" It goes too much into the power fantasy to me. While I get that the game canon heavily drew on this idea of the main conflict between Hector and Isaac being one of jealousy... I will just say, that a conflict of jealousy is actually so much more boring than a conflict of ideals. And the backstory by far had enough going on there to make it a conflict of ideals, as Hector did still - like in the animated version - not like the idea of killing thousands. Which could have been used for a lot of conflict, but... yeah.

I will still say, that for the most part, the backstory works. While I roll my eyes already at everything with Rosaly, because Rosaly is very much the incanation of the trope where this pure hearted girl saves the soul of the corrupted man (I don't know how this trope is called, but it is for sure a trope), it does work so far.

No, where Hector as a game character stops working is... at the game. Or rather in the moment that Rosaly does do the thing that she as the sole female character in this entire fucking story has to do: She dies so that her death can motivate Hector. And that is to me where game Hector as a character does stop working.

They could have given Hector any motivation to face off against Isaac. They had put up more than enough story fragments in the manga that they could have build from. They could have made it that Isaac wanted to go for revenge and before he could do it, Hector tried to go in there to protect the people he had now learned to love. They could have made it that Isaac tried to ressurect Dracula. They could have made it that Isaac tried to continue Dracula's work until Hector decided that he could not let his former friend do this, because Hector now knows better. There could have been several interesting and good motivations.

But no. Instead they went with: "Girl dead. Boy sad. Boy angry. Boy wants revenge." The fuck?! This is just so bad in terms of storytelling. It is just the refrigerated woman trope, in its most lazy iteration.

They could have given Hector an interesting motivation and conflict. But no, instead they went for revenge. Ugh.

But that was not enough for the writers of this game. Ooooooh no. If it was just that, I would still hate it, but I would be fine with it. Because let's face it, a lot of games use the "revenge for loved ones" trope. Sure, this game is not using it in the most creative way, and it could have done a lot better from the backstory that was set up in other media, but... It is fine. This is fine.

What is not fine however is Julia. I hate Julia. I hate everything about her as a concept.

And again, mind you. I absolutely would not have a problem with Julia if she was just "some girl" or just "Isaac's sister". Then Julia would be fine. It would even be fine if Hector caught feelings for her, even though I would once again roll my eyes at this.

No, what makes Julia so offensive is the fact that she looks and sounds like Rosaly. Meaning, that she explicitly, not just implicitly exists to be a replacement for Rosaly. And that just makes it all so, so badly written.

Worst of all: This gets never explained. Julia just is Rosaly's doppelganger. Just because... Well, because the writers of this game wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to motivate Hector by revenge for a dead girl, but also wanted to have him end with the girl. And it is just... misogynic writing. I am sorry.

It portrays women as "things" that can be easily replaced. And I hate this so, so much. It is the reason why, even though CoD might not be the worst game in the series, it is by far the one I loathe the most.

And they could have so easily done it differently. Either by not motivating Hector through Revenge in the first place, or by just making Julia a different person from Rosaly. Make her strikingly different and then have Hector fall for Julia. That would have been fine. Just this: "I broke one doll, but I will just get a replacement" thing that game has going is... horrible.

And yes, additionally I will say that another reason why I do prefer the animated version of Hector is, that he is not the stoic kind of character, but he is actually fairly vulnerable. He is a bit of an idiot who easily fall for people. He definitely does not get to have his power fantasy. But it is exactly this that I like. Because it is a story we usually do not get with male characters.

The story of Hector in the animated series is very much a story that would have usually been given to a female character. And I adore this fact. I adore how they switched the gender stereotypes around for this.

Yes, I am well aware that some fans of the games hated this, too. But I honestly have to say: Look, the game characters might have some minor differences, but all in all they all fall under the stereotype of the stoic action protagonist. Yeah, the series needed to switch this around a bit, because it would have gotten boring otherwise.

And frankly. I am sooooo sick of protagonists being all stoic all the time. Give us some variety. It won't kill these characters to smile from time to time... Or, you know, be vunerable.

[maespri]

assigning one word to every persona 5 character

hiii local girl (me) got bored and decided to make this character analysis post of sorts for fun!! so here's one word i think each persona 5 character embodies, as well as my explanation... <3

ryuji: acceptance

ryuji is the first character we formally meet and befriend in persona 5. to others, he's rowdy, unpredictable, and not very pleasant to be around. we're warned multiple times about him and about what he's done. we also get to witness for ourselves how easy it is for him to form a grudge and hold to it for dear life, whether it be toward a corrupt adult, other students, morgana, some of the other phantom thieves, etc.

one of my favorite things about ryuji's character arc and growth is actually how subtle it is, especially for a game that (bless it's heart, i love it, but-) has very little subtlety at times. it kind of just occurs in the background and you slowly watch him change.

he goes from openly despising, attacking, and badmouthing kamoshida to simply saying "it's all in the past" when asked about it in one of his future confidant events. he goes from desperately wanting to be viewed as a hero to accepting that some things have to happen in secrecy. he even becomes kinder to morgana and the other phantom thieves when previously, he wouldn't hesitate to verbally jump them. my point is, he comes to accept a lot of things and leave them all behind in the pursuit of just being happy with what he's got now.

the antithesis of this is also true, where ryuji doesn't accept any of the corruption that happens around him, another aspect that is a huge part of his character. he's usually one of the firsts to suggest infiltrating a palace or heading into mementos.

overall, ryuji's character arc really just involves a whole lot of moving on and letting the past be the past in order to facilitate his own change and his own path toward having peace. and i love it!!!

ann: connection

i felt as though a lot of ann's character was centered around the idea of connection. when we first meet her, she has only one friend, and she puts herself into a terrible situation with kamoshida just to make sure that friend doesn't lose her spot on the volleyball team. she's established as somebody who clearly values her connections very deeply.

but there's also a flipside to this, in that. y'know. ann only has one friend at the start of the game. in one of her confidant events, she also talks about how she had no friends for a while when she first came to japan due to her appearance, ethnicity, and nationality, and how she often faced adversity due to this.

when she does befriend joker and ryuji, it is a rocky beginning- but she comes to value her friends so much. when she meets yusuke, she gives him a chance. when she meets makoto, she's the first to reassure makoto that she doesn't hate her for stalking them, and that she actually wants to be friends. when she meets futaba, haru, you name it- she is always trying to be kind to them. to immediately become their friend and connect with them.

during akechi's battle in shido's palace, she's the one who suggests he join them in taking down shido. she's the one who wants him to be a part of them, even after everything.

she also has a passion for connecting with the world around her, most notably, i would say, through modeling.

it's clear ann values connection a lot. she goes to great lengths for the people she loves, she encourages befriending people, and she enjoys involving herself in the things that go on around her. i think it's really great to get to watch as her trust in everyone, and her relationships with them, grow stronger.

yusuke: passion

yusuke's arc is very much centered around passion, from the moment you meet him to the end of his confidant events. he's on an endless search for the perfect muse, to make the perfect painting, to become the perfect artist.

so much so that when he finds out that the person he looked up to the most lied to him, and when he finds out that the person who came before him (his mother), who had the exact same passion as him, was killed by the person he looked up to the most- his world crumbles.

he loses that passion some, or at least struggles to figure out how he's going to ever paint something worthy again now that he knows the one thing he loves to do was built off of something so heinous.

but you see over time how he finds that passion again, through his friends, through trial and error, through just going at it over and over again. to the final realization that maybe that passion has dissipated some, but it's still within him. he can never paint the way he used to, but that isn't the bad thing he thought it was- it's good.

his passion is also just a central part of his character. he can come across as melodramatic or "a bit much," as he even says himself at one point during a confidant event in mementos-

but the people he's surrounded himself with don't think so, and love him anyway. so... safe to say his passion and his love for the beauty in the world is what carries him throughout all of persona 5.

makoto: practical

definitions of "practical":

(of an idea, plan, or method) likely to succeed or be effective in real circumstances; feasible

suitable for a particular purpose

sensible and realistic in their approach to a situation or problem

makoto is my favorite character in persona 5 right next to yusuke, and i think the word "practical" describes her in many great ways.

the first reason being that both the word itself as well as its antithesis apply to makoto very well. she is rather deceptively practical in some ways, in the sense that she comes across as well put-together, intelligent, and sensible when you first meet her-

until you find out she's actually the same as any other reckless teenager out there, running to kaneshiro and getting herself and all the other phantom thieves into a blackmailing scandal.

she also does this because a big part of makoto's character during this arc is the idea of being useful to somebody- being, as the second definition says up there, "suitable for a particular purpose." she just wants to help somebody. she feels like a deadweight to sae, she's doing everything she can to be a top student in school and it still isn't enough, and she's getting nowhere in the one task her principal assigned to her.

being useful to someone is very important to her.

then she actually joins the phantom thieves and the meaning of this word flips a little bit, because makoto is practical, in the sense of being sensible and intelligent. she's the "brains" of the phantom thieves-

but she no longer has to be "worth something" or "useful." i think ann is the one who explains this concept to her, of how they just want makoto to be their friend. not to be some sort of tool.

so makoto instead turns her attention to just being helpful where she can rather than ruining her life over it. she asks for help when she needs it, such as when she's trying to help one of her friends with his weird boyfriend and asks joker to help her out. and she does try to help her friend with her weird boyfriend, another example of trying to contribute. and she's a part of the phantom thieves, an organization that literally devotes itself to ridding the world of corruption and evil figures.

for her, i think what is really important is how 'practical' goes from her constantly trying to be presentable, constantly bending over backwards to help other people, and constantly hating herself for being 'useful'... to allowing herself to be honest with her friends, and be silly and confused and ask for help, and do what she can to help other people without killing herself over it.

so, yeah. i think she has a really lovely arc in this sense as well.

futaba: freedom

this one i feel like is a given... futaba's arc, in many ways, is centered around the idea of freedom.

freedom from blaming herself for her mom, freedom from her bedroom, freedom from being afraid of being around or talking to people. leaving behind all the things in her past that brought her so much pain, and moving forward in her life.

i'm surprised i don't have much more to say, but honestly, i feel like it's kind of the obvious word for futaba. her entire arc is surrounded with the idea of escaping her self-blame and the tomb she trapped herself in. and she gets that through hanging out with the phantom thieves, and through doing her promise list with ren, and through just. freeing herself from all of her blame.

i also think the word embodies her carefree nature and openness to trying things, even when they scare her. she isn't bound by social norms or what she thinks she's supposed to act like. i also think these traits really help the people around her let loose as well. she also strays from the norm in the sense of her being her own little NPC in battle. you don't know what she's going to do for you. she's free as a bird!

anyway. i love her!

haru: action

haru was difficult for me to pick a word for because there were so many i could've gone with, but i settled on 'action' for a few reasons.

the first being that, for quite a while in her life, it would appear as though haru doesn't take action. doesn't try to change the things she dislikes, just meekly goes along with whatever life throws her way. she's trapped in her engagement and just does whatever her father wants her to do.

but there's definitely something bubbling up in her, a desire to lash back out and actually change her situation.

which is why when she does enter the metaverse for the first time, meets this talking cat, and is told to just go along with whatever morgana says... it's no wonder she instantly jumps on board. this is her finally doing something for herself, not for anyone else. this is her straying from the norm.

when everything with the phantom thieves and the metaverse is explained to haru, she's quick to grow, and transform, and work with them to take down her father.

finally, haru gets to actually do something about her situation, and she isn't hesitating at all. she's jumping headfirst to acting on what she's always wanted to do. taking action.

this is just a side note, but i also think haru empathizes with akechi on a more personal level. she knows what it's like to abhor what somebody in your family has done, and to want to end it- they're two sides of the same coin, they just went about their situations in completely different ways.

it floored me when i saw how forgiving she was toward him even after knowing he killed her father. but none of that kindness is coming from a place of forgiving him, or absolving his guilt, or from complacency- it's from understanding his desperation. he wants to be free just as badly as she wanted to. on some level, haru understands this.

anyway. i know i say this about all of them, but man... i truly love haru. <3

akechi: worth

akechi's character is arguably one of the most fun to study in this game. he's difficult to get a grasp on at first outside of what he shows the player, a facade of pleasantries and friendliness. but at his core, akechi's character and ideals revolve a lot around the concept of worth.

it starts with himself. obviously, he views himself as worthless, says as much, and has spent his entire life trying to shake off that self-imposed title. he's worked so hard to become somebody people want to be around, somebody they support, somebody they revere.

so much so that when he abandons ship (no pun intended) and shows the phantom thieves who he really is, he's disgusted by the fact that they aren't disgusted. he's someone who wholeheartedly believes that being worth something to someone is the only important thing, is the only way to be appreciated, is the only thing worth fighting for.

its why he despises the weak and wants to take down those who have made him feel worthless (namely shido). and he'll do those things, he'll kill tens of people with little regard, because it's worth it. it is worth it if it means he'll be able to kill the root of his worthlessness.

he talks all about how he wasn't wanted as a child, he's just some bastard child, everything he's done has been a lie in an attempt to make people love him. he says he thinks the phantom thieves are terrible, "licking each other's wounds," that they'e idiots for showing him mercy, and yet, he accepts it.

he accepts it, because for once, he's worth something to people who don't want anything from him in return. he's worth something to people who have witnessed the absolute worst parts of him. he's worth something to people who are worth nothing to world because of him. the person he killed outstretches his hand toward him and tells him he wants him to be a part of this. to be a part of his life.

unlike makoto, worth to akechi is internal. he doesn't just want to be useful, he wants to be liked. he wants to be appreciated. he wants someone to see him for who he is and love him anyway, but he buries those desires under a hundred layers of "i don't need this, i just need to get revenge, i just need to make my father pay."

his obsession with being perfect is also the reason he holds so much anger toward joker. joker didn't have to try at all to be liked, to make friends, to have an entire group of people at his side, willing to do anything he asked. i think the line drawn between akechi and joker is born from a simple fundamental misunderstanding of how relationships work. akechi thinks they're built on mutual gain, on being admired, on having power over them. joker knows they're built on simply loving someone despite all the things you don't like about them.

anyway, overall, worthiness obviously means a lot to akechi. man he's a tough nut to crack... but i hope i did him some justice...

that's it!

thank you for reading <3

[some-pers0n]

Hey, I really like your WOF rants so. Pick any character to talk about if you want. I will listen *sits on a couch with some popcorn*

I think the Jerboa chapters are the best things to come out of all of arc 3, perhaps even the whole series. I honestly wish it was its own separate winglet entirely tbh since I think it's a little jarring in TDG since it goes from pretty light-hearted, albeit tragic and somber bits of Snowfall trying to make it through becoming a queen whilst all this stuff is going on, and then it very quickly veers into This

I'm always a big sucker for animus magic being taken to its fullest potential. The user is essentially given god-like abilities with arguably zero drawbacks. The only thing that can corrupt is your own morality and mind. It's nice good horror to me. I liked the SeaWing massacre and everything that Darkstalker did, but it never felt far enough. The closest was Fierceteeth being warped and sculpted by Darkstalker to resemble Clearsight and him constantly rewriting her personality to try and act like the Clearsight he loves (which can never exist because of how far gone he's gone)

The Jerboa chapters deliver on that and more. It's subtle too. It isn't wholly in your face, instead being a revelation that Boa has been altered and changed an unfathomable amount of times by her own mother in order to be the perfect child. The way Jerboa sees Boa is unsettling with how little love there was. Boa was more of a source of cheap entertainment for Jerboa as opposed to an actual daughter. The way she has to check constantly to see if she even still likes Boa and uses it as a means to prove that she's definitely 100% still all there is so so so good. Not to also mention the fact that Boa is the second attempt at a child. We don't talk about Jerboa II (which makes it far more ominous)(oouhohohhh it's so good)

I just really think the chapter is a great display of Tui's ability to write characterization. In such a short amount of time, we have such a clear-cut idea as to what kind of a character Jerboa is. It's really fun and so neat and creepy. Really love it. Wish we got more of it...

[animeyanderelover]

And Sfw and nsfw hcs for the Noahs (d. Gray man) sharing an SO, thank you!

I actually have a character limit of 10 which is kind of tricky since the family has over 10 members but I appreciate that you answered my question in time so that I knew which Noahs you definitely wanted to be in here. Nea D. Campell will be included as per request and we're going to go with the idea that he has also reincarnated in this post though not in Allen's body. I didn't write a Nsfw part for Road simply because whilst she technically is the oldest Noah alongside with The Earl himself she is still in the body of a child since their kind ages significantly slower. I actually went the extra mile and included all current members though I didn't write Nsfw parts for all of them. The Hc's for the individual characters are going to be shorter in comparison to the Arcobaleno post but that is because i simply had almost twice as much characters in here.

Tw: Yandere themes, possessive behavior, obsession, delusional mindset, clinginess, paranoia, manipulation, stalking, emotional blackmailing, guilt-tripping, isolation, abduction, death, Nsfw, afab reader for the Nsfw part, oral sex, breeding kink, blood kink, Tyki uses his Teez during foreplay, dirty talking, bondage, strip poker, thigh riding, period kink, temperature play, panty sniffing, masturbation, doggy style, cowgirl, anal sex, praise kink, overstimulation, Lulu uses her shapeshift abilities, voyeurism, sadism, Sheril uses his strings, corruption kink, adultery, dacrophilia

Sharing an s/o

There are a few possibilities of how you may end up being the shared darling of The Noah family, though the end result will always remain the same. You could end up being the obsessive interest of anyone of the Noah family who is going to introduce you to the rest of the family sooner or later and from that point on everyone is going to develop an obsession for you. If it would be the Earl himself who fell first in love with you there is going to be a slight hesitance under the rest of the members as he is the reincarnation of Adam and for that holds the highest rank as the patriarch of the family. No matter whose interest you end up catching first though, ultimately you will always end up being the shared darling of the whole family. Their bond is strong, their loyalty unmatched so even if some minor conflicts may arise, even if some members end up butting heads over who gets to spend time with you, unfortunately for you at the end of the day they always come to an agreement that spells forever isolation and doom for you. Especially the Earl himself sees it through that harmony and peace always remains, aware that fights and arguments would needlessly scare you.

It is in itself a miracle already that the entire family has gotten obsessed with a human even though most of them think of themselves as superior to the overall humanity. This sentiment includes that some members find themselves internally struggling with their own feelings at the beginning, unsure how to feel about their own obsessive emotions. They're thr True Apostles of God yet here is their entire family, foolishly in love with one human. Some can't help but think of you as a devil in disguise, as a sinister creature who tries to drag all of them into the abyss and their hostility shows for quite some time though those who have already embraced their emotions always shield and protect you from condescending words and harsh glares. The Earl is never happy when he hears about the discrimination you experience and likes to remind those of the Noah family who have treated you so rudely that such behavior is not acceptable with a slightly threatening air to him. You experience a great amount of isolation but you are never left alone as there are always a few members of the family staying with you and keeping you company.

You're kept securely in the new Noah's Arc as The Earl as well as Maitora see it through that you have a pretty and large room to yourself within with many luxuries that you most likely could only dream about in your old life. The life you lead is on paper nothing short of glorious. Fine clothes, excellent meals and the protection of the most dangerous family on the planet. Yet the discrimination against common humans is a major obstacle as most Noah object against your pleas to be let outside, especially all by yourself. You could never escape even if you were to try of course yet most Noah are too possessive to let you leave all by yourself. Akuma wouldn't attack you of course as they obey the Noah family and have been ordered to never ever touch you unless they wish to be disposed off but it is the thought of having you spent time under regular and inferior people that agitates most members of the family. You are a human who stands above the ordinary crowd, whether every individual member still sees you as beneath themselves or actually view you as an equal varies from person to person but the idea that you are better than humanity is a common idea that all share.

The Earl of Millenium aka Adam

🎃The Millenium Lord initially scares you. No wonder as he looks the least human-like in the first appearance he assumes when meeting you. He introduces you to every single member, he happily reveals your new home to you as he tells you almost gleefully that you're part of the family now. Family matters above all, pumpkin♡. That's why you're going to stay with them forever now♡. His cheerful and jovial personality combined with his inhumane appearance only manages to creep you out more, something that greatly flusters the Earl as he desperately tries to ease the fear you experience whilst looking at him. Lero makes a great distraction which is why the Earl always brings the golem with him in any attempts to ease your anxiety. Lero knows fully why he is being used, often complains to the Earl that he is using him to get closer to you to which the Earl only gasp offended. Nevertheless though, Lero actually befriends you and admits to you that for a human you aren't half bad which is a big compliment coming from him. You actually like Lero so much to the point where the Earl sometimes gets jealous and subtly threats his golem with a jolly tone in his voice.

🎃​Things get better when he reveals his human form to you and insists on you calling him Adam, awkward whenever you refer to him as the Earl. It is in this human form that you find him to be much more quiet, softer and almost melancholy. He's kind, he's sweet and desperately obsessed. Perhaps it is the paranoia of having been betrayed by Nea decades ago that leads Adam to be as afraid as he is of you potentially betraying him as well, even if Nea has also reincarnated by now. If you desire to have anything it is Adam that you always turn to and anything materialistic you shall receive the moment you ask for it. However, already spoiled with everything money could buy it is freedom you desire and it is freedom that you won't get. Much too cherished and beloved are you by Adam who adores you who is very attached to you to the point where you think that he might be the most sensitive of all of the Noah clan despite being the patriarch. You don't believe in destiny yet Adam seems to do, your appearance in the life of a Noah family a divine message. The world is filled with evil, evil he himself creates, yet it is not your destiny to become sacrifice. Your place is right here.

Nsfw

🎃​Sexual tension, something you sense in many other Noah long before you sense it in Adam who is physically very cuddly but has never touched you inappropriately. Despite the lust of other members none of them have made a move on you yet and you know that all of them are waiting for the Earl to claim you first. Nea is the only one who has ever dared to let his hands roam over your body, touched you suggestively and seduced you only to leave you aching and wet by the end, ultimately deciding to allow the old man to have you first. The Earl is in comparison to many other family members not very sex-driven, asks for your permission and doesn't try to seduce you, tease you and coax you into bed with him. When you do give him your consens Adam prioritises your pleasure over his own. He takes his time with you, every moment special and intimate as he caresses every inch of your body, worshipping the sight in front of him, warm lips pressing kisses all over your skin. He's lost in your pleasure and not his own as he explores your body devotedly, his attention always on you as he slowly pleases you, wanting you to experience every sensation as he has you climaxing around his tongue or his fingers.

🎃​He gives you a very intimate experience, a very vulnerable experience. He longs for body contact, arms always wrapped around you whenever his shaft slides in and out of you in a slow and sensual pace, his hot breath fawning against your neck as he places soft kisses against your skin and murmurs his sincere declarations of love and adoration. Eye contact is important to him, he always wants to be able to look into your beautiful eyes so he only ever desires positions where he can gaze at your face. You're able to dominate and ride him as the Earl is almost putty in your hands, his gaze always full of adoration that has your heart bursting. It's through him that you learn that purring runs in the family. His own love for you sometimes overhwelms him, though only in a good way as he starts shedding tears, incredibly grateful that you exist. He is vanilla, especially in comparison to many other members yet if there is one fantasy that he has it is his wish to have a child with his darling if they can carry. Adam's family is his entire life and he wishes to rise a precious baby with you, a baby not born out of possessive claims but a deep-rooted adoration that often moves him to tears. It's his one true wish he has.

Road Kamelot

🕯️​Road detests normal humans and thinks of them beneath her yet surprisingly she quickly grows fond of you and if you had to name a few of the clingiest family members she would be up there. She is very fond of skinship. Whenever she sees you she always runs to you and gives you a hug, she holds your hand as she walks around with you or unexpectedly wraps her arms around your neck or torso from behind, surprising you in the process as you didn't sense her until she touched you. You know that she is technically the oldest Noah yet you can't help but be surprised by her almost childlike personality. She always wishes to be entertained and always wants your attention on her when she is around and gets quickly all pouty when you don't give it to her. Even though she is small and looks younger in comparison to all other Noah you still discover that she is very well respected besides the Earl. Back in the days when some Noah still held conflicted feelings about their feelings for you she was always a fierce defender of you who wouldn't stop persisting until said Noah had apologised to you. You know that she most likely isn't a good person but to you she's always very sweet.

🕯️​She loves dressing you up in cute clothes, adores especially the gothic, punk or lolita aesthetic which is why lots of your outfits fall into those specific designs. She's very huge on wearing matching outfits so it isn't uncommon for the two of you to walk around together in identical or in matching outfits. You probably even have been gifted matching bracelets by Road and whenever she sees you she always checks if you wear them and if you don't she gets a bit upset. Even if her appearance and her behavior remind you often of a young teen you sometimes forget that Road has lived for actual decades and is a lot wiser than she lets on. She considers it a useful strategy to not let you know how intuitive and smart she actually is for the sake of not intimidating you. She knows that you let your guard down around the Earl in his human form since he appears so non-threatening and she uses that same strategy to earn your trust and to see more of your real self that you wouldn't be able to show freely if you have your guard up around her. That's how she senses how exhausted you are sometimes when the antics of the family overhwhelm you and smother you.

🕯️​Whenever Road senses that you need a break but won't get one because you are so rarely left alone and aren't allowed to go outside either, and if only for a limited amount of time and never by yourself, she uses her little pocket dimension to steal you for a while. The two of you always hold small tea and cake parties in this dimension of hers where she allows you to get a break and you finally allow yourself the freedom to talk to her and tell her about everything that has been weighting on your mind and that has exhausted you. She listens intently and always comforts you afterwards. However, those informations you reveal to her she sometimes does reveal to the Earl secretly. Ultimately Road is still a Noah after all and for that she wants you to be happy with her and her entire family and if there is something that greatly torments your soul and keeps you from feeling happy she knows that she has to fix that. She is a little manipulator but she won't allow you to suspect anything. Yes, she knows that for a mere human this entire situation is very overwhelming and frightening but as the representative of dreams she holds onto the vision that one day you'll love her family.

Tyki Mikk aka Joyd

🦋​Tyki is one of the few Noah who has decided to keep his human mindset still alive alongside with his Noah side. It isn't always easy to keep those two sides of him who are essentially night and day separate from each other but that is what makes it so interesting after all. It's those two sides of his that make every encounter with him always interesting as you can never fully know if he's currently Tyki or Joyd. As Tyki you feel a bit more at ease as he is much less intimidating like this. His light side is much more carefree and might teach you some bad habits by showing you how to gamble and Tyki is actually one of the few Noah who try to concinve the Earl to let you actually leave the Ark and go outside. Though even with him you hit the wall when you beg to at least be left alone as even Tyki can't do that. The best he can offer you is to protect you from a distance so that you at least won't see them but that is merely an illusion of freedom and not the true freedom that you want. He feels bad, after all he knows how taxing this situation for you is that you never expected nor ever asked for. At the same time he knows that his inner Noah is no better with his feelings than everyone else.

🦋​Tyki's Noah, whilst still fully aware of how unhealthy and toxic the shared obsession for you is, is much more indifferent about it as his own feelings of always wanting you close and wanting you with his family are stronger than any guilt he might feel. He behaves much more like an aristocrat and gentleman in this form, always courting and fluttering you with compliments and touches and only increasing his flirting when he senses how flustered you are. You get lots of presents from almost all Noah and Tyki is no different from them. Fine jewelry, pretty clothes and fine meals are all served to you. At the same time he still knows that sometimes the simple things are best so if he finds out that there is a certain meal that you were always served during your childhood and that you greatly adored he will prepare it for you even if it is a simple soup. In that aspect he is different from his brother Sheril who only considers expensive clothes and fine food to be good for you. Perhaps that is the advantage he has by keeping his human mindset alive. Tyki sympathises that expensive doesn't always mean better and that the cheap and the simple things in life tend to make you happy.

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🦋​Keep in mind that Tyki is the Noah of Pleasure and that his darker desire tends to get the better of him whenever he has you to himself. If the Earl plans to make you feel loved and good, Tyki's goal is to have you writhing with pleasure and keep on wringing everything out of you until you pass out. His gambling habits he has when in his light side manifest themselves often in strip poker whenever both of you are alone and you can't help but feel like he's cheating as you are forced to remove piece after piece of clothing all whilst he remains perfectly fine. Unfortunately you can't prove whether he's cheating or not and he always only gives you a smug grin. Worst of all is that he deliberately chooses to tease you, sometimes losing on purpose before removing his shirt which leaves you only to stare at his chest whilst his eyes rack appreciatively up and down your curves, his cock straining against his pants. All until he suddenly drops the cards and pats his thigh, telling you to sit down, his hand grabbing your hips the moment you sit before huskily commanding you to start pleasing yourself by riding his thigh, his own hands starting to play around with your nipples as he watches you getting off.

🦋​As much of a gentleman as he is, in the sheets Tyki can be more sadistic. Whenever you have your period he often coaxes you into letting him eat you out, telling you that it'll distract you from your cramps and sometimes he bites down on your chest or shoulders hard enough to draw some blood, the taste of it eliciting a moan out of him as his hips start snapping with more force against your own. You know of his flesh-eating Teez, though they never harm you when Tyki shows them to you yet you don't expect him to use them on you during foreplay as those butterflies place themselves over your chest and even over your pussy as if they were wrapping paper and you are the present, gently nibbling your skin and making you squirm all whilst Tyki watches, drinking in the sight before he stalks towards the bed. He loves reducing you to a begging and moaning mess, uses ropes to tie up your hands to gain more control over you all whilst whispering with that smooth voice of his his dirty fantasies and plans into your ears. He isn't even shy to take you elsewhere than the bedroom. He purrs a lot, especially when you touch him.

Jasdero

💛​Jasdero and Devit are an inseparable dua, literally able to merge into one person so it comes as no surprise that both of them share you all the time even if they often end up bickering over you. Jasdero finds himself in a more tricky situation at the beginning though. He finds himself quickly adoring you but it is Devit who doesn't like you and as Jasdero is the more submissive one of the two he finds himself ending up tagging alog with Devit's antics. Only because he knows that Devit doesn't mean to truly harm you though, only because of that does he end up pulling all those mean pranks on you until his brother ends up taking it too far and even Jasdero stops, refusing to participate. As childish, possessive and needy as he is he still apologises to you for that particular event, especially if it leads you to feel instantly terrified the moment he chases playfully after you as you recall that event whilst seeing him and Devit running after you. Jasdero is quite clingy, gets jealous when Devit is holding you all by himself and more than once do you find yourself smushed between those two guys as they end up harmlessly arguing who you like more before asking you to choose.

💛​He often doodles on your skin, draws little hearts or writes "I love you" all over you. I like to think that Jasdero and Devit aren't as well educated as some of the other Noah so whenever Jasdero writes something cute on you it always comes with some misspelled words which you carefully end up telling him only for him to start pouting and complaining that he never learnt how to properly write. He does a lot for your attention so he ends up convincing you to teach him a bit only to never listen to what you try to tell him most of the time. That is until Devit enters your little lessons and that is when both twins get competitive and try to prove to you that they are the smarter twins. Every morning when he is there he bursts into your room unannounced with a brush in his hand and plops down on your bed, insisting for you to do his hair for him. At one point you stop requesting for him to knock on the door as you instead learn to not undress until you have done his hair. When Devit realises that Jasdero uses his hair as an excuse to get more affection from you he suddenly storms into your room and insists for you to do the same for him as well, even starts growing his own hair for it as well.

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💛​What those two share with clothes on they also share with clothes off. Your first threesome is with those two guys and it is constantly a fight as both of them are greedy, selfish and needy. Jasdero is the more submissive one and that shows itself. Not only because he does comply somewhat with Devit's demands and normally lets his brother go first but also because he is a little masochist who loves to be beneath you. He loves it when you touch his hair and you're one of the few people he allows to touch and caress it but when you are on top of him and bounce up and down his throbbing cock he is quite literally begging you to just grab a fistful of his hair and tug at it with enough force so that it hurts, his eyes rolling into the back of his head the moment you comply as an abrupt purr leaves his lips and he suddenly starts ejaculating. Devit sometimes teases him for being so sensitive to the point where he cums way too easily and Jasdero does take quick offense in it but quickly forgets about those quiet insecurities when he sees you for the first time covered in his semen. He loves splashing his cum on your stomach and chest, it almost reminds him of painting on you like he does normally with pencils.

💛​Both twins are quite handsy even under normal circumstances and aren't even ashamed to squeeze your ass or your chest and Devit is only bad influence for you in that regard. The blonde twin has preferences for your chest though, your breasts almost like stress balls he can't get enough of squeezing, touching and even fucking once he discovers what a titjob is and it doesn't matter how small his darling is in that department. Adding to his masochistic tendencies he has a thing for temperature play though he takes it sometimes a bit too far for your tendencies. He asks you to bring matches with you and to put them out on you and if you are someone who smokes you can bet that he'll ask you to put them out on him as well. The sensation of the burning pain only adds to his already sensitive and overwhelmed nerves and he loves it. At one point during sex his brain ends up becoming kind of mushy when he's too stimulated, his sentences reduced to mindless babbles, singular words and purrs as his mind fails him. You wonder if this is what you look like to people like Tyki or Sheril. after they are done with you Still, Jasdero doesn't stop until Devit stops.

Devit

🖤​Devit is in many aspects still quite immature. He fails to control his feelings for you properly, actively attempts to rebel against them as he acts cocky and rude around you, constantly tries to put you down. Don't you walk around thinking that you have control over him and the other Noah. He plays pranks on you all the time, tries to intimidate you and does everything he can do to put you down without harming you. Deep down he feels sorry about it, especially once he sees the hurt and the wet shimmer in your eyes but instead of apologising he always walks away. In private Jasdero pleads him to stop this and his heart agrees with his brother's words but his arrogance and pride get in the way. Until one day he takes it too far as on that day he is especially pissed due to a failed mission and vents it unjustified out on you when he catches you alone when all you did was ask him if he's alright. He ends up chasing after you with a gun, occasionally fires one of his special bullets though he always makes sure to miss you. It's when Jasdero physically stops him and he notices for the first time the pure fear in your eyes, tears streaming down your face that he snaps out of his rage.

🖤​You run to Road after, Road tells the Earl about what happened and the Earl visits both twins later that night. The next day both are already on their knees when you step out of the room, furiously apologising to you, their voices sounding mildly terrified. As rough and possessive as Devit tends to be even after he has accepted his feelings, that memory is a sensitive spot that always shuts him up when you bring it up and as much as he would like to lash out and tell you that you were overreacting that time, he can't get that look you gave him out of his mind. You looked at him as if expecting him to murder you, something he would never do. Not to you... Never you... In comparison to Jasdero he is much more shamless and does everything whilst knowing that normally his behavior wouldn't be appropriate and Jasdero often ends up copying him. He slaps your ass when he walks by or makes some inappropriate comments about you, all with a smirk on his face. Some Noah still tend to be disappointed with him due to his actions, Road specifically has sworn to torment him with pranks of her own for the rest of his life and as angry as he gets with her, deep down he feels like he deserves it.

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🖤​He is not going to admit it initially but you really make him horny, he is often half-hard when around you and he gets jealous once he realises that older Noah members have already had the pleasure of indulging in you. He struggles to voice those desires though and that is because the idea of being naked and vulnerable with you secretly scares him. To still rid himself of that pesky erection though he ends up stealing your used panties, stroking his hardened length all whilst his nose is buried inside the material before a choked growl escapes him as he feels his seed spilling all over his fist and the floor. Jasdero walks in on him one time, lets out a shocked gasp and before Devit can beg or threaten him to not let you know his brother is already running to you and all Devit can do is throw the underwear on the floor before hastily zipping up his pants all whilst chasing after his twin. You find them tangled up on the floor as Jasdero is calling your name whilst Devit tries to shut him up, even attempting shove his fist inside his brother's mouth yet he doesn't succeed and the shocked look you give him is enough for him to bury his face in his hands and muffle his embarrassed screams as he rolls around on the ground.

🖤​Jasdero takes claim over your chest and Devit in return seems to take your ass for himself during sex. Most of the positions are always positions where he has a good view of your rear and can squeeze and smack it however he likes. Doggy style is his favorite and whilst he normally prefers to dominate you and be above you all of the time the few occasions where he let you ride him it was in reverse cowgirl. The words leaving his mouth are pure filth and he doesn't even attempt to filter any of them as he calls you "little bitch", even if you should be taller than him but don't mention that since he probably feels slightly embarassed if you should be taller than him, "slut" or other slightly condescending names. Something both twins have in common though is that they are quite noisy but in very different ways. Whilst Jasdero is all moaning and purring like a broken mess Devit is constantly growling and cussing, especially if he climaxes and sees his seed dripping out of your ass. The twins can never stop competing even during sex so both of them constantly push your as well as each others limit until all three of you are so exhausted that you just fall asleep together in a tangled and sweaty mess.

Lulu Bell aka Lustol

🔳​Lulu Bell isn't a Noah you immediately get to know which is a bit strange considering that you are in the truest sense of the word swarmed by most of the other members. She's calm, she's quiet and she almost appears to prefer staying in the shadows. She remains someone you truly don't understand at all as she is quite aloof in your eyes. You haven't really interacted much with her nor have you had long conversations with her. It is this distance that you always thought existed between her and you that gives you the wrong idea about her true feelings for you. You thought that she was one of the Noah who didn't want to accept you but that could not have been more of a lie. Lule Bell has in fact accepted you since the very beginning, has acknowledged her feelings from the very start and has been infatuated with you from the moment you were brought here. She just has a very different way of showing it in comparison to people like Road or the twins who are very clingy. Lulu Bell is the one who stalks you, who always watches over you and who always memorises every little important detail she observes as she analyses you in your new life.

🔳​Road has been playing annoying but ultimately harmless tricks on Devit ever since one of his supposed pranks went too far, Lulu Bell has been punishing him much harder. She indulges in the activity commonly referred to as pranks as well, only that her attempts are far more dangerous. She one time set fire on Devit's clothes and whilst Devit accuses her of trying to murder him she just gives him a stoic and cold expression before stating that she would never do that and that he isn't made out of sugar. Once you manage to start a conversation with her you get a tad bit uncomfortable, mainly because you are caught off guard by everything she seems to know about you. In some form Lulu Bell almost reminds you of a guard dog. She's usually very composed, quiet and polite around even others from the Noah family, except the Earl, yet around you she is quite obedient as her entire interest seems to revolve around you, your interests and your safety. Another thing that surprises you is to find out that she is quite affectionate in her own ways. She likes laying her head on your lap, likes when you praise her, likes when she can do something for you to make you happy.

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🔳​She represents the Lust of the Noah and that is really all you need to know about her to get a vague idea of what might lay ahead in the future. You would like to believe that Lulu isn't that kind of person since she appears always so melancholy and calculated yet the truth is that you don't know what is going on in her head and perhaps it is better that way. It is the woman's desire to please you to her best abilities and for her to prove that to you she is not above coercing you into bed with her. By the time you are nude in front of her whilst she grips your thighs and spreads them apart you have already had your fair share of sex with other Noah, a knowledge that only fuels Lulu Bell's own lust to finally get a taste of you as well. She always ends up overstimulating you, forcing orgasm after orgasm out of you until you're lightheaded. A glass of water is always pushed past your lips to keep you hydrated as she ensures your health before she picks up right where she stopped. You are the only one who looks like the mess when all is finally over as she still manages to look like the elegant and cold beauty even with your juices covering her chin and her hands, golden eyes watching you as she licks her fingers.

🔳​Lulu can shapeshift. She can change her appearance, her height, her gender and even her species. You've always known that about her yet it is only when she starts getting sensual with you that you realise what possibilities she has. Possibilities she fully utelises. She elongates her tongue to reach further into you, turns her fingers into almost tentacle-like appendages which wriggle around and explore the deepest parts of you that no one else, not even the other Noah, have ever reached. She's even offered that she could change her gender if you should prefer the feeling of cumming around a dick, an offer you shot down as the thought made you feel embarrassed and awkward. As unfaced as Lulu often seems, her facade crumbles when you start praising her as she is a sucker for compliments from you. That's when she starts purring happily, the vibrations making your walls clench whenever her tongue is diving inside of you as she gets drunk on your sticky release. As someone often stalking you without you knowing of it, Lulu has turned into a voyeur, her fingers sneaking inside her own panties whenever she spots you masturbating as she starts playing with her own clit.

Sheril Kamelot

🪢​Sheril has welcomed you with open arms the moment you were introduced to the family and it didn't even need Road to convince him of your worth. His own obsession took care of that very nicely all alone already. Being spoiled is nothing unusual for you but even you admit that Sheril is very excessive about it. There is rarely a day where he doesn't gift to you new jewelry, dresses or other articles of clothing. Once he finds out that Road always holds tea parties with you in her own dimension he gets ridiculously upset about it, whines to her that he'd love to participate as well and that he could bring the most wonderful tea, delicious cakes and expensive set of cups and teapots with him if she were to let him join. He even buys cute and frilly dresses, insists for her and you to wear them when she has her fun with you whilst denying him of his wish to see his cherished daughter and his beloved looking all beautiful and cute together. His reactions are comedical and he's almost quite ridiculous though at one point you know better than to underestimate him or let your guard down. A wise decision. After all Sheril is very possessive even if there may not always be a need to show it.

🪢​The Kamelot residence is one of the few places where you are allowed to visit, with preparation beforehand after all. It is only then that you are mortified to find out that Sheril is in fact married to another woman. Tricia is a nice and kind woman, though of fragile health and from that point on you try to reject his affection. You know Sheril doesn't love her, you know he only uses and manipulates her yet your skin crawls whenever he tries to touch you from that point on. What were you hoping by denying him though, doll? He doesn't react well to your silly attempts to distance yourself out of a sense of respect for his wife. In fact it only reveals to you the seedy and greedy man that has been hiding underneath that sappy facade all along. You shouldn't concern yourself at all with what Tricia might feel if she were to find out that her husband is obsessed with another and doesn't care about her at all. He isn't even shy to suggest that he could stage something to have her succumb tragically due to some fatal disease, words you know he means. Only by accepting his smothering affection from that day on you know you can guarantee her survival.

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🪢​Sheril is the Noah of Desire and desiring he does you all the time. In innocent and in carnal ways. He's well aware of your inner guilt and shame of allowing yourself to be doted on and loved by him despite being married and he can already guess how you'd feel about committing adultery with him. A topic that would only ever heighten your shame and guilt only excites Sheril. You're quite an innocent thing after all so the idea of dragging you into his own desires and forcing you to writhe and cum around a man's cock who is wedded to another has his heart beating faster and his cock straining against his pants. He wants to see the tears of shame burning in your eyes, wants to watch as the discomfort on your face turns into pleasure until you're forced to cum around his dick. Sheril has a corruption kink going on and he doesn't even attempt to hide it at all. He adores cooing down at you whilst you're pushed over the edge and gush around his member thrusting in and out of you, chiding you for enjoying this all so much even though you yourself insisted on adultery being wrong. But if it really feels as good as it does, it can't be all that bad now, can it?

🪢​His corruption kink gets only more and more twisted as he forces to to wear Tricia's clothes and fucks you inside of them and at one point he even has you wearing her wedding ring, a mixture of purrs and growls rumbling from inside his chest as his hips move against your own whilst he's wearing his own wedding ring, fingers intertwined with your own. You don't know what he would have given to marry you and make you officially his beloved yet he knows that the other Noah would object to that and he has to oblige as you are a shared lover of the family. He marks you in other ways, leaves bite marks all over your skin as he shares the blood kink with his brother and he seems to share sometimes when lost in his own desires the same fantasy as the Earl to impregnate you, get you all round with his baby and to make you the mother of his children. Sheril is in comparison to his brother Tyki much more sadistic though, he hurts you and makes you uncomfortable to the point where you end up crying and shedding tears only to feel his hands wiping the hot tears away from your cheeks, a sickening purr vibrating in his chest as his hips pick up speed.

Maushyma

🕶️​You're actually quite comfortable around Maushyma. Whilst he is just as determined to keep you with the Noah family he isn't nearly as overbearing as most of the others. In fact when he is around he often intervenes when he notices that you're uncomfortable due to the antics of the family. He's protective of you in the same way an older brother would be and you appreciate that. Maushyma hasn't always been that way. There was a time where he held a slight grudge against you too, always gave off that slightly mocking aura when you were around as he couldn't understand how one single human had managed to worm their way into the heart of the Noah family. He's always been mature about it though and whilst not accepting you initially he always tolerated you at the very least. By now all those negative feelings have completely disappeared and have instead been replaced by something akin to pity. He pities you sometimes for the situation that you find yourself in, especially since he's aware that you had a normal life before all of this. It may not have been perfect and he might sometimes try to highlight the advantages of living now in the Ark but he sees the toll it tends to have on you.

🕶️​He advocates for you to get at least a bit more freedom whenever he has the chance or notices that your mood has hit rock bottom. If you should have had a pet before you were abducted he suggests bringing it over so that you have at least some semblance of normalcy in your life and if you shouldn't have one he would probably still suggest that they should get you one to help your mind to focus on something else than the isolation and the new life you're forced to lead. He loves drinking, has actually invited you over to enjoy a few bottles of wine with him only to be stopped by another Noah. Maushyma's tolerance when it comes to booze is nothing short of terrific after all and they don't want your liver to give up on you as Maushyma sometimes tends to forget that he can hold his liquor better than any human could ever. So instead he just drinks herbal tea with you as alcohol is out of option per say of all other Noah members. Whenever you're feeling depressed or down he prepares you hot tea and even lets you put on his sunglasses even though you know how important they are to him. Honestly, he's one of the Noah you feel most at ease with which does attract some jealousy.

Fiedla

👅​Fiedla is a very passive person who tends to follow the orders and the decisions of others instead of making his own. So whilst he might also harbor the common mindset that normal humans are inferior in comparison to his family he has never bothered to try to spite you. That carefree and passive behavior of his eases him pretty much into his obsession. It brings his fair share of disadvantages with it though. Often he is either too dense to realise that he is making you uncomfortable or he decides that he can't be bothered to care enough, forcing you to spend time with him all whilst you're feeling a high level of discomfort in his presence. The fact that he so nonchalantly showed you his Parasitic Tongue covered in eyeballs and told you very explicitly what it can do has only frightened you more and as if truly too uncaring or blind to see how uncomfortable and disgusted you are with those features of his he has even shown you the mouth on his belly. You feel queasy whenever you catch a glimpse of his tongue, his eyeballs always looking into your direction as if also sharing the same obsession with him and it always takes another Noah to reprimand him and tell him to stop.

👅​His passiveness has one advantage though which is that he also does most requests you give him without questioning it much or expecting a reward for it, even finding himself often taking your side when arguments happen. He isn't nearly as clingy as half of the other Noah and just like Lulu he is actually often watching you from behind the scenes. He could be laying on the couch whilst you're surrounded by Road, Jasdero, Devit and other members who are trying to get your attention yet his gaze would still be glued to you. If there is one habit of his that you really don't like it is the fact that he goes into your room when you aren't in it simply to walk around inside of it, open your drawers and cabinets to see what you have in your room. He's curious after all and he doesn't have anything better to do which is the most common answer he gives you when you try to tell him to stop. He doesn't even bother to justify himself and judging from the look on his face you know that he'll do it sooner or later again.

Wisely Kamelot

👁️​Wisely himself isn't even all that unpleasant for you. It is his Demon Eyes that make you uncomfortable as he is able to read your thoughts, your mind not safe around him. Sure, he insists that he respects your privacy and wouldn't want to poke around in your head but that is a lie and other Noah tell you so as well. You know it's a lie as he always responds to questions crossing your mind when you are around or comments on a thought that you had but didn't dare to voice. It's his ability to read thoughts of others that makes it impossible for Wisely to remain delusional as he can quite literally look inside your head to know what's going on and how you're feeling. He knows how you think and feel about other Noah so it actually isn't uncommon for the Earl or other Noah to ask him how you feel about them. Even Devit sometimes drags him away to ask him what you think about him though he threatens Wisely to never tell you about that. He shares such information the most with his sister Road as both of them muse how they can get you to warm up to all members as good as possible. Armed with the knowledge of what you think about him all the time, Wisely has the best requirements.

👁️​Even though he isn't the oldest Noah he is actually able to remember the lives of all of his previous reincarnations which give him a surprising amount of wisedom you don't expect. Wisely is sometimes almost childish after all, wanting to be the center of your attention and fighting over it with the rest of his family and sometimes even daring to ask if he can share a bed with you when he struggles to fall asleep. Still, he will make use of his abilities and the information he gathers through it. He is willing to compromise with you if it helps him to get closer to you but he simply can't stop reading your mind. It's his ability after all and deep down he actually enjoys that he has such an intimate bond with you where he can so casually always know what you're thinking. Like Maushyma his powers enable him to step in whenever he hears your thoughts and realises that you're not feeling well at the moment. You've learned after some time of being forced to live with the Noah that just sucking it up and suffering silently is the best choice you have. In such moments Wisely appears, hoping that you'll think of him in that moment as your hero.

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👁️​The ability to look into the mind of other people can be a blessing as much as it can be a curse and that holds especially true if so many of the Noah hold such desire and lust for you. Tyki is bad, Sheril is worse, Lulu Bell is shocking and there are so many more Noah who give Wisely a headache. This is actually how he always knows who has already fucked you and who has fucked you most recently. It's partially embarrassing but he'd lie if he were to say that he doesn't try to peak deeper into the memory of other Noah to find out more about it. He often ends up with a headache and a restricting tightness in his pants as even reading the memories of other Noah having sex with you seems to affect him. It's especially bad if someone is currently devouring your pussy whilst he's also in the Ark as he picks up on the thoughts of you and whoever your current partner is, the thoughts just flodding into his mind whilst he's either not able to stop them or doesn't want to stop them. He can't help himself when he fishes his own stiff cock out of his pants and starts masturbating whilst listening in on the thoughts of you and the other Noah, able to visualise what you must look like in that moment.

👁️​As weird as it might sound by the point you have your first time with Wisely he already knows pretty well where to touch you thanks to all the thoughts of other Noah. He does often all the foreplay by using his tongue and his fingers, his five eyes watching you very closely. He gets more lazy though when it's his time to be pleasured which is why he often allows you to take the lead by riding him, letting you do all the work whilst he just leans back and enjoys the pleasure he receives. He might even get a little bit bratty and demanding whilst beneath you now that he has your entire attention only on himself. His hands are grasping your flesh tightly, his hips chasing after yours as he whines, growls and begs for more compliments from you. He's beautiful after all, there should be more than enough that you can praise and compliment him for. He especially adores it when he knows that your words of praise are sincere, your thoughts speaking nothing but the truth which leads him to let out happy purrs as he basks in your undivided attention and adoration.

Toraido

👨‍⚖️​Toraido initially puts away his own feelings of confusion and distrust he harbors for you, unclear with himself whether he should view you as a threat or if he should plunge himself into the same obsession so many other Noah have fallen in already. Instead as soon as the Earl declares you to now stay with their family he instantly only focuses on the task he has been given each reincarnation. Toraido is the Judge, he is responsible to see it through that no family members betrays the Noah and now that you have been made part of that family his judgement is cast upon you from that day on too. Whenever he is around you can feel his golden eyes following you, the same serious expression always decorating his face as if he's judging your every breath. He's by far one of the strictest people within the family, always voting to restrict your freedom as much as possible which has led you to not like Toraido at all yet your feelings do not deter his determination in the least. Toraido has already once failed in his purpose when Nea not only betrayed but nearly killed the entire family and for that it is no wonder that he antagonises the recent reincarnation of him as much as he does.

👨‍⚖️​He doesn't even allow you anywhere near Nea whenever he is around and Toraido is by far not the only Noah who doesn't want you to be around the 14th too much. In Toraido's eyes the traitor would only be a terrible influence for you and he can't have that. Toraido is about as taciturn as Lulu Bell is, maybe even more as you discover that he really seems to dislike talking. The few times you tried to spark conversations with him he merely gave you a single glance, letting you bathe in the embarrassing silence. It is not within his desires to talk to you as it would seem, being able to observe you and ensure that you never betray the Noah family seems to be enough for him. However, sometimes he drags you to his own room where he guides you to sit down before he starts meditating, silently demanding from you to follow his example. Such an unexpected action from him happens almost exclusively when Toraido notices how tense and stressed you are and his forceful invitation to meditate with him is apparently his way of attempting to help you to relax. You must say, it is nice to be surrounded by nothing but silence for a while.

Nsfw

👨‍⚖️​Toraido has never considered himself to be impatient nor selfish when it comes to you. He understands that you are after all a shared darling for the entire Noah family and he has always put his own duty as the Judge above the silly commotion of sleeping with you. He doesn't mind that at one point he is one of the few who hasn't gotten his taste of you yet. It is only when he realises that apparently Nea, despite always edging you on and teasing, hasn't gotten you for himself either that he finally starts getting competitive. He doesn't want to be last, not when it is Nea who is also still left. He doesn't want to lose against the traitor once more. So the next time you find yourself knocking on the door to his room as he left a note for you informing you that he wants to see you, the meditation session you expected to happen to him never happens. Instead he sits quietly in the middle of the room, not even looking at you when you open the door which leaves you to tentatively step closer to him only to be suddenly grabbed by the hips and pulled down as his lips crash against your own, a quiet growl leaving his lips as he rubs his bulge against your cloathed pussy.

👨‍⚖️​You've never encountered someone so utterly quiet whenever he takes you. No teasing words, no dirty talk, no pleas, no whines, no moans. Only the subtle growl occasionally escaping his chest, so quiet and short that you sometimes wonder if you were merely imagining it or not. Sex with Toraido isn't always fulfilling for you though, mainly because he only pleasures you when he deems that you have behaved yourself well in your new life with the Noah family. If he deems that you haven't behaved properly and were very impolite and disrespectful you're only getting the feeling of his cock hammering against the back of your throat, only left with your hardest attempts not to gag as you're forced to suck him off until he comes and splashes his sticky and translucent semen all over your face and chin. Only when he judges your attitude and your actions around the Noah as obedient and good will he be the one to pleasure you, forcing you into all sorts of positions that vaguely remind you of yoga figures whilst taking you from different directions. Your joints and muscles always hurt as he bends you into shapes that always test your flexibility to its limit.

Maitora

⚙️​Maitora always works from behind the scenes and even though you often don't notice them they are always somewhere in the background. In fact it is Maitora who has actually built the Ark and who has had a large hand in creating the room you're currently living in as well. All technology that you find yourself surrounded with, they have created and they take pride in knowing how amazed you are by their inventions. Whenever you accidentally break something or another Noah breaks something, a likely scenario if the twins are around anywhere, Maitora has it all fixed within 24 hours. It's no secret that you often feel down or bored, stuck in a room and spoiled with money until you almost become jaded with all the presents you receive, and it is then that Maitora has the idea to build you harmless machines with which you can play and entertain yourself with. Mechanical figures that can walk and dance around and other silly inventions that they come up with. Sometimes you're even allowed to watch them working on another project and can even participate if they're building something that isn't involved with the Ark.

⚙️​You're more likely to meet Maitora when little to no light is around since they don't like the brightness and prefer the darkness. Since they are so inconspicious they sometimes spend minutes watching you from a few feet away without you even noticing it until you finally look up and nearly suffer from a heart attack then and there. At least they listen when you ask them to inform you of their presence next time unless they want to be responsible for you dying due to your heart stopping. From that day on they tap your shoulder if you haven't noticed them two minutes after they have arrived. They like taking care of mice, even have a few of them as pets. If you shouldn't like mice they are going to be a bit sad since they're fond of the little animals but will accept your fear and hide them whenever you visit their room. If you should be someone who actually likes mice though they're going to be excited about the possible aspect of bonding more by taking care of the mice together with you. If you do a good job they might even gift you a few of your own which you can keep in your room and raise yourself. They might even cure some of your loneliness.

Nea D. Campell

​🎹​Shunned, distrusted, kept away from you as often as possible. Nea has successfully turned his own family against him when he betrayed them and killed multiple of them, leaving only Adam and Road left by the end of it all. It is only the Earl that still holds true affection for him, who still welcomes him despite everything that he as done and Nea takes advantage of the attachment the Lor Millenium still holds for him to gain more privacy and time with you. He has no shame using others to achieve his own goal, ruthless and manipulative as he goes about his day. He does not wish to be part of the Noah family yet is forced to do so by the Earl, hating yet temporarily resigned to the knowledge that a Noah can't hide from other Noah. For now he is left with no choice but to accept the fact that you will never be truly his, not with all the other Noah around. If there should ever be a chance for him to make you solely his though Nea is going to seize it as he embodies possessive love in its truest sense. He wants you to belong to him and only him. For now he has to remain patient though as he manoeuvres his way through each day, surrounded by Noa who don't want him anywhere near you.

​🎹​He's exceptionally skilled in acting and deceiving you, always sweet and gentle when he talks to you, luring you to his side by playing piano for you, his voice soft and his eyes warm when you converse with him. It almost manages to fool your heart even if it wouldn't be for the fear you hold against the Noah overall and the warnings you receive from everyone else. His feelings for you aren't pure, an unhealthy obsession mingling with his hatred for humans. You're no equal and he sees Adam's wish to treat you as an equal and as a lover as a naive daydream. Sure, you are infinitely better than any other human yet to Nea you are no equal. You are a little, exotic pet that he wants to own and possess yet he can't have it his way. So his only choice is to try to feed you with his lies and poison to get you as attached and as addicted to him as possible. The mere notion of sharing you with all the other Noah is ridiculous, nothing short of distasteful yet for now he has to practice his patience and wait for the right moment. He's going to betray them again as soon as he gets the chance and he will take you with him for he desires to have you only for his own eyes and his own pleasure.

Nsfw

​🎹​Nea doesn't want to have to approach you, doesn't want to bow down to his own desires and seek you out. Such a thing would be unsightly and beneath him. No, he wants you to be the one to seek him out, to beg for him and tell him that you need him and he doesn't even mind playing the long mindgame with you to achieve it. The moment you're left alone he lures you away, that kind look being replaced by a devious gleam in his eyes as soon as it's only him and you. It starts out with teasing touches, with sweetly condescending words yet every time you have another encounter with him the situation escalates more and more until your panties hang loosely around your ankles whilst three of his fingers are plunged deep within you, his thumb playing around with your sensitive clit and his lips muffling your whines and whimpers. God, you can almost feel yourself cumming as his fingers pump in and out of you fastly, can already feel your walls clenching around his digits until he suddenly pulls out of you, leaving your walls clamping painfully around the sudden nothingness as you let out a frustrated sob as he denies you once again an orgasm.

​🎹​He despises that he isn't the first one who claimed you even though it was his own pride holding him back. He loathes that so many Noah already got their hands on you. You're spoiled good, nothing more than a worthless human who has sold their own body to anyone available. The switch in personalities is jarring every single time as Nea's words are not meant to degrade you whilst turning you on but are meant to target your insecurities and to break you down whilst you're already so vulnerable and exposed, pressed benath him. You end up crying each time when you find yourself once again fooled by his sweet facade, his words hurting you and his denial of letting you cum multiple times leaving you on edge. He won't give you your desired pleasure, not until he has broken you enough for you to sob and chant to him that you're only his precious pet and that the other Noah should mean absolutely nothing to you. Only then are you allowed to gush around his cock, the cracks already in your heart. Who knows, he might just break the old man's heart by destroying him his dream and have you swell with his own child before anyone else and stake his claim over you in something as the first one.

[skymagpie]

Small rant regarding all these big WoW youtubers coming up with theories and why I think if Blizzard does go for a twist like that it will be cheap and absolutely stupid. Putting it below the cut for spoilers!

I am seeing a lot of the big name WoW youtubers say that Khadgar is either Xal'atath, puppeteered by Xal'atath or corrupted by Xal'atath and he will be her way to get back at Alleria because "The Lord of Ravens will turn the key" or whatever. And while that is a plot that could happen - it is not what is currently written, and if it does happen it will be a retcon. But I feel like this theory is missing few points:

Xal'atath did not trap Khadgar in the Dark Heart. She left him to die. A lot of us wondered back then if that was the case because of her "Goodbye, Guardian." line and it seems that from what we know now, she expected him to get killed and consumed like the rest of Dalaran.

Khadgar willingly reaching into the orb that the Dark Heart produced because he decided that turning himself into arcane energy will store him in the heart. This is something he figured out during the fight with the prior knowledge he had. This is something that Medivh always taught him to do! It's a callback to their relationship! This is such an important Khadgar moment!!!

Khadgar put his trust into Alleria and that she will stop Xal'atath. He also saved her because he loves Alleria and she is one of his closest friends. Then he gambled his life on a theory that hasn't been tested and in the end he was rewarded for his selflessness and trust in his friend by having her save him. Their arc came full circle. Why would you wanna intervene in something that needs no intervention?

Khadgar suddenly being Xal'atath in disguise will water down both Alleria's and Anduin's arc. Anduin brought him back with the Light, finding his strength as a healer and regaining his connection. Imagine if they were like "Haha nope sike, have another Light crisis arc!" like how many arcs should Anduin have? Alleria can still have her struggle with the Void in regards to her sisters, Turalyon and Arator. It doesn't have to be Khadgar anymore. In fact it makes sense for her family to be a way to "break" her more than her best friend. Khadgar surviving only to have something happen with the others will actually be a better twist for Alleria's character.

The cinematic is sincere, much like the other cinematics. It does not try to outsmart the audience. They are made so nicely and the hints from the "Destruction of Dalaran" one come into play later on. There is also a callback in the 'stay a while and listen' between Alleria and Khadgar to the very first cinematic between them (Dark Heart). These were made with care. Those soft looks between Khadgar and Anduin, the hug with Alleria, they have to be genuine. If they aren't you are treating your audience like idiots, you lie to them for the sake of lying to them. It would be season 8 of Game of Thrones level of stupid if they pull a 180 twist on these cinematics. The cinematics were so detailed, we guessed that Khadgar cannot move his legs from the very first one after his fight with Xal'atath, like that's the kind of detail they made sure we can pick up, but didn't make it obvious. This was good film language that matches the tone through the entire expansion.

Going for Khadgar again after everything he already went through and after he closed his arc and after he lost Atiesh and got permanently injured feels like you are just bullying this character for no reason. He didn't walk out of that unscathed, he got rewarded for his trust and selflessness by having Alleria save him. It's okay. He can retire here for now. Coming with more terrible things for a guy who finished his arc and is currently in a wheelchair feels meanspirited and honestly kind of an asshole move. I can't put it past Blizzard but it would just suck.

There are other characters in this franchise, we have yet to get more Horde screen time, why focus on Khadgar when his story got a nice ending? Just let him and us his fans have this small win and carry on with the story.

[peachdoxie]

Reporting in from reading Reddit's speculation on chapters 5 and 6:

The writer of the in-world Knights of Wind and Truth is possibly Jasnah or Sigzil, although Szeth, Shallan, and Ishar have also been suggested. Additional speculation is that the reason for Jasnah's "lunacy" as a child was that the Wind was speaking to her, since earlier epigraphs mention how the author always knew the Wind. One person suggested it's Syl "after she gets stuffed in a meat body."

On that note: Syl is going to successfully undergo Ishar's experiment and become an actual human.

The writer of the epigraphs mentions they have only two sources about what happened during the cleansing of Shinovar. If the book is indeed written after the events of Wind and Truth, then why are there only two witnesses? At a minimum, there should be five going to Shinovar: Kaladin, Syl, Szeth, Szeth's highspren, and Nightblood. So what happened to the others?

Kaladin's Fifth Ideal will have to do with him taking up the leadership role of king of Urithiru, since he has previously rejected leadership due to his hatred of lighteyes (ie, giving up Shards he's won). Several made the observation that Jezrien's two aspects are "Protecting" and "Leadership," so it's thematically appropriate to the Windrunners.

No one knows what's up with Dami or why he was only brought up now. Some think he is being set up as a major character for the second arc.

Something will happen to combine the Shards of Odium and Honor and create War a la Harmony in Mistborn.

Trapping Ba-Ado-Mishram somehow damaged Roshar's Identity, which is why everything got super fucked up after the False Desolation.

This whole thing from /u/redshadow310: "There were 10 ancient spren on Roshar of which The Wind was one. 9 of them were corrupted becoming the Unmade. The Wind was unable to be corrupted because it was too close to Honor, but it could be harmed, so it hid. The 9 unmade are each tied to one surge, and it's through their corruption that Odium can fuel Fused surgebinding. The one dead dead herald is the one paired with Wind, but the other 9 are out there. We know all the unmade have gathered in Shinovar. What if the Heralds gather there too? Perhaps Kaladin is able to restore Ishtar long enough that he and the other Heralds realize what they should have done long ago. Regretful of what they have done to Bo-Ado-Misham they instead sacrifice themselves to cleanse the unmade from Odium's influence. Even if Odium wins, his armies will be without surgebinders."