#i spent a lot of time thinking about all the lore LMAO

[tragedry]

i based this AU a bit from lilo and stitch, in the sense that older brother tyler is struggling to keep him and his baby sister afloat!

i had a lot of fun thinking about what details i wanted to include in this au, specifically their character designs and personalities. and let me tell you, my brain did not let let me draw anything else aside from this au for the whole week LMAO

(kudos to anyone who noticed the cute pink bracelet Tay made for her cool big bro 💙)

[gen4grl]

from artistic mental breakdown to 5 wips simultaneously lmao

[astranauticus]

Do mechanites cry?

[meo-eiru]

Oh. Me. Gosh. The post about the misspellings of Elias's name made my brain give birth.

Elias being a triplet. His other siblings are Elian, the smart one, and Elisa, the talented one. And growing up, he felt like he could never be on their level or ever impress their (really uncreative when it comes to naming) parents. Elian has the turquoise hair, Elisa has orange hair, and Elias has lavender pink hair

Elisa is a dancer/choreographer💃. She is very artistic and can sing, dance, paint, all that shit. Despite being the favorite, she spent a lot of time trying to get away from their parents' judgemental gaze, either at dance practice, extracurriculars, or hidden in her room doodling. She's neutral about Elias and thinks Elian is too intense.

Elian is a business owner and a workaholic (see the eyebags?). He was an honors student, won spelling bees as a kid, and probably got a scholarship to yale or some pompous ass school like that 🙄. If Elisa was busy, he was the one their parents showed off to friends and coworkers. He doesn't mind Elisa but thinks Elias is pathetic and enjoys feeling above him.

And finally, Elias. The second he turned 18, he did his best to get the hell away from them all. His parents either ignored him or told him to be more like his siblings, to find a passion and stick to it. He felt despised b his family and became self-destructive since he just wasn't good enough.

(Tried to make Elias sorta rugged with bushy brows and a beard so that he's the exact opposite to his pretty brother)

Context

Further context

THIS IS SENDING ME LMAO THE LORE THICKENS

I love the idea of Elias being born in a normal ass house with normal ass parents and a normal ass community so just imagine you have these older siblings who are just extremely extremely talented at what they are doing who set the bar waaaay too high. Like imagine both Elisa and Elian won scholarship with their respective abilities which in turn makes their parents expect the same level of talent from Elias

Like somehow these two normal people managed to birth two geniuses who managed to accomplish crazy stuff with their limited resources, so the parents would expect Elias to do the same on his own but Elias is mediocre at best at whatever he tries so they get disappointed in him…

I doubt I’d make this canon because for Elias to turn into who he is today I need him to be someone who was kinda spoiled for his looks growing up which kinda crippled his ability to develop skills and caused him to put way too much importance into his looks (since that’s the only thing people cared about him) but like this is such a funny idea I want it to be an AU

[vigilskeep]

hiya!! I never learned much about oghren besides what I needed to because, from what I remember, he pissed me off so bad with misogynistic comments that in both my playthroughs I kicked him out of the party as soon as the game would let me😂what would you say is the appeal of his character? it seems there’s more to him if I could’ve got past that, based on the posts of yours I’ve seen

i’m not going to make an argument for pushing through if you can’t deal with how he talks because like, it sucks and as i say, they did not do anything with it or make him get better on that. that being said, i think there is something interesting to his character and what can be done with it.

maybe i’m just desperate for dwarven lore lmao. there are three, total, dwarven companions in the series, counting one from a dlc, and i will take whatever lore i can get from my beloved orzammar

oghren operates in a really fascinating space in orzammar’s caste system. he’s born warrior caste, and once, he was everything orzammar values and a great prospect for a brilliant girl from the smith caste. then when she’s less than twenty and he’s presumably around the same, she becomes a paragon, a living legend, the voice of the ancestors. they soar up to being a noble house in a role neither of them are prepared for. oghren goes from being a very desirable match socially to an uncultured hanger-on who doesn’t even have branka’s attention as she becomes obsessed with her work (and quietly seeks a lover elsewhere in her new house). when branka goes into the deep roads two years before the events of the game, she takes the whole house—except him. and she doesn’t come back. oghren’s the single leftover of a house with no head. he’s also a berserker with ptsd, and when he loses control of himself in the proving arena and kills a young man, he’s no longer allowed to fight within the city bounds. if he left it, he’d be casteless; but inside it, he’s not far from that, unable to be the warrior that orzammar’s culture has always told him it is his only role and purpose to be.

there’s a lot of orzammar caste and gender politics in all of that. the guard who tells you about oghren says that he might have been something to be afraid of before the assembly “practically gelded him” by banning him from fighting. losing your ability to perform your caste role is emasculating and oghren’s over-exaggerated masculinity in his crude jokes is a response to that perceived shame. even before the ban, orzammar has the biggest gender inequality of anywhere we’ve spent time in thedas, and there’s a lot of implied social loss in becoming the lesser partner to his wife. both because she’s a woman and was once a lesser caste than him. in his fade nightmare, he’s drunk in tapsters, as strangers berate him for being a shame to branka’s house, dragging it down. he’s openly mocked in the same way in orzammar for all of this. for him in this dream, and in his life prior to meeting the warden, it’s easier to drink than to listen

there’s a lot to get into about how orzammar treats its warriors. they’re sent against the horrors of the deep roads, taught to harness this berserker rage, to be the only thing that stands between their home and the darkspawn, and... then what? is there a system in place for taking care of those veterans? i doubt they hold the same value once they lose the ability to perform their caste role. oghren talks a little about this, but he’s not even able to conceptualise that he should have been helped, it’s more like, how could they teach me how to fight out there like that and expect me to be able to hold back in that proving fight? a warrior’s going to do what a warrior’s going to do! but i don’t think it’s a surprise that someone like oghren turns to alcohol and i sincerely doubt he’s alone in that. compare it to someone like warden brosca’s mother turning to alcohol to deaden herself to life in dust town, and you can see that the dwarven love of drink so often played for laughs is the weight of the caste system in action

[connorsnothereeither]

OH I realised today that I never actually explained the “Ulysses was originally a rabbit” joke… so here’s that explanation/behind the scenes on his character creation lol-

When I was first invited to join Fable as a cast member and create my own character for the world, I spent some time spitballing ideas. All the new cast were given a lot of wiggle room to build our little guys, and so I came up with 3 concept character pitches, which each could have explored different areas of the server’s lore that we hadn’t gotten a huge glimpse into in the first 2 seasons:

Character #1 was the aforementioned rabbit, named Tamlin! Although maybe rabbit isn’t quite accurate, he was a Jackalope hybrid. He was the most developed of the pitches I came up with, and I think I described him as “Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit meets Celtic Mythology/the Fae”. He would have been more Nature-Fam (specifically c!Jamie) adjacent, being a rabbit hybrid created by Deltavera, as a sort of assistant/companion. Narratively he functioned almost as a foil to c!Ven, being an assistant to Delta rather than Fable. He would have been driven mad by Fable to some extent after Delta’s death (we hadn’t decided on how exactly, at that point in time) and leaned hard into the Wonderland tea/madness/whimsical aspect. His purpose story-wise would have been to help c!Jamie learn about Deltavera over time, both of them unlocking pieces of the past together in scattered fragments, ending with Tamlin getting all of his memories back.

Character #2 was a piglin, I think? Or at the very least some kind of Nether Hybrid. They would have been a Nether soldier that fully deserted both sides of the war, and was living undercover in the Overworld as a fugitive while trying to fend off zombification. His working name was “Asmodius” or “Azzy”, and a lot of his characterisation and the idea of his family coming with him was eventually folded directly into the Tuskly’s as NPC’s!

Character #3 was an unnamed Telchin. He was originally solely a warrior, inspired by the Iliad, rather than the Odyssey, specifically Prince Hector of Troy. A soldier who had spent decades fighting and being hardened and calloused only to defend a city that was always doomed to fall. I didn’t want to interfere with the scientist side of the Telchin, since that was very much Metta and Ocie’s thing, so I intentionally tried to steer clear of that, and lean hard into the war-time aspect of the telchin, and the idea of the rest of society collapsing while the scientists worked on the projects.

In the end, there was a bunch of reasons the characters didn’t pan out.

Tamlin was ultimately just not narratively necessary? c!Jamie could find out most of those things on his own, and as Deltavera was developed into the more lovable “I only talk to animals” loner, it felt weird for him to have an assistant. Logistically it would also have been difficult for me to act as both Tamlin and Delta in any cutscenes lmao. As much as I liked the wacky Mad Hatter rabbit hybrid vibes, it also made him overlap just a little too much with what c!Haley had become. Certain elements were reused for Ulysses though, like the fragmented memories, and the “tea obsession” was changed to the “kelp obsession” at the beginning of the season, etc.

Asmodius just wasn’t as developed as a character, and I didn’t think he could hold water for the whole season. Not to mention Athena and Ocie were both expanding on the Nether aspect of the world though c!Athena and Oscar’s backstory, and I didn’t think I was bringing anything new enough that fully justified his existence as a character beyond the initial concept (hence why it was given to the Tuskly’s, specifically Wilkins, since at the time there was only ever going to be him as the only Tuskly).

I actually think it was Heyhay that approached me about expanding the Telchin idea? Maybe? It was a while ago now. I was really excited to be given the invite to take part in the established scientist/project lore that had been developed in s2, because it was something they’d really been building up, basically with the pitch of “hey… you like horror stuff right? *points at Brink* We have some horrors to witness” lol. I got to really go all in on the Frankenstein meets Greek Mythology angle, and finding a way to transition someone from a soldier to a scientist was what led to the medic/doctor angle, and examining what drives a once person to do the things Ulysses did, and experiment on a god they worshipped. The letter of regret about Project Leviathan was the first time I really got a feel for writing Ulysses as a character, and I instantly became very attached. Like, as much as the other ideas for him would have been fun, I would not trade the character he became and the development of him behind the scenes for the world, he is the best character outcome I could have hoped for when joining Fable ✨

[demeterdefence]

been thinking a lot about how lore olympus really just could not fathom the concept of found family, it absolutely HAD to have a traditional blood-related family for the ending which is just ... so rachel honestly lmao we really should have known.

there were a lot of instances in the series where it almost seemed like rachel went out of her way to paint biological families as inherently dysfunctional, or at least not all they're cracked up to be - aphrodite is disdained by ares' family, zeus and hera are constantly arguing / zeus is constantly unfaithful, rhea and ouranos are an abusive marriage that begets three wildly traumatized sons, etc and so forth. that's not to say all families were bad or flawed (whether that was a choice or rachel spent so little time on them it just didn't come up) but the end result is that there were a lot of broken biological families in the series.

i think rachel wanted to demonstrate that you do not have to stick with an abusive family if they hurt you - that blood is not the defining aspect of family and bonds, that you can make your own and build your own family. i think rachel thought she was writing that, with how hades hates his dad and how persephone distances herself from demeter (who did nothing wrong but anyways.) the problem is, she absolutely does not follow through with it. at the end of the day, rachel is going to prioritize blood bonds and biological children over found family, because to her, that's the only family that counts.

like, hades raised thanatos from childhood and abuses the fuck out of him, completely traumatizes the god of death to the point thanatos is genuinely afraid of hades. thanatos is mocked, derided, scorned, and scoffed at by hades, constantly. thanatos did not have a CHOICE in who raised him, his mother abandoned him into hades' care. and hades does not for a single moment let up on how resentful he is about it. when thanatos finally admits that he only had hades as a parental figure (or ANY kind of family, tbh), hades turns it into how that affects him, how it makes him feel. after, we get two jokes about how hades is thanatos' dad now, and the last scene we ever get of thanatos is that "sometimes hades talks to him." thanatos never shows up in hades' daydreams of a family, he never shows up as a person who is important to hades. for centuries, hades was in charge of raising thanatos, not once does he ever appear in any of hades' dreams or wants regarding family. not biological family, so fuck off.

more to the point, the narrative makes it explicit to us that hades can't have children - it's brought up three times specifically, to drive the point home that hades wants children, he's definitely tried to have children, and it just won't happen. melinoe was seen as a way around that, and i won't lie, compared to rachel's usual hamfisted approaches, it wasn't the worst idea to have. but by the end of the series, it's shown that oh, nope, hades can have children (only with persephone though) and also they look like him, because biological bonds are everything. you know who doesn't count? dionysus, who was kidnapped from his dad and raised as a pet project for persephone. the kid helps her conquer winter or whatever the fuck that plot point was, but because he's not their biological child, hades and persephone ditch him after the final battle and throw him his old mom back to get rid of him.

biological children aren't a bad thing and it's not a bad thing to want or have them, but it's so fucking telling that hades and persephone have multiple people in their lives who should be considered family, and are picked up and discarded summarily once their use is over. dionysus was their proxy kid, and we literally do not see hades interact with him except maybe twice. thanatos gets absolutely trounced and i'll never not be angry about that. i don't even know what's going on with persephone's half brother, but he shows up for a single panel in the finale and then disappears.

wouldn't it have been so powerful if hades, an abuse victim, decided to be the father thanatos deserved? wouldn't it have been more in line with the supposed message of the story if hades and persephone opened their homes to people who once felt like them, abandoned and unwanted? at the very least, couldn't they have shown love to the people in their lives who sacrificed so much and put up with so much from them? what exactly is the measure of a family in lore olympus? we can't control who births us, but we can control the hurt we ourselves give, and the love we share, and that would have been an infinitely better ending for the two most selfish characters to show their growth. another disappointing pin in an already massively disappointing ending.

[gffa]

On the topic of book recs, what do you think of Master and Apprentice? I read it when it came out and it’s been so long the only thing I meaningfully remember was liking Rael and I’m honestly still surprised he hasn’t shown up more.

Oh lmao what to say about that book--there was so much I liked! But there was also so much that utterly baffled me! I spent a lot of time trying to get my head around the narrative of the book, what it would tell me versus what it would show me, and that kind of drove me crazy and I wrote so many posts about it, to the point that I'm sure I was deeply annoying lol. Ultimately, I like the book! But I like it in a very specific way--that I think it shows Qui-Gon as someone who is deeply flawed in a very caring way and he should be allowed the space to be flawed without it being used to condemn him. Like, so much of that book drove me crazy because Qui-Gon would say he didn't think the Jedi should be so tied to the Republic and that it was mistake, but then what saves the slaves at the end of the story? That Obi-Wan acts as a representative of the Republic so that the organization was forced to let them go. But this isn't remarked on, it's just there! Or Qui-Gon would say that the Jedi aren't doing more to change things and then, when he is offered a chance to be on the Jedi Council, where he could make the changes he was looking for, he turns it down because he doesn't want to stop being Obi-Wan's Master and wants to continue doing whatever he wants. But I'm not sure the narrative recognizes the structure it's setting up, despite that it kept coming back to it again and again. So, ultimately, I recognize I may be reading against authorial intent (but honestly I'm a Lucas-centric fan, so that's the only word of author/authorial intent I often care about XD), but to see Qui-Gon being written as kind of full of himself, but in a likeable way, someone who didn't see the things he was doing while preaching at others, who was kind of terrible with actually talking to Obi-Wan (the book does acknowledge this!) made me actually enjoy it, but in that specific lens, rather than with Qui-Gon being 100% right or 100% wrong. My other qualm about the book is that it was billed as a Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan story, but honestly it's really not. Obi-Wan is there a lot, he even gets many point of view scenes, but the story didn't really have much to say about him (and it's not the author's fault, I thought she did great with Obi-Wan's character in her From a Certain Point of View story even when it was from Qui-Gon's point of view!) and I wound up with nothing to say about Obi-Wan in that book. Me! Nothing to say about Obi-Wan in a book! How??? But I loved the relationship Qui-Gon had with Dooku--for memory, I think it was a lot warmer than some people see it? Which made sense to me, given that Dooku seemed to genuinely think Qui-Gon would have joined him when he talks to Obi-Wan in AOTC. And I enjoy Rael as a character, too! I wish he'd shown up in more, other than Dooku: Jedi Lost, because he's such an interesting addition and a semi-reflection of Anakin's character (given his struggle with the Jedi lifestyle, the late adoption, etc.) There were also some banger lore quotes (that one about Qui-Gon saying that the Jedi creche taught them all about how darkness was inside them all is one I trot out often) and I think I'd enjoy a reread. I know it sounds like I'm bashing on the book or on Qui-Gon, but honestly I don't intend it that way, and I'd actually like to reread it someday to see if my feelings have evolved on it.

[twistedwonderlandshenanigans]

Playing Lethal Company With TWST Cast

idk I was feeling silly ig Heartslaybul

Riddle: - Invested in the lore - Hates mods - Dies more often to quicksand and teammates baiting the blind dogs to attack him - Hates his teammates (Ace) baiting the blind dogs to attack him

Trey: - Also invested in the lore - Likes the loot bugs - Mostly stays at the ship to monitor everyone and open doors/disable turrets - Tries to be responsible with the loot/money - Will kill his teammates if they're short quota and sell their bodies Cater: - Screams at the bracken and the giant worm more than anything - Loves the emote mods, poster mods, and skin mods - Will stand on a landmine just to wait for his teammates to get close and blow both of them up - Will not go back to get your body besties sorry - Always brings a sign in, always drops it so someone else has to beat the shit out of the monsters Deuce: - Gets eaten by the mimic doors...A Lot - Also dies via Ace baiting the blind dogs - Was also the one the find out about the bridge having a weight limit - Does not trust the teleporters because he always ends up in a locked room - Boomba is his worst enemy, he runs into landmines all by himself just fine he doesn't need one to run into him - Always goes back to get teammates bodies - The ghost girl targets him a lot - Has gotten really good at avoiding the coilheads because Ace always ditches him, but he can't jump on rails to save his life Ace: - Menace to his teammates (see above) - 1000000000 mods - Push mod is his favourite - Immediately finds the most annoying noisy item he can - He's fast at running but is always too slow at putting his metal items down when it's stormy out - Buys a jetpack and immediately destroys it - Buys a rifle and uses it on his teammates - Loves baiting the monsters to use the teleporters - Second loudest in the dorm after Cater, though Riddle is close too

Savannaclaw

Leona: - Will only play if push mod is enabled - Literally does nothing but kill his teammates because he thinks it's funny - The spore lizard thing is his favourite and he could not tell you why - On the last day, he ends up pulling through for his team because he wants to make quota - He will convince his teammates to ring the bell more than they should just to watch them get mauled - Loves the mod where he gets to be the monsters Ruggie: - Menace 2.0 but not in the same way Ace is - He immediately fucks with the light as soon as he can - Lies to his teammates about which emergency exits are safe - Loves the teleporters - He also loves when he can juke the turrets and stand on top of them - Also the first to run if he hears a thumper or spider - Calls the bracken his friend - Will lock people in rooms whenever possible, especially if there's a turret Jack: - Likes to stay at the ship and be dependable, will monitor and lead teammates through the map - Because of this he normally stays at full health so his teammates nominate him to go get a beehive right before they leave a moon - Buys the teleporter to get everyone's bodies back without risking loosing the loot - Doesn't know the maps from the inside very well so he will end up tailing someone the whole time if he chooses to go inside - Hates that the mimics can use voice clips from the players but it's also really funny for any dead teammates spectating - Thinks it's sad that the dogs are blind, but really appreciates the fact that the dogs and giants work together to hunt prey

Octavinelle

Azul: - Coward /affectionate - Wants to stay in the ship, but Floyd/Jade both inverse teleport him a lot lmao - Hates the SCP mod?? Map?? idk at this point - The ghost girl targets him so much it's hilarious - Tries to stay in charge of the money, Floyd usually intervenes - Dies to giants a lot - Thought the slots mod might be fun, until Floyd spent all their money - Gets used as bait a lot - The spiders hate him Jade: - Inverse teleports EVERYONE he thinks the unpredictability is Funny - Likes to sneak up on his teammates - Pretends to be a mimic a lot (Floyd panics and ends up hitting him with the shovel) - Teammates compare him to the bracken a lot (they mysteriously die shortly after) - If someone kills him he votes to return to the ship early to be petty - Loves the monster mod that lets him torture his friends - Adores the loot bugs so much they're his Little Guys - Compares Floyd to the Thumper a lot - Brings your body back to. right in front of the ship so when you're spectating you can watch them abandon you Floyd: - Menace 3.0 (uses All tactics mentioned above) - hates the backroom mod - Screams at all the monsters, mostly out of joy - Loves the twerking emote - The Jack in the Box is his favourite - He loves the nutcracker too because when he kills it he gets the rifle - He will proceed to use the rifle irresponsibly - Finds all the ways to die on Gordion - Carries the boombox around everywhere

Scarabia

Kalim: - Can't play it's too scary for him. Even the minecraft world mod. It's just not for him. When he tried playing he got struck by lightning. Jamil: - Has to play with the arachnophobia filter - Still screams with the millipedes/face huggers - Always has a shovel, flashlight and walkie so he doesn't get much loot - Likes putting the mimic mask on to terrify everyone else even if it means he dies - Also enjoys the boombox and jamming out with the slime

Pomefiore

Vil: - Gets super competitive - Actually loves the push mod but would never admit it - Loves beating the shit out of thumpers - Will kill his own teammates if they honk horns and shit he will NOT tolerate it - Ends up dying to the bracken a lot - Comments on how little sense the value of each thing is (especially the hair dryers) - Also makes up a lot of theories about the game and lore while he's playing but if you call him out on it he'll deny that he's That invested in the game (he will never look up the actual lore) Rook: - Literally only plays to try and kill the monsters he doesn't give a fuck about quota - Push mod is Funny - Dies to the slime a ridiculous amount of times because he's too busy beating the shit out of something else - Was the first one to die to a giants fart - Somehow always manages to get beehives with minimal damage - Tricks and/or "blackmails" people into trying fire exits out for him (he wants to see more of the mimic, but will leave all their loot on the ground) Epel: - Loves the high risk high reward moons - Teammates try to use him as bait, but he always uno reverses them - Blind dogs are his favourite and he likes to crouch walk with them and lowkey pretend they are his Friends - Loooooves the jetpack, he's half decent at flying with it - Has died to the ladder more than once (he did it to himself) - Also tries to send himself to the backrooms by charging things that should Not be charged - Runs into the bees by accident a lot

Ignihyde

Idia: - Literally so many fucking mods - He looses interest in Lethal Company pretty quickly - Trans cat stuffy is his baby - the cat mod is the reason he stays, but then he also refuses to sell them to the company - He sometimes lets Ortho control everything (like monsters spawning, how fast time passes in game, how many inventory slots he has, etc. etc.) and it makes it more engaging for him and fun for Ortho Ortho: - When he plays alone he only plays on the minecraft map mod - He likes collecting Steve - Otherwise he invades public lobbies and is a little menace to everyone - At least once in game he'll abandon everyone because he thinks their panicking is funny - If he dies early, he doesn't quite grasp that it's frustrating when he calls the ship to leave, so it happens pretty much whenever he dies early - Speed runner when he's by himself because he has....all the mods at his disposal

Diasomnia

Malleus: - He can't fix a tamagotchi, you think this man is playing a video game? - Sorry, you can play with him one on one to teach him the controls but you're not getting in the building Lilia: - Menace 4.0 - Grandpa is a little shit - Loves the coil heads and luring them towards his teammates, just to ditch them - Teleporters are his best friend - Dies to the elements more often than monsters (quicksand/Lightning/fall damage? Gravity) - Has also died via standing underneath the pod when it's delivering stuff - Loves the push mod - Calls the loot bugs his children - Will find a jar of pickles and defend it with a rifle, nobody is allowed to sell it Silver: - Dies to a lot of the monsters because Lilia told him there's a mod that lets him befriend them when there's not one installed - Has never died to a mimic door somehow - Has an amazing sense of direction in game, always knows where he is and how to get to the exit - Buys a rifle but tries to never use it - Mostly tails other teammates to make sure they're safe - If he stays in the ship he ends up falling asleep Sebek: - Dies to the blind dogs a lot - Also sustains damage from Lilia trolling him while he's trying to cross the bridge - Would rather play with no mods - Gets so proud when he brings back a lot of loot - Always tries to go back for more loot and ends up taking too long to get back to the ship

[rexecutioner]

Buckle up campers this is a long one

spoilers for all of mystreet and a bit of mcd ig??? Idk there is Demon Warlock and Irene lore

This is all about Travis btw

So I was rewatching Emerald Secret and when Tatiana was loredumping about forever potions in ep 13, she mentions Michael testing a forever potion on his son not too long before the events of s4

(implied by the fact that she was there, and supported by the facts that 1) she was missing a lot of other info, like the whole fp backstory and not knowing about Katelyn and Garroth, thanks to only recently becoming human and only knows new info, and 2) the whole “Michael (Terry), Elizabeth and Zach have been trapped in a different realm for years and only recently escaped” thing)

and it “failing”. Knowing the events of Angels Fall, this plausibly aligns with the plotline. One problem. How tf did Travis get there??? And back??? Without anybody questioning where he went??? Or with nobody noticing???

I don’t think Tatiana was referring to Ein, as she describes him as a grunt to Michael’s plans, and it’s always pretty explicitly said that Michael has a son, stated by both Tatiana and Derek, and visibly is shown to be Travis in loredrops and the entirety of s6. A son. One singular son.

So the only person she could be referring to is Travis. But what does this even mean? What kind of forever potion was used on Travis? We learn from Ein that forever potions can be reaaally specific. It could have literally been anything. What does “failed” mean? Just not working? Or Travis fighting it off? The imagery shown with the scene is a broken forever potion lying on the ground by what is implied to be Travis’ limp hand, so failed may be a bit of an understatement.

Also, again, how tf did Travis get there and back with nobody taking note of it, him not remembering it (probably more forever potions), and it never coming up again?? Not even slightly mentioned in 3 to 4 side episodes OR Aphmau’s Year, although we do get some juicy Travis lore ep 2 of AsY.

That is also when his whole “omg i feel lightheaded wait did i do that” thing started, so maybe something happened at the lodge that is never shown but implied to be what Tatiana mentioned???

And ofc, my first question.

HOW THE HELL DID HE GET THERE AND BACK WITH NOBODY NOTICING

It’s a snowy forest for goodness sake. He had to have driven there. Why would he go in the first place? Maybe he got a letter from Terry (Michael) saying “hey kid i wanna reconnect heres my address dont bring anyone with you k bye” and he went “oh boy the father that left me shaken and traumatized who just randomly disappeared leaving me alone bcs everyone else i love is dead!! I love that guy!!”

And drove out to see him only for fucking Ein to be there as well as this man in a stupid ass cloak who sounds weirdly like his absent father, they give him a forever potion and it fails (again, whatever that means) and he wakes up in a random lodge with a random backround voice in his head giving him dating advice, having forgotten everything that happened, goes “welp ig he isn’t here i must have gotten the wrong address” AND LEAVES

weirdly in character for ms Travis lmao

Did he just tell Dante that he was going on a trip for a few days and dipped?? I haven’t rewatched the 3 to 4 side eps in a long time so I have no clue if he did leave but wasn’t Travis a mildly large role in them with the whole trash thing???

Alright so I just spent like 4 hours rewatching the transition episodes and Travis is a very consistent reoccurring character and isn’t missing from an episode for more than a two episode gap, and him leaving for a while isn’t mentioned, although they do make Laurance returning a big deal, which leads me to believe he left during/right before Aaron’s Ticket, a two part mini prequel to s4, taking place only a few days before ep1.

This makes the most sense, as Aaron in Part 1 goes over to Dante and Travis’ house to get money advice from Dante, and Travis isn’t shown or mentioned at all. He never appears in AsT, and there is an implied gap between the last side ep, Shadow Knights Rule and AsT, because we also never see Gene (and by that extension, the other Shadow Knights and Ivan) again after the final side ep, though they all played mildly large roles in that ep.

It would make sense if Travis left not too long after Laurance bothered him outside of his house (the last time we see the both of them until AsY 🥲) and came back to Lover’s Lane during the small two day gap before s4 starts, after Aaron and the gang left to Bunny Hill, and they just didn’t see each other on the way back. But this also leads to another frustrating question.

Why does Travis not remember the lodge after the whole thing? We could chalk it up to forever potions, yes, but that would be a really specific forever potion, making him have to go home and forget about it. I have the inkling that Dante would at the very least ask Travis questions about his trip, and if Travis just replied with “idk lol I actually have no clue what ur talking about” he’d at least be concerned and at least ask Lucinda for advice when she got back.

It’s shown in AsY that Travis has no recollection of the lodge, only knowing about it from Lucinda (another piece of good lore from ep 2), but he doesn’t get more of a chance to interrogate her about what happened there it until he gets possessed and leaves. It is very much shown that he has no memory of even being there. Which also brings up another point. Aaron and Garroth remember Bunny Hill Lodge, even if just a bit. How does Travis of all people not remember it at all?

Aughhhh so many questions! I’m probably going to chalk up the not remembering the lodge thing to a really specific forever potion that also plants false memories in his head. Forever potions are shown to be able to do that in s4, when Zane and Lucinda refer to Ein as their brother and their memories are completely altered.

OK I JUST FINISHED ACTUALLY WATCHING APHMAUS YEAR (ep3’s thumbnail scared me away the first few times lmaoo) AND I HAD NO CLUE TRAVIS GETS POSSESSED MORE THAN ONCE THIS MINI SEASON?!? AND KATELYN ACTUALLY MEETS TERRY BEFORE THEY EVEN THINK ABOUT STARLIGHT?!? THANK GOD I DID.

Whenever Travis is possessed, he not only gets very lightheaded, causing headaches, but he quickly loses his memory (shown in his second possession) as Michael takes the spotlight and puppets him around until he’s done with him. Travis then regains his memory and remembers what he did while possessed, with it all being kinda foggy, with him questioning if it was really him that did that and being mildly confused about what he just did, before making up an excuse for it and going about his day.

We only just begin to see Travis getting possessed AFTER s4, which leads me to believe that during s4, Travis reconnects with a recently actually present Terry (guess who just escaped another dimension lmaooo) leading to him and Katelyn fake dating and going to Starlight, leading to the events of s6 and Travis getting possessed more frequently until Michael consumes him completely before he gets exorcised and murdered by Kim and Terry, leaving Travis behind unconscious on the floor.

OK SO IVE MADE A TIMELINE OF TRAVIS’ EXISTENCE BASED ON MY THEORIES

-Born to Terry and his wife

-His mom dies (probably due to Michael?? I dont actually know lol)

-Child experimentation at a cool Lodge

-I recently learned that it was apparently a fp that gave Travis the little voice in his head, but its never acted upon until post s4

-Growing up with a father that’s possessed half the time

-Goes to middle school and meets Dante

-His father disappears at some point thanks to Garte and Derek using the realm breaker (they dont know Michael is actually Terry)

-Goes to high school and meets the rest of the main cast

-Whatever he does before season 1 during fcu

-Moves in with his homies (they kiss each other good night)

-Gets blasted to Love Love Paradise

-Starts to become actual friends with Katelyn (dont get me started on how both of these characters were wrote during season 1 and most of 2)

-Moves in with Dante thanks to his house exploding I wonder who did that

- 3-4 side episodes, he starts to learn about potions again from Lucinda

-Gets a letter from Terry, his absent father with a bad influence on him, asking him to go to Bunny Hill to reconnect

-Bunny Hill Incident #2, he goes home with a fabricated filler story, actually reconnects with Terry

-Travis gets possessed for the first time (to our knowledge) and steals Lucinda’s book under Michael’s influence

-Terry meets Katelyn, everybody's fate is sealed

-Terry invites Travis and Katelyn to Starlight Wonderland

-They enjoy themselves for a while (Travis gets possessed every now and then)

-Travlyn is canon for real this time

-Season 6. Travis gets possessed more and more frequently to the point where Michael takes over for him a lot near the climax, and Michael uses his control over the Guardian Forces to manipulate Travis into thinking he’s safe

-Travis gets fully possessed when Lucinda performs the exorcism, takes control over Katelyn and Garroth, Nana almost dies and Aphmau does die due to mildly unrelated events but dont worry she comes back thanks to the fact that shes a third of literal god

-Derek gets relic’d

-Ethereal Bonds my beloved, the lip syncing did Nana so dirty (Travis isnt really in this one i just love ethereal bonds story wise even though it’s definitely not perfect)

-Travis (Michael) threatens to kill Terry and has actually killed Holla and Derek as this twink so his threats are not empty

-Garroth and Katelyn (and Toby ig) are used as distractions to stall Michael, but he takes back control over Garroth by manipulating him and throws him at Katelyn

-Travis and Aphmau beat the shit out of eachother, cool lore, i love the Zane and Lucinda s4 trauma, everyone is a rock now

-Terry and Michael both die at Kim’s hands, the one thing she was good for (im sorry i hate Kim so much) using the cannon

-Travis is now back in control and wakes up to his bisexual girlfriend holding him and says a pickup line, very in character, and passes out again (understandably)

-everyone is no longer a rock, but thats some pretty hefty trauma you got there (i feel so bad for Dante and Laurance) (im making a separate post on them soon)

-Travis monologues about everything that happened and trauma dumps to the sky (fuck you Terry)

-Heart wrenching “not alone buddies” scene, seriously these two tried to kill each other and now they are traumabonding i love it

-Whatever the fuck Jesson has in store for him in One Last Time because i started writing this before it was announced so they might fill in my plotholes later

-He does NOT show up in Her Wish which scares the shit out of me (he isnt dead thanks to Katelyn and Dante not being utterly wrecked the entire time) (but his absence is not a warm one)

-whatever happens after that

Long story short I love Travis’s character and I hope we see more of him

there is no conclusion to this i just like ranting about characters i like and the plotholes that come in the package (headcanons sold separately)

tldr: Travis s4 plotholes are filled in by my overthinking

have some of my art as compensation 👍👍👍

i will be re-drawing the Travis one bcs I don’t like the shading and I got the outfit wrong 😑

[markantonys]

I came across a Twitter thread that said the set up for the docks when it comes to the Warder bond between Lan and Moiraine was handled much better in the books cause in the show they feel like the mechanics of the Warder bond was too vague/not explained well in the show that they weren't able to connect with Moiraine and Lan's emotional conflict in s2 because of it. And I am a bit confused cause honestly I don't think the books explain how the Warder bond works at all from what I remember. Just making a lot of wild claims about how everything about the books are better and how the show is fumbling when they haven't even read half the series yet (show first to book reader). Just this trend to shit talk every choice the show makes when you don't even know the full complete story is wild to me

haters: the show hasn't done enough to explain how the bond works

all the screentime across 2 seasons the show has dedicated to showing how the bond works which the haters kept complaining was a waste of time better spent on rand having swordfights:

like literally what do they want lmao some people will never be satisfied!

but the mention of the "mechanics" of the bond is interesting to me because i think we may be hitting upon 2 different types of viewers here: the minority of lore enthusiasts who need to understand every single detail about how things work or else they will be upset and lose immersion, and the majority of audiences who are content with a general understanding of how things work and don't get hung up on details, or will at most go "hmmm i'm not sure if this makes sense, but it's a cool story beat so i'm happy to shrug and move on".

the former category were going "but what weaves is moiraine doing now? did they actually unbond and now she's remaking it from scratch? i thought the bond was only masked? this is such a plothole, it doesn't make sense, i can't concentrate on anything else about the scene" during the 2x08 moiraine & lan beach scene, and the latter category were thinking "what a beautiful and emotionally satisfying moment of seeing them come back together!" and that's it. and probably similar for the rest of the season. if somebody felt unable to connect with the emotional aspects of that storyline, i would bet it's because they felt too unclear about the mechanics of the state of the bond and couldn't let go of that confusion enough to sink into the emotional aspects. (which is really more of a personal thing; my show-only mom was definitely keyed into the emotional aspects of this storyline and didn't get bothered about some mechanics being left vague. in fact, i think she would've just gotten confused if they'd tried to explain the mechanics in more detail djkfjg bless her.)

undeniably, the show does not explain magic mechanics in as much depth as the books do. but that is because it's banking on the very fair assumption that the majority of audiences don't need to have this level of detail in order to enjoy and understand the story (and may get more confused than they need to be if they ARE given this level of detail). i'll admit that s2 was a bit muddled on What Exactly Is Going On with moiraine and lan's bond, and i found myself a bit confused by the mechanics at times, but that never impeded my appreciation or understanding of the emotional aspects of the storyline because i'm someone who is happy to shrug and move on if the mechanics of how something is functioning in a fantasy story aren't making total sense to me.

also, moiraine & lan at the docks won't happen until the end of s3 and it's very very possible we might learn even more about bond mechanics earlier in s3 via elayne and birgitte (who will be good candidates for explaining some New Bond Basics that it wouldn't make sense for moiraine and lan to talk about since they've had theirs for 20 years), so like..........maybe they should just Watch And Find Out.

it's also very interesting that this is coming from someone in the show-to-book pipeline because i honestly would not be surprised if a lot of their base knowledge for how warder bonds works was absorbed..........from the show. and they just don't realize it. granted, if they started with new spring it might be different because i'm assuming new spring goes into a lot of depth about how warder bonds work (though i don't know for sure, i haven't read it). but if they only read EOTW-TFOH, they sure as shit are not gonna have gotten much info about bonds *from the books* because we barely spend any time with characters who are part of a bond during those books. we get, what, maybe a couple chapters total of moiraine or lan pov and then start diving into it a tiny bit more in TFOH with elayne and birgitte, but it's really not that much from what i can remember - and i can't remember very well, because i went into the books already having a very solid understanding of the concept of the bond thanks to all the work s1 put into showing it. i do not remember learning anything significant about the bond in the first 5 books that i didn't already know from s1.

it's also so strange to me in general to see people start with the show, then go to the books, and then start hating on the show because as a show-to-book pipeline person myself, all going to the books did was make me go "wow thank fuck for the show, it will fix X, it will fix Y, it's already fixed Z" basically constantly. it made me 10000x more grateful for and appreciative of the show and the way it's choosing to tell the story!

[mads-is-tired]

the code “growing” on his arm, it’s gotta be an exposure thing, particularly when you also look at etolies and his arm/eye

etolies has been in contact with them the most from what i know, and while i’d previously assumed it was from using the code breaker shield, it’s either not that or the shield itself is made from code

and in the past three days, slimecicle has spent a lot of time with codeflippa, the first time he saw her was rather brief but now he’s spent hours by her side. iirc even etolies hasn’t spent that much time with one in one go, hence the speed at which this is happening

from what we know, the codes seem to want to work with the members against the federation. the code monsters attacked and then came to a discussion with etolies, where a different strategy has been applied for charlie, a grief stricken, isolated man with a history of murderous tendencies seems far easier to manipulate. but the code monsters with etolies seem to be upfront, leading me to believe they are manipulating the islanders as well, but where do their true intentions lie?

it’s fascinating to think about what will happen when the code starts to take over both of these guys more. we’ve seen glitches happening in charlie, will this become more frequent, or will he start loosing control, maybe he’ll still be charlie and etolies will still be etolies, but fundamentally changed in terms of their being. Maybe they won’t be able to leave the island once it’s spread too far, and this was the goal all along. I’ve seen theory posts about the code being previous island members before, they might have been closer than we thought.

full disclosure i get pretty much all of my lore updates from the twitter screenshots people upload here so i could be so far off lmao. im also not too familiar with maxo lore but i know there’s stuff going on with AI there? that might be linked

[crazylittlejester]

Hi I saw in you pinned post that you like resident evil. My question is who in the chain do you think would play resident evil

IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS FOR MONTHS AND YOU HAVE ENABLED ME TO YAP ABOUT THIS THANK YOU SO MUCH. THE ANSWER IS ALL OF THEM SORT OF:

- Time I think would dabble in it a bit, maybe he’s played some of the og games, definitely none of the remakes because he has no time to game anymore, but I think he’d listen to the others yap about it any nod along because he doesn’t know everything but he knows it’s important to them and has enough knowledge of the characters he understands what they’re saying

- Wars and Twi play together, not because they can’t handle it alone, but because they freak each other out more than the game and for them that’s fun. Like Wars will put his hand on the back of Twi’s neck when he’s creeping around in game and give him a heart attack, and Twilight will randomly scream and point at NOTHING to freak Wars out. Them playing re5 together was a disaster and there was a lot of screaming and there were fucking TEARS during the Wesker fight. Time came in thinking someone was dying but no, they were just playing re5 of all games. They did NOT make it through Biohazard without one of them having a legit breakdown (it was Wars). If you ask either of them what their favorite re game they’ll say re5 because they genuinely had so much fun playing it together, but Twilight will go crazy for re4r and Wars LOVES Village

- Sky wouldn’t touch the games with a ten foot pole, he watched those Village streams and got so stressed out watching streamers make bad decisions that he just can’t do it. He likes the lore though and knows enough about Village to hold a conversation. He’s seen all the movies and he likes Death Island a lot, his favorite character is Claire

- Legend is the kind of streamer that would send Sky into a coma because it’s not that he’s BAD at the games, he just will randomly Go For Things ignoring the fact that he’s making incredibly stupid decisions, and it’s a damn miracle he doesn’t die more in game because it comes SO close. His favorite game is Biohazard, and Wars actually hates him for it

- Hyrule gets forced to watch Wild or Legend play and leaves with tears in his eyes every time. He was one time handed the controller for the re4r el gigante fight and he did it in one shot somehow, but he did cry

- Wild will scream every time something grabs him and each time he does Hyrule loses one year off his life. Wild’s similar to Legend because he will just Go For Things but he doesn’t always narrowly escape like Legend does. His favorite is re2r, he’s a big Ada fan

- Four is the best re player out of all of them, he’s so serious about it too and his accuracy is INSANE. He played re5 on his own because he did the first section with Wild and Wild used up all his ammo and Four couldn’t handle such a huge waste of resources so he finished the game with the ai lmao. He did make Wild play re6 with him though because the re6 game play annoyed him So Much he almost had a stroke, and turning on friendly fire and kicking Wild was the only way he stayed sane through the game. He will short circuit if you ask him what his favorite re game is because he genuinely loves them all, but re1 is his comfort game so he’d probably say that. Four is on his hands and knees begging capcom for a Code Veronica remake

- Wind goes in screaming his head off and is not the best at playing but his enthusiasm makes up for it and he gets through the games eventually. He does better in the multiplayer games where he can follow someone around because he gets distracted and forgets where to go (he does NOT check the maps), but he got so stressed about the re4 waterway he had actual nightmares about it and woke up crying because it was absolutely impossible to beat for him, he spent hours on it. He ended up making Four do it for him. He does not fuck with Biohazard or Village, they stress him out too much, so he watched streams for those (he will NEVER let the others know this though)

[writtenontheport]

Walk Me Home?

George Karim x (gn) Reader

Pt. 4: Somewhere in Between (pt. 1) (pt. 2) (pt. 3)

Warnings/Tags: Bit description heavy, Lockwood and co friendship, Shorter than usual I’m so sorry 😭, This part is more of like… it’s a buildup to the next part, That part oooooh I have something for it!!, Quite a few things actually, but this part is mostly build up, Rising Action kinda move 🤞, Mild arguing and swearing, Slow Burn (LMAO!!) , The characters are quite ooc in this one, They are all INCREDIBLY SILLY ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

Notes: I usually write longer I promise it’s just that I’ve been struggling to write a bit!! Mostly why I took that break yesterday, but I needed to at least get this lore important part out 🤞🤞 I needed reader to meet Lucy and Lockwood for what I’m scheming to do in the next part… This series is SO self indulgent my silly ass is cackling. I imagined book Lockwood and his silly ass and couldn’t stop thinking about the characters acting as genuine, embarrassing people and like— I’m sorry Lucy my love… you got sillified.

Summary: You meet George’s friends and it goes as well and as horribly as he thought it would. Just for today, the library can rest.

When George first introduced you to Lucy and Lockwood, he already knew you all would hit it off. At first you were nervous; your smile wobbly as you kept yourself small, so George linked pinkies with you and didn’t let go until he was sure you were ok. From the corner of his eye he could see your expression turn soft and adoring, grateful in the way you tighten your knuckle around his. From there you found enough confidence to ease yourself into their dynamics.

Lucy adored having you around. George wondered if having her whole life defined by the problem made her crave for some sense of what normalcy they were owed growing up. He was lucky enough to find it with you in the library and in cobble-steeped walks before curfew, but Lucy’s never really had that with anyone.

Watching you both chatter away from him and Lockwood, he’s glad she could find it in you, too. She seemed relaxed whenever she sat beside you, and her voice was filled with more wonder than he had heard since they’d met. Often times, Lucy would whisper something that had you ducking your head coyly, avoiding George’s eyes. He didn’t know what that was about, but the self-satisfied smirk Lucy had after made him rather suspicious.

Lucy would tell him (after he had walked you home) that he did good finding you and confirmed that she had immediately been taken with you and wanted to be friends. Something in George felt reassured when she insisted ‘only friends’, but she did so with a teasing smile that had him glaring at her playfully.

Lockwood took to treating you like you’ve always been one of them, ever kind and charming as he always was. He was fascinated with news about the world at large (ever the gossip), and seemed to eat up anything you could tell him about what life was like without ghosts on the streets. Whenever Lucy wasn’t hogging you, Lockwood was either having you tell your own anecdotes or sharing his newspaper clippings. He certainly looked the part of a child dragging about their new friend to play, puffing his chest proudly with every framed photo he showed off.

When George asked him about what he thought of you, Lockwood clicked his tongue and whined at him for not bringing you sooner. That was a very good sign, but it was terrible for George because Lockwood had gone a 30 minute spiel about who knows what (George tuned him out at some point early on).

A lot of the time you spent visiting, though, the two of them teased you and George as they asked for the details George refused to share. It surprised you to know that he hadn’t even told them about the nature of your first meeting before he mimed zipping his mouth shut and you grinned.

“Yes, well, I’ve actually forgotten,” You hummed, linking your pinky with George’s under the table.

You all moved to the dining table near the end of your visit to Portland Row, eating biscuits and drinking tea. George made sure to tell you about the one biscuit rule, but occasionally turned a blind eye when Lucy or Lockwood offered you an extra. They shot him knowing looks he refused to meet while he focused on the comfort of your voice.

“Really?” Lucy asks amusedly, raising a brow, “From the one thing George’s told us, it doesn’t sound forgettable.”

“What’d he say about it?” You were genuinely curious, leaning in with a wide smile.

Lockwood, ever excitable, added, “Well, it was very strange. Said something about owing you shoes apparently? You don’t suddenly owe someone new shoes just after meeting them.”

“George has never owed me shoes,” You balk, turning to eye George, “And he should know it absolutely wasn’t his fault what happened to my shoes.”

George simply sips on his tea as his pinky squeezes at yours, your searching gaze softening into a smile.

“Have you seen a ghost yet?” Lockwood asks, a bit out of the blue.

Beside you, George cuts him off with a stern reply and Lucy leans in to whisper to you in the midst of George’s and Lockwood’s argument.

“Has he actually not shown you any ghosts yet? I would have thought he might’ve. ” Her eyes twinkled in mischief.

“I haven’t seen a single ghost since meeting George. Mind taking me to see one one day, Lucy? Let’s leave these two bickering and have a day of our own,” You suggested, reaching over the table to offer a hand.

She takes it, and with a smirk says, “Any day, just tell me when and where.”

Little did you know that there was a ghost right under your nose in a little glass jar somewhere in the house; that she had meant that literally.

Lucy and Lockwood send you and George off like kids do with Santa after Christmas; George can’t seem to get enough of your smile all the while. He doesn’t deign the two’s teasing with a response before he’s grabbing your hand and dragging you down the sidewalk away from them, giggling and laughing as you rushed along.

Neither of you bring up the fact that this was entirely new, you simply slid your hand into his proper and followed along with a coy grin. George did the best he could to hide the growing uptick of his lips by keeping his eyes away from where yours focused on him fully.

“That went well,” George says, clearing his throat. You bit your lip and shrugged, bumping his shoulder with yours in a motion that has him glaring at you. It’s a playful thing as much as it is a warning, and try as he might you know damn well George could easily find ways to get back at you if you pulled a prank on him. The glaring eases up quickly, but the tenderness in his eyes doesn’t; it’s almost dizzying if it wasn’t so adoring.

“Lucy promised to take me to see a ghost one of these days,” You hum, watching his expression fall into absolute vehemence.

“Absolutely not. I already have to deal with those two risking their lives every case already.”

“It won’t be on a case…” You grumble under your breath, kicking at a stray rock he watches tumble far off to the side. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your work like that. Plus, you could come! I’m sure Lucy won’t mind.”

He pretends to think on it, shrugging with his brows raised in the little motion that says he could be convinced. It’s a good enough sign for you when he finally concedes; “As long as Lockwood doesn’t come with. He’d somehow convince us all to make it some suicidal mission to take down London’s ghosts for fame again.”

“Again?” You balk, squeezing George’s hand in worry, “George, what do you mean again?”

A/N: I know I usually start and end it off at the library and at reader’s (temporary) home, but I just… I had to get this meeting out for now!! I needed reader to meet Lucy and Lockwood it was important!!! I promise this is plot relevant

[freyaloi]

The orb has spoken, It's time for me to speculate some more because I need to get my thoughts out.

Many have suggested the Orb is talking about Flameheart himself here... But I can't help but wonder... From the last batch and then this one... I have my doubts... What would Flameheart have to be mournfully about?

Let's entertain this for a moment because why not. It is indeed possible that Flameheart's time in the Sea of the Damned manifested his old estate... But why would he need to be collected via horse and coach? His physical form has been in the living world all this time, so surely he'd just manifest himself like any other time...

Now, the wreck the Reapers were reassembling has vanished, but we all know where that is going... However, so has the Burning blade (the sword). With Tasha supposedly now cured, according to her and Ramsey the Reapers have apparently stolen that too but why? To give to Flameheart? Probably, or maybe not, as it was done so quietly in the night, without much fanfare and the Reapers usually like to make a huge scene... (I have another theory there but that isn't what this I about right now). All of this is in keeping with the return of Flameheart, including Olga's cards.

What isn't lining up as of late is the Orb... As if it's trying to tell us something else... And there's someone else lived on an estate, possibly the very same one the Orb is referring to, who used that very same study... someone who perhaps was still dealing with grief... and was about to embark on a new life... someone we know and is very much tied to Flameheart and that glass bauble.

"...Having travelled full circles in every possible direction, Father eventually settled down on this magnificent estate, in which a small candlelit corner of the most private room I now write.

Tomorrow I will not be here.

I arranged to vanish over the horizon to retrieve myself." - Tales from the Sea of Thieves (aka Junior's journal, the very first page)

From what I understood, Junior spent the night in that room and vanished to the docks and his newly bought ship in the early hours to set sail... And while he was no doubt excited to start his new life, there was probably undoubtedly some grief... Of the things he was leaving behind, and no doubt thoughts of his father crept into his head... Of the stories, of the legends... But soon enough he'd get to see it all for himself.

While Flameheart could have done exactly the same thing when he took back off to Sea, it seems improbable given we know he came and went with decreasing regularity on his adventures while Junior was growing up, until one day he never returned and news of Flameheart's death eventually reached back home.

So unless Rare has done a lot more retconning recently than we thought... Including changing Flameheart's backstory...

I can't help but still feel the Orb is talking about Junior here... (Unless it's talking about the time Flameheart decided to deck a couple of merchants that wanted to confiscate his house, but he was pretty much broke back then so I find it unlikely lmao.)

Also, the fact Junior is missing from his usual spot in the latest trailer... Maybe it's just an oopsie on Rare's part... But they showed us the hideout for a reason., yes to show off Flameheart obviously, but I think there's a hidden message there. Maybe they just moved him for the trailer, maybe he has a new spot... But time will tell I suppose, let's see what this ornament has to say next week.

I also could just be waffling because Junior is the only character in the whole game that has caught my interest so my theories naturally have a bias I suppose, lmao. But I like discussing lore in games, even if it is just with myself.

Either way, food for thought.

Again, If you read this, props to you and thank you.

I'm am literally just brain-vomiting theories at this point, at least the semi-concrete ones because they need an out... And maybe it'll get me writing again, lmao, at least my will to draw is slowly returning.

[c6jpg]

natlan 5.0 brain dump

i did this in a lot of small chunks so i already forgot all of my detailed thoughts so i'm gonna try to keep it brief

general environment/exploration:

first off music and scenery is 💯💯💯

i particularly like how much wildlife there is and i really love the saurian gameplay (for me its hydro > dendro >>>> geo)

i feel so awful every time i accidentally kill a capybara they should be immune like the rhinos

it makes sense that there isn't "one huge city" like the other nations since natlan is composed of tribes, and each tribe looks like it gets a decent amount of attention, but i was still kind of disappointed by how small the stadium of the sacred flame feels in comparison for being the "main" area. i feel like they could have done a lot more with it

archon quest:

tldr; it was... not good? or at least very underwhelming? especially coming off fontaine/sumeru which had incredibly strong opening acts

act 1 was particularly like. whatever. felt more like a kachina story quest that rolled right into a mualani (but npc-focused) story quest

like for how important the pilgrimage is it just felt so. underwhelming and anticlimatic. yes yes i know kachina is precious and everyone loves her but i wish we spent less time doing kachina support group and focused more on the pilgrimage itself like can we at LEAST see some of the other playable characters participating instead of just hearing about it in passing

literally was soooooooooo fucking annoyed with the entire atea plotline. i wrote a whole rant in my first write up but basically that entire arc only existed so that they could bring back the purification plot device which WE HAVEN'T SEEN SINCE MONDSTADT

i was just incredibly annoyed with how that was all handled lol atea is also just such a non-character how am i supposed to care about her. she didn't even die in the end!!!

also mualani's tribe's whole thing being super stereotypical hawaiian tourism left a really bad taste in my mouth i wanted to get out of there as fast as possible

act 2 was weird because like. i felt like they were saying a lot of things that were like "this is a serious national crisis" but it didn't... feel that way? and a lot of the lore itself was pretty glossed over

i think a problem with the natlan story is that you need the first acts to set up the stakes but we just spent the first act gallivanting around with kachina/mualani and then when they DID get to the "main problem" in act 2 it just info dumped so hard to the point that i. didn't care?

pacing in general just felt all over the place

the only investment they gave us is through caring about kachina and i guess hating the abyss/not wanting a nation to be destroyed on principle but idk. especially with the "nah we gotta wait for the last 2 heroes first" the stakes are Not there for me

reminded me of when nahida was like "yeah i needed you to figure this out for yourself bc if i told you directly your head would explode." but at least that one was fun/could just chalk it up to nahida being cheeky and didn't like. prolong the plot for too long

SHOW US DON'T TELL US DAMN IT. i might just have recency bias but i genuinely feel like natlan might be one of the worst cases of telling and not showing as far as archon quests are concerned

also capitano's appearance felt so random LMAO he really showed up, said some cryptic shit, got his ass beat, and then left. at least the cutscene was cool?

chasca girl i'm shaking crying throwing up somebody get that girl a full pair of pants and brown contacts PLEASE

i find it interesting how detailed/fleshed out chuychu (chasca's sister) is, both in terms of design and personality/character. it kind of felt like they originally intended for her to be playable but turned her into an NPC instead

also citlali is definitely some kind of faruzan situation where she's old but young looking

night kingdom was cool i guess nothing really to say here. i am very interested in the wayob lore though especially in regards to how it ties into the rest of teyvat/why natlan has particularly weak leylines

i feel like mavuika's younger sister might also become relevant in the future... in a bad way. like the insistence to not being forgotten/seeing mavuika again, the fact that mavuika doesn't "really" know what happened to her. also she also got a pretty unique npc model. or maybe she won't be brought up ever again idk

in general that whole reminiscence sequence with mavuika was like. fine but again you just info dumped the shit out of me i have no emotional attachment to feel anything about whats going on right now???

also we all know that was fucking ororon at the end with capitano like lmao come on. but im willing to bet both he + chasca are the last two heros bc like. who tf else do we have left LMAOOO

capitano was supposed to be cool but he's just giving goofy villain right now. sorry capitano fans they flopped so hard with him in this act