#i've been wanting to gif this vid for a while

[dont-let-me-eat-pears]

The Maze Runner | The Death Cure

[crmsndragonwngss]

【花冷え。】 - お先に失礼します。 (Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now) Music Video 【HANABIE.】 - Yukina

[p0rk-guts]

Velvette if she served cunt

Design breakdown below 👇🏾(BEWARE IT'S VERY LONG)

Alright going into detail about my gripes and edits. Like Velvette but her design is just. Not good to me. None of her (main) outfit details look like they fit to me— pinstripe pants + long fur coat paired with black crop top and scene sleeves? Skull earrings? TINKERBELL HEELS????? Tell me how any of that meshes well or even makes SENSE for the social media influencer persona she's supposed to have going on. Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be clown themed... But I'm just gonna toss that idea out bc being a revered social media influencer and a clown at the same time just seems a bit oxymoronic to me, and the "clown" details aren't adding shit for me.

And don't think I forgot about her features. Pale ash grey skin and wavy hair at best. If she was supposed to be some type of creature where a nonhuman skin tone would make sense then maybe I could let it go?? But as far as I can tell she doesn't have an object or creature or animal theme like the other V's and if she does I shouldn't need to do detective work to figure it out. There is no reason for *any* of these poc characters to have grey skin, especially since they don't have any other poc features at all.

Sorry that shit gets me heated anyways. Onto my redesign. Gave her a more obviously black skin tone and textured hair bc I love a 30 inch buss down as much as the next girl but considering how there are no significant poc cast members with visibly textured hair I think she deserves to flaunt some coils if no one else will.

Ngl I'm not. A fashion girlie. Idk what's trendy idk what screams "influencer" so a lot of this was just throwing shit at the wall that I've seen around recently but it looks cute enough to me. And there was a bit of inspiration taken from Aliyahcore and ghetto fabulous fashion ❤️

If you can't tell this is shamefully inspired by lovesart23's Velvette reimagining because imo they had some outstanding ideas for Vel. I low-key stole their idea for those floating eyes in her hair that follow her around and help her keep tabs on shit it was just a superb idea for a social media overlord to me. I also took some inspo from @furbtasticworksofart 's redesign because vampire influencer sucking up the souls of her followers in exchange for content??? Too good (also the eyes were supposed to have bat/vamp wings I just forgot 😭) So yeah she's a vampire demon now. Without the features she was looking too human anyhow. Maybe she also feeds off of the energy of her followers through tech like after Vox mind controls them or whatever... Idk idk is that anything

Speaking of Vox, the screen glasses are meant to connect her to him w/ their color and shape while serving the purpose of being like a second phone she can post and check the web with. Like lovesart said in their reimagining vid, Vel doesn't really do more than pose for selfies and scroll on her phone when it comes to social media so in my head she's constantly flipping her shades on and off, using them to scroll and stay active, and they can show when she's not paying attention or respect to something/someone bc scrolling is more worth her time in the moment.

The hearts everywhere are also supposed to kinda represent social media likes + connect her back to Val w/ his heart patterns. That might've been what the hearts in her og design were for but. I just didn't like their placement bc I'm a nitpicker and a hater❕

I have so much more I could say about possible ideas for Velvette because I love evil black girls and I only want them to succeed in my media and I could treat her so much BETTER but I'll refrain bc this is way too long anyway.

Alright for reading/scrolling through all that rambling I offer you the sketches + some alt hair ideas I had

P.S. I'm very open to constructive criticism but if I see anyone just dick riding in my replies or rb's I'm just blocking you on sight ✌🏾

[scarletwinterxx]

jaemin dad scenario #2

hellooooooo ~ not sure if y'all are familiar with this audio but I saw a cute tiktok vid earlier with this audio and I wanted to write one about it. plus I've been wanting to write another dad jaemin scenario so here we are😅 hope you like it!!!

For my other works you can check them out here, and for my other story series’ you can check them out here.

and if you want, u can buy me coffee(totally optional but any donation is very much appreciated!) thank you🥺💛

All works are copyrighted ©scarletwinterxx 2024 . Do not repost, re-write without the permission of author.

(gif not mine, credits to rightful owner)

Jaemin hears the voices from downstairs, waiting for his wife and daughter to walk in the kitchen where he's currently baking cupcakes for Heejin's school day.

"Daddy, we're home"

He turns around to face the two of you, his two girls smiling widely at him. Heejin reaches out for him, immediately getting Heejin from you to give him her after daycare cuddles and kisses

"There's my baby princess, how was daycare today? Did you have so much fun? You didn't cry?" he ask in between kisses on her face. Meanwhile you watch the adorable scene between your husband and his mini me.

"She didn't cry, her teacher told me and she got a star"

"Wah you did? Can appa see it?" he asks the little girl in his arms, Heejin holds out her hand to show the star sticker on the back of her hand

"Wow, that's great! I'll give you a cupcake since you're very good" he promises Heejin, you give him a strict look but you let it slide.

You and Jaemin are on the same page when it comes to raising your daughter. You rarely have any arguments, but there are times Jaemin folds whenever Heejin wants something. Like giving her sweets, or letting her stay up past her bedtime.

You really can't beat the dad-daughter duo, they both know how to make you say yes. One look at you with their round eyes, you're nodding your head to whatever wish they have.

"Also Heejin got something to say" you tell Jaemin, walking towards the fridge to get a drink while Jaemin sets Heejin on the counter

"What is it, baby?"

"I got a boyfwiend" her little baby voice says happily.

Immediately Jaemin's smile changes while you try to hold in the laughter. He looks over at you then back at Heejin

"You don't have a boyfriend"

The little girl frowns at her dad, "I do have my boyfwiend" she says a bit louder this time

You can't help but laugh, Jaemin looks over at you with a glare clearly not amazed with the situation but to you it's very hilarious.

"You don't have a boyfriend" he sternly says, Heejin then sobs then reaches out for you.

You step closer to give her some comfort while Jaemin stands beside you, still not done with his argument with his 4 year old daughter.

"Aw love, what's wrong? who made you cry?" you ask her, patting her hair. The Little Na looking up at you with teary eyes

"Daddy says.. daddy says i don't have boyfwiend" she says in between sobs. At this point you can't help the big smile on your face, your daughter is being so adorable right now.

"But you do have a boyfriend?" you ask her, giggling.

Jaemin playfully pinches your waist, you brush him off while you watch Heejin nod her head "You do? What's his name?"

"Ji-hun" she says with her lips cutely pouting

You laugh again, enveloping her with a hug and kissing her head. Looking over at your husband to see him with an opposite expression on his face, "Yah, they're kids. Just go with it" you whisper

"She's four, she's my babygirl" he grumbles, taking Heejin from you to hold her again

"You're not allowed to have a boyfriend until you're 50" he tells her seriously. To little Heejin, it doesn't really make any sense apart from meaning she doesn't get to be right this time which she doesn't like.

This makes her cry again but doesn't move from her father's embrace

"Boys will make you cry then I have to beat them up then dad will have boo boo's. Do you want dad to have boo boo's?"

"No" she answers, hugging Jaemin quickly. She's always been a worried baby, if she feels like either of you are in danger she gets very anxious and starts to cry. When she was a baby, she hated seeing Jaemin on his bike. She thought he was going to fall.

"Okay then don't get a boyfriend okay? Pinky promise" he holds out his pinky towards Heejin, the little girl sealing the promise

"I can't even imagine how you would be when she actually starts dating" you tease him

"Don't start with me. I'll actually fight them"

You laugh, joining in their hug. Jaemin wraps one arm around you while the other holds Heejin, both of his girls in his arms.

"And I love you for that, but one day she's going be a big girl and would fall in love just like I did. With you" you tell him, giving him a kiss on the cheek

He looks at you, his eyes full of love and adoration like they always have ever since you met. "Well then as long as she falls in love with someone who loves her the way I love you, then I guess I'll be okay. That's still a maybe though, no one deserve our baby girl"

You smile at him, kissing him again this time on the lips then giving Heejin a kiss also on her chubby cheeks "I love you more, both of you. How about we finish baking these then let's have a cuddle night the three of us?"

"Sounds like heaven to me" He agrees, kissing both you and Heejin on the head before he sets Heejin down. The little one getting her standing stool ready to help with decorating the cupcakes but you both know she's after the sprinklers

"After I put her to bed, you and I are going to have a talk" he whispers

"What did I do" you laugh "Mhm, you can laugh now. Just wait until later"

[animatedjen]

Project Updates

Haven't made one of these posts for a while! I'm (slightly) more employed than I was this time last year, so the larger projects have been on hold for a few months. But it's fun to make smaller edits and new alt-angle cutscene gifs in the meantime.

Traitor Inquisitorius Part 3 is officially in production - I have the music and story figured out, and about a minute of the edit assembled so far. It will be the most ambitious Jedi video I've ever made (!!!!) and my hope is to release it before Christmas 🤞

Other ideas in the queue include a mini-vid for Bode, a Cal+Cere edit, a Mantis Crew mini-vid, a post-Survivor Cal edit, another fun hype video, etc. Definitely not running out of projects anytime soon :) Posts will be slower for the next couple weeks while I focus on TI3, but I'll reblog some older stuff and dig through the drafts.

And though I don't really advertise it, I do have a Ko-Fi account! If you enjoy what I create for the Jedi series and want to directly support me, that's a way to do so. I may officially open up commissions sometime next year too.

Thanks as always for enjoying these games with me <3

[writeyouin]

I can imagine Y/N coming back home from a date with Mirage and they just give Noah a call like "I'm so glad you tried to steal that car that day. You just got me a boyfriend, thanks, man!"

Mirage X Reader - Flirtatious Meeting Part 2 of 2 - Date Night

A/N - Hey, so I incorporated this into part 2, I hope you all enjoy it. I've watched the Mirage vids on Youtube an Ungodly amount of times until I can see the film again.

Warnings - None.

Rating - T

You were beyond upset upon coming back from Peru with Noah and the Autobots. In only a short while, you had been faced with the prospect of alien life, your planet had been threatened, and you had borne witness to the death of Airazor.

Moreover, your new friend and ally Mirage was… Well, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots assured you that he wasn’t dead, but that in giving up the majority of his body to be used as Noah’s battle armour, he wasn’t entirely functional. It was like Mirage was in a coma, and he would remain that way until his body was rebuilt around his processor and exoskeleton.

So much for your date, though after getting to know Mirage, you weren’t entirely sure if he had only been toying with you when you first met. Either way, you just wanted him to be okay.

Fortunately, Noah had promised you that he was going to do everything in his power to restore Mirage to his former glory, even if he had to use a network of his criminal friends to get spare parts.

You supposed that given the circumstances, you should be happy about how things had turned out. Stuck between relief at your planet’s survival, and despondency over all that had occurred, you settled for contentment with your scenario. When you got home, you would be sure to continue your old life, even if you felt that you had outgrown it exponentially.

Over the next few months, much changed, but there was a lot that stayed the same. You were given a job as part of a secret organisation that allowed you to continue working with the Autobots. Frankly, you felt rather out of your depth, but the Autobots had your back and insisted that you were one of the few humans they were willing to cooperate with; thanks to them, you didn’t have to worry about job security as you learned your way around your new role.

However, at the end of the night, you still went back to your old apartment, sometimes meeting up with friends, but more often than not, you were alone, due to conflicting schedules. Then, you would crash on the sofa, flick through some TV channels which usually disinterested you, and eventually call it a night and head to bed.

It was on such a night that Mirage found you. He stood on his tiptoes in the dead of night, trying to get a glimpse into your apartment, and it was there that he saw you watching E.T. of all things, snuggled in an old blanket hugging your knees to your chest.

Although Mirage always faked confidence to the best of his ability, he was somewhat concerned that you wouldn’t like the way he looked now. Before, his plating was beautiful, sleek Cybertronian plating with a paint job worth bragging about. Now however, he was a mess of spare parts, most of which were rusty and all of which had been upcycled from wrecked cars that weren’t worth thinking about.

Still, he was functional, and he had promised you a date.

Summoning a confident smile that would have earned him a free drink from the right bartender back home, Mirage tapped on your window.

You looked curiously over expecting to find children chucking pebbles at windows and then running away in an immature game. Upon seeing Mirage who gave a half wave, you jumped up, hurrying over and opening the window.

“So, I go away for a while and you cheat on me with an alien who can barely even talk,” Mirage remarked, gesturing to the TV.

“Oh my God, you���re okay,” You exclaimed unwilling to be sidetracked.

“I am.”

“And you’re really here.”

“In the metal plating.”

“And I’m in my pyjamas,” You finished lamely, looking down at the Marvin the Martian tee and sweatpants you were wearing.

You crossed your arms self-consciously.

“I’ve seen worse looks,” Mirage replied in a blasé manner.

You laughed quietly, tears reaching your eyes. “It’s good to see you Mirage… Are you really alright?”

“Alright? I’ve never been better. See, tonight’s our date night, so, unless you’re super invested in that shrivelled raisin, I believe I promised you a night at the drive-in.”

Mirage held out his servo for you to climb on. You glanced back into your apartment. “Okay, give me a sec to get changed.”

“No, no, no,” Mirage shook his head. “Keep the PJs. They’re cute. Besides, E.T. on the TV, Marvin the Martian on your clothes, a date with me. Call it a hunch but I think you’ve got a thing about aliens.”

“Let’s hope you have a thing for humans then, or this may not be a good match,” You winked flirtatiously.

“Oh, you better believe it, now come on, I’m itching to get back on the road.”

“Just promise me one thing.”

“Sure, whatever you want.”

“Drive as fast as you can.”

Mirage revved his engines excitedly, already finding you to be the most fascinating person in his life, “You bet!”

You sat in Mirage’s passenger seat, the two of you on a hill that overlooked the Drive-In. It was far better than being in the parking lot since this was just you and him, and he had hacked the theatre’s speakers so you could both hear the film through his radio.

The film playing was a new release, The Mask, and it had both you and Mirage howling with laughter.

Yet, while the movie played, you were still left wondering whether Mirage was serious about a relationship or whether this was just some fun game for him. After all, he was a magnificent, witty, giant robot, who had seen so much in his life traversing space. And you? Well, you were only human.

After the film was over, Mirage drove you back to your apartment, parking in the alley so he could lift you back up to your window.

“Tonight was fun,” You smiled. “…You’re fun.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m the best guy you’ve ever met,” Mirage complimented himself. “So, same time next week?”

“Sure. Sounds like a plan.”

“Alright, yeah!” Mirage pumped his fist to his body in celebration. “So I’ll see you later?”

“Any time you want.”

“And?”

“And…?” You asked cluelessly.

“And I deserve a little something before I go. A little kiss on the cheek. Something to think about while we’re apart.”

He motioned you over towards him with his helm, “Come on, gimme a little, a little sugar, a little boost for the night.”

You chuckled, leaning on your tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Mirage swivelled his head to kiss your lips at the last moment.

“Woo, yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” He exclaimed upon parting.

You blushed, “So, this is all real then. You’re actually serious about dating me? Even though I’m a human.”

“As serious as you are about dating an Autobot,” Mirage declared proudly.

“Good, ‘cos I’ll be thinking about that kiss all week… and thinking about what we can do together next week.”

“Oh, there we go. That’s a way to keep a guy motivated about a relationship. Mm, yeah, this is gonna be wild. All right, I’ll catch you later, baby.”

With that Mirage transformed and drove off, hooting and hollering. He got into three more police chases before returning to base, his excitement serving only to rile him up.

With Mirage out of sight, you hurried to grab your phone, picking up the phonebook with it and then punching in Noah’s number. You paced as far through your kitchenette as the landline would let you, twirling your fingers up in the cord.

“Hello, Noah Diaz speaking,” Noah answered dutifully, expecting that it would be a call from his mother’s work, demanding her to work overtime.

“Noah,” You squealed, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“(Y/N)?”

“Mirage just came over. He looks great. Thank you for saving his life.”

“Yeah,” Noah said dazedly, “No worries.”

“Seriously Noah, I’m so glad you tried to steal him that night. You scored me the best boyfriend ever!”

[freeuselandonorris]

hi! i've been thinking about this for some time; when did you realise that lando and oscar had potential as a pairing? like is there a specific video/moment that got you thinking 'ooh that's a very interesting dynamic/there's something more behind this stare/gesture etc etc' and that eventually led you to write rpf of them (for which i'm very grateful 🙏🏻). i think mine has to be the finish the lyrics video with oscar looking at lando while licking/biting his lips (at 3:56) and i was kinda flabbergasted bc even though i had been following the sport and the extra content for a while and also knew that ppl shipped charles and max and such i wasn't really aware of the possibilities this sport presented. and this video kinda led me down a rabbit hole of searching for fics on ao3 etc... so yeah i was curious to know what was your starting point with landoscar!

also, somewhat related but what's the video/picture of them that feels the most intimate to you? in a 'i shouldn't be seeing this' way. the behind the scenes video of the opening credits for the 2024 season and stuff (at 2:18 ) is the first thing that comes to mind, with their little convo that feels so normal and laid-back and yeah, intimate. + the thing lando does with his fingers while looking oscar dead in the eye got me blushing. maybe it's because of the hushed tone, the fond looks and the smiles they exchange, the small talk etc but hhh idk i love this vid so much. also the fact that oscar is the only one who goes to see his teammate getting ready? anyways. i could also list the countless pictures of oscar looking at lando like he hung all of the stars in the sky but i won't bc this ask is already long enough!

hope you have a lovely day/afternoon/evening depending on the time it is when you're reading this!

helloooo!! ahh this is such a cute q and a nice excuse to go back through my mctwinks tag thank you 🥰

so i’ve been watching F1 and reading fic for it for 47292 years now and i read a bit of dando when they were teammates (and an even smaller bit of carlando but i am very meh about carlos) so i was like. aware of lando as an rpf concept but didn’t really get super into him?

thennn i read a few oscarmark fics around the time he joined mclaren, and a few months after that i also saw the two extremely camp lando moments that are red flag green flag and whatever the hell was going on with that baseball guy. at which point i caught brain rot and demanded that @scenetocause do a roundup of landoscar fics for me.

(this moment literally had me googling 'is lando norris bisexual')

i do think though that the moment that made me really get obsessed with them and want to write as much as possible for them (and definitely the catalyst for starting mondayverse!) was also finish the lyrics! the ‘love story’ bit in particular really had me like. going full galaxy brain about them. it just really sums up their dynamic to me, lando being a bit of a show-off because he's revelling in oscar's attention and oscar happy to give it to him and also kind of shyly being nudged into performing a bit too. wauuuh.

and YESSSS the little smoothie moment!!! god. that was also my first thought for most intimate moment between them both, the way they match each other’s vocal cadences and the whole conversation has that sweet air of a series of in-jokes (“this is what we LIVE for!”) just makes me feel sooo warm and fuzzy about them. it's intimate in the sweetest, softest, most mundane sense of the word. also lando fingerbangs a table and that should not be overlooked.

runner up moment goes to this tiny moment from lando that i love so much, in the season wrap-up video last year where he makes this sweet little heart gesture and his face lights up when oscar compliments him. makes me melt every time.

thanks anon this was v enjoyable to think about even though my answers don’t differ from yours very much! hope you’re having a lovely day too 💕

[genericpuff]

Have you seen the Webtoon "Working with an Editor" Video? I feel like this explains a lot of how the platform's Originals end up in the states that they do. Based on that vid, it seems their editors are less the developmental or copy types, and more acquisitions and managerial focused. Which explains how some series have "an editor" for editorial oversight, while not being what readers would consider "edited".

oh there are... definitely things about the editors I can tell you based on what I've read and even been told directly by some Originals creators (obviously their names are going to remain anonymous here lol) Before I go into it, every editor and every contract is different, I have no way of actually knowing what goes on behind the scenes due to not being an Originals creator myself, so please take what I'm about to say with mountains of salt as much of it was either learned secondhand through creator AMA's and at best, firsthand through anonymous Originals creators who I've communicated directly with. Ultimately you should be getting your facts from the creators who actually speak up on this matter, not me.

1.) WT has a VERY small pool of editors who are currently being stretched incredibly thin. Bre Boswell, as an example, currently oversees 20+ comics, including Lore Olympus (though not anymore haha), Nevermore, The Kiss Bet, Down to Earth, and Castle Swimmer. She is not the only one with this big of a workload. Obviously with one person having to oversee this many series at once, it's virtually impossible for them to do the actual "editing" part of their jobs, even if they genuinely want to.

2.) The role of WT editor isn't the same as a traditional editor - many of them are simply liasons between creators and Webtoons, meaning any questions creators have about their schedules, salaries, etc. are directed to their editors who then contact WT on their behalf and relay the response back to the creators. The bare minimum requirement for their job seems to be just making sure that creators are following terms of services. The traditional role of editing - proofreading, offering advice and storytelling tweaks, etc. - seems to be entirely optional and dependent on how much time the editor can devote to the series (see #1) + how much creative input the creator is willing to accept.

3.) With how low WT's standards are and how overworked a lot of editors have become, many editors actually stop reading their respective comics after the first few episodes once they're confident that the creator can handle the series on their own without needing check-ups that they're following ToS. So in that respect they truly do just become messenger owls between the creators and WT (and IIRC creators send their episodes to their editors to upload, they don't do it manually themselves). This is also why there are webtoons that share the same editor but differ greatly in quality of writing and art - how well a webtoon is written and drawn is often entirely dependent on the creators making it (it's why Nevermore manages to be so consistently good despite having the same editor as Lore Olympus which is consistently awful lmao).

As an added little thing, I will not say who, but there is a specific editor who... often gets a looot of special treatment from WT, from what I've been told and heard. A lot of their series get away with way more than what others do and get a lot more advertising privileges.

(and no, it's actually not Bre LOL from what I've been told Bre is actually a very sweet person who's very chill to work with haha)

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Tragically, an IDF helicopter attacked a building in Gaza that had Israeli soldiers inside. At least one of them was killed. I've heard people claiming that there's no such thing as mistakes or collateral damage, that if Palestinian civilians get killed, it's because Israel wanted that, but this is a reminder that mistakes DO happen, and that every army, no matter how good, will get some people killed that it never intended to. This soldier's family asked for his details not to be published. May his memory be a blessing.

Israel is going to open a border crossing into Gaza, which had been closed since the Oct 7 massacre and Hamas attacks on the border crossings, in order to make the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza even more efficient.

A man shot at a Jewish synagogue in the US last night, on the first eve of Hanukkah, while shouting "Free Palestine." If it's anti-Zionism, not antisemitism, why do these incidents keep happening?

We're hearing here in Israel more and more reports on canceled Hanukkah festivities and candle lighting due to different claims, but the bottom line remains heartbreaking no matter which excuse is used. The biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust led to further punishment of Jews.

Here's extra Hanukkah candles for all Jews out there, please know that here in Israel, we are always with you!

In NYC, a shop that's a part of an Israeli company decided to have a special sale to raise money for the Israeli rape victims of Hamas. Two of the shop's employees resigned. Reportedly, they're women. The Jewish community replaced them with volunteers.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sent a letter to media organizations, including the New York Times, warning them about their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, since their reporters were "clearly embedded with Hamas."

For anyone who still doesn't understand why most Jews have been upset since Oct 7:

Following the discussion in congress about antisemitism, where the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn couldn't bring themselves to denounce a call to genocide the Jews as harassment, Rabbi David Wolpe, a member of Harvard's committee to combat antisemitism, resigned, saying it became evident to him he couldn't help create the change he was hoping for.

I mentioned Gal Eizenkott in my daily update post yesterday, the 25 years old son of Israeli minister Gadi Eizenkott, the IDF's former chief of staff. Gadi is a part of Israel's war cabinet, the small team making the most essential decisions on the fighting. The IDF's spokesman, Daniel Hagari, mentioned yesterday that Gal didn't have to serve in this war, he volunteered to.

This is not that important in the larger scheme of things, but since I've shared vids of IDF soldiers helping Palestinians in Gaza, why not also one of IDF soldiers helping animals in Gaza? Especially since I love donkeys. They are SO sweet. Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza found, during a break, a donkey that was abandoned in a field, with its legs tied together by a rope. The soldiers set it free:

This is 68 years old Dror Kaplun.

He was believed to be kidnapped by Hamas. Last night, Israeli archeologists working on the scene of the Hamas massacre managed to find frgaments of his bones next to the fence of his kibbutz. He was the son of Holocaust survivors. His wife Marcel was also murdered. May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[zalrb]

If you don’t mind me asking, why does loumand work for you a bit more than loustat

I don't mind at all! Loumand works for me more because a) the show allowed me to see in scene that their relationship is more fucked up than initially presented whereas Loustat is more me liking the idea of them because season 1 is mostly dialogue and b) I also find it more sinister just more subtle.

So, Loustat is supposed to be this volatile, stormy, all-consuming vortex of a relationship but like I've been saying, I think that's mostly in dialogue that makes me go, I want to see this (including the push pull of sentiments like "I wanted him dead, I wanted him all to myself" "I wanted to be the man" because those lines are voiceovers over Louis' face and while I think Jacob Anderson is a good actor, he doesn't provide the nuance needed for me to see the hatred, love, desire, resentment in his expression for those lines to really get me when it’s just on his face) along with a few key moments -- such as having hate sex in Antoinette's apartment, the reveal of what actually happened when they turned Claudia into a vampire -- that make me go, it should be this all the time.

It's supposed to be insanity and chaos, it's supposed to be this rollercoaster of emotion, like when Louis says "that's Lestat" where he says lies and lies and then says something real, I thought to myself, is that Lestat? Did we really see this before? They are way too contained for me, which is partly why I like making vids for them because I can edit things to be as chaotic as I believe they're supposed to be. I hear them talk about what their dynamic is more than I actually see it, so watching it I get frustrated because it should be more.

Loumand isn't supposed to be insanity and chaos, they are supposed to be light and flirty and then calming and stable and I see that in their interactions

but I also see the other part of why Louis is attracted to his relationship with Armand. Armand is extremely powerful but Louis is in control, he can tell him to take his clothes off and read while he fucks him and Armand will love it

Louis sets the pace, Louis leads.

Or so he thinks.

The show portrayed Armand as somewhat passive and docile for a 500 year old vampire in charge of a coven. We get a sense of his power and what he can do but he only seems to react to potential conflict, which he says

and then we get 2x05 and we get to see what he's like when he's angry and his, "Oh, he's fine. You're fine. This is fine. We're all fine" while torturing Daniel to hurt Louis

and him interrogating Daniel because he's hurt that Louis called him boring,

besides being more interesting to me than something like Lestat bringing soldiers to the house in a temper tantrum because I find Armand's calculated punishment way more insidious (which isn’t to downplay Lestat’s abuse), I am shown that this relationship isn't quite right and Armand isn't toothless.

Not to mention, he doesn't tell Louis that Lestat said "I love you" so if he's withholding that,

combined with what happened with the photos

combined with the fact that Armand had been hovering around the interview from the beginning pretending to be someone else,we're left wondering if this is true

and then when we get to Armand's role in Claudia's death, we're left questioning whether or not this supremely powerful vampire really was as powerless to stop it as he tells us he was

and while Armand's love may be sincere, his protection of Louis may be sincere, is he also maybe emotionally manipulating him to stay?

It's ironic that Louis says this

when it's quite clear that he does need these things and the way Armand even interacts with him in that very fight is him doing the things Louis says he doesn't need.

I'm along for the ride with Loumand and left wondering who is in control, who is manipulating who, and find that the show actually illustrates the subtleties and power shifts etc in more than just moments.

[torashisama]

WoT 207 ''Daes Dae'mar'': A detailed theory-analysis

DISCLAIMER :

This explanation is a detailed one. It is a deep dive into the season taking into account the point of view of all the relevant protagonists and antagonists of the game of houses that took place in Cairhien before our eyes in S2E07.Therefore, It's seemingly endless. If you don't enjoy reading or simply does not want to take the time to read, listen and watch all of it. You can check the following links to find the initial (shorter and less detailed, also outdated but still relevant) version of this explanation:

FOREWORD :

Excuse any eye piercing mistakes I might make or clunky phrasings you might notice, I'm French and ADHD's a bitch.

I've seen a lot of confusion about how Lan figured out about Moiraine. So, I analysed his POV throughout the season and those of the relevant characters in all of this so that it's clear for everyone as understanding part 1 is the central and fundmental part of this theory. It would be best for everyone, if there was no confusion.

PS: THE SCENES ARE IN HYPERLINKS FORMS BECAUSE I CAN'T PUT MOST THAN 1 VID PER POST, also forget about the backlinks. I forgot that the url would change if I went back to the different scenes after posting so that it'll stay like this but they won't work. ( no even sure they'll be necessary, i added them in case it was, so it'ss not an issue)

Let's theorise now, shall we ?

Part 1. Lan's and other relevant characters point of views throughout the season

E01 : A taste of Solitude

Here, his point of view is not important as it's mostly about how the bond being severed for the last 6 months affected him. What we can still point out from this episode is that at the beginning, Moiraine finally understands what the broken piece of Cuendillar at the Eye of The World meant. She understand thanks to the poem that was written on the back of the one that Bayle had, that all this time Ishamael was freed not defeated.

And that, at the end, when she first tried to leave without Lan, they ended up getting hurt and almost dying then getting rescued from the Fades who were following Bayle Domon by Verin and Tomas. ( (educated guess thanks to E08)Lanfear used him to get to Mo trough the fades, Moiraine was supposed to die before she had the chance to intervene.)

E02 : Strangers and Friends

After the Fades attack, Moiraine and Lan have been healed.

She's cold and leaving for the "docks", Verin tells her that Adeleas and her will accompany her and suggests that she goes to the White Tower first. She agrees. Later, at night, seated around a campfire listening to Verin, Adeleas and Tomas reminisce about their youth, Lan and Moiraine gets to do the same and remembers the first time they met each other. Sometime after, it's time for them to say goodbye and go their separate ways. Lan, while Moiraine is distracted, searches her saddle in which he finds a worn out piece of paper that is laced into what appears to be a thin thread of leather, before he can take a look at it, Moiraine comes back and he hides his findings in his cloak. They talk.

"I should have sensed the Fades were coming. I should have… I'm sorry. "

"Do you know when I actually decided you'd be my Warder?"

[…]

"You'll go to the Tower and I'll continue alone."

[…]

"We didn't defeat the Dark One, we set his strongest lieutenant free. The Forsaken are 3000 years old. They're the strongest channelers that ever lived, and Ishamael may be waking the others. What they can do with the One Power make the Aes Sedai look like tavern magicians conjuring birds from their sleeves. I mean, he cut me off with a flick of his wrist."

"But it takes eight Aes Sedai to cut someone off. Alone, he couldn't, no matter how…"

"You have no conception of the power they wield. "

"Well, then tell me.You and I walk this path together. […]"

"We've never walked this path together. You've never seen the forest for the trees because I have never shown it to you."

"You can't push me away."

"Rand's alive."

"No. You said he was dead."

"You assumed."

[…]

"I took an oath to defend you. "

"And without the bond, you're unable to fulfil that oath."

"I'm still your Warder.""

"No, you failed me.""

[…]

"I am not letting you walk away from me again."

"I know. Alanna will see you to the Tower. I'll have her take your bond by force if I must."

Lan from his last conversation with Moiraine before Siuan, Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon becomes relevant factors learns that :

He had been chosen as her warder because she thought "he'll ultimately will be fine if I die"

She wants to leaves him behind again

They did not defeat the Dark One at the Eye but only made things worse by releasing his strongest lieutenant, a forsaken: Ishamael a.k.a Ishy.

Ishamael is most likely than not on a quest to release the other ones.

The forsaken are so much more stronger than the Aes Sedai that the difference is hilarious to think about.

Ishy apparently stilled her by himself.

Mo's betrayed his trust for the last 6 months by lying the Aes Sedai way ( purposefully misleading him) about Rand's death.

She thinks that he failed her and isn't her warder anymore.

She never thought of him as her equal.

She'd betray his trust again by letting Alanna take his bond by force (violate him) so that he'd let her leave alone on her suicide mission.

E03: What Might Be

This episode is unusable as Lan only appears as a part of Nynaeve's trial in the arches. However, we can still count the day or days passing in this episode to try and know how long it's been since Moiraine and Lan have been separated.

I've found that it's only been a day since they left each other by the end of episode 3.

E04: Daughter of the Night

When we first see Lan again since he's been forced to leave with Alanna, He's already been 2 days and 1 night away from Moiraine. This episode will be the 3rd day and 2nd night.

During the day, he's with Alanna and instead of heading straight back for the Tower they pay a visit to Alanna's family.

He eats with them ( lunch ) then he leaves the table to go take a piss, he expected Maksim or Ihvon as before but this time it's Alanna that came to see him. They talk.

[…]

"a warm memory. Something worth living for. And at that point… "

"So we're going to skip all of that.,I don't think you're gonna kill yourself. Your bond wasn't ripped from you. She took it. So have you decided what you're going to do now?"

"Have I worn out my welcome? "

"The three of us, we are going back to the Tower tomorrow. Will you come with us?"

[…]

"I wish you could've known Moiraine before. "

"Before what? "

"Something happened to her. About years ago now. A year or two before she bonded you. One day she was simply… changed. The way water becomes ice, and you look at it and wonder how it was ever water before. "

"Was she happier, then?"

"I don't know. I don't know if she's ever been happy. "

Later during the day, in the afternoon, he talks with Maksim.

[…]

"Moiraine has left the bond masked for… the last six months or so."

"I thought I was the only Warder who could go that long. When Alanna first bonded me, it was miserable for everyone. I didn't like having an audience in my head, and she didn't like the show. So, the three of us talked it through, and we decided that she would mask her bond with me. Except in battle. And bed."

"Does the Tower know about this? "

"Have you ever known a marriage that is exactly the same as another? I know the others will tell you…you can't go back to Moiraine. But I'm proof that you can. If you want to."

And finally, at night he talks with Ihvon.

[…]

"It's something she said. You keep saying it to yourself over and over. A thousand cuts for her one. People don't understand that we quiet ones… are quiet because the conversation's always… playing out in our own heads."

"She said that, all these years… Mm…she never considered me an equal. "

"Of course not. We are not their equals, Lan. We're not supposed to be. An Aes Sedai can… call down lightning, raise mountains. The rest of the world only sees their power. We see their weakness. We remind them that they are not gods."

"I wouldn't think that… Alanna needed a reminder."

"Yeah, well, she knows we want the same thing as her. "

"What's that? "

"The triumph of the Light over the Dark. And dessert after. "

"What about Moiraine? What does she want? "

"Maybe that's the problem. I don't think I know anymore. "

While they're talking, Maksim who was meditating with them but left them alone before they started talking, found the old and worn out piece of paper that Lan previously took from Moiraine. He shows it to Alanna, who reads it and immediately understand what it could mean about Lan and maybe Moiraine too. Is he a dark friend ? Are they dark friends ? Later during the night, while Lan is asleep, Ihvon joins them and they talk it out, outside the house, Ihvon then reads it and they figure out that it's a prophecy in the Old Tongue about a forsaken, specifically about the Daughter of the Night, Lanfear. They're not sure of what to think yet, but they now suspect Lan.

E05: Damane

In this episode we do not follow Lan, Alanna, Ihvon or Maksim. There's is no point of view for them while they're travelling together but we can add 2 nights and a day to the counter. It's been 4 days and 4 nights away from Moiraine and as many days and nights spent with Alanna and her warders for Lan. However, we do get Verin's point of view.

After just arriving at the Tower, she asked after Nynaeve and Egwene but it turned out that they were nowhere to be found. Not in their rooms, not doing chores or in class and somehow, it was the same for the Daughter-heir of Andor, Elayne. They seemed to have disappeared so she went to see Sheriam Sedai, the current Mistress of Novices to try and understand where they could have vanished.

[…]

"Why, Verin Sedai. I was unaware you'd be visiting us."

[…]

"Uh, what can I do for you, Sister?"

"I was hoping to have a word with two of the girls in your care, Egwene al'Vere and Nynaeve al'Meara. Do you know where I might find them?"

"Uh, they are likely busy doing their chores. "

"In fact, they aren't. Nor are they in their class, nor in their rooms. And, um, also the Daughter-Heir of Andor is nowhere to be found."

"Is it possible they may have left Tower grounds?"

"The Daughter-Heir? It's worth taking a look, don't you think? "

"Oh. Uh… Oh, goodness, yes. Here it is. A visit to Elayne's home in Caemlyn. The three were signed out just the other day."

"That seems worth remembering. "

"It is. I, um…I don't know how it slipped my mind, frankly."

"It's quite unusual".

"That it is."

[…]

"Oh, yeah, I have another question for you. I was in the library asking after a book, Meditations on the Kindling Flame? Oh, yes, I've been meaning to return it. It's in my room, actually. Do you need it? Just for a short passage on the Amyrlin Tetsuan, uh… if you could. "

Verin went to the library before going to Sheriam and asks Nomy and Yassica about the "new very powerful Novices".

We don't actually see this happening, but since she went to the tower knowing about Moiraine's adopted kids and particularly about Rand, she must have wanted to meet them as opposed to being able to meet the Dragon Reborn himself ( being bothered by her insatiable curiosity again). She learns that they are nowhere to be found, knowing what link they might have with the Dragon Reborn, she finds suspicious that just after Moiraine got attacked by 3 Fades and went looking for the Dragon Reborn, again, that her girls would appear to have left tower grounds with no one knowing about their departure. With these information in mind, before going to see Sheriam, she takes some precaution to ensure that she discovers the whole truth if for some reason Sheriam was not revealing it all. Knowing all of this, we can deduce that she had the following course of action:

Go to the Library and asks her fellow trusted brown sisters about the girls, after she tells her that it seems like they're not in the tower anymore, She asks them to help if she suspects that Sheriam, might not be telling her the whole truth during their talk.

ask about a book she borrowed and did not return yet, so that they can use it's mention as a signal and use it as a diversion (Meditation on the Kindling Flame).

Look for Ny, Eggy and Elayne

Ask and look around for them

Go to Sheriam and ask about the girls disappearance and determine whether it would be wise to use the backup plan.

Signal to Yassica that they're following the plan, that their conversation is coming to an end and that they'll soon get out of her study.

Distract Sheriam long enough so that Yassica retrieves all of the supposedly useful information.

Meet Yassica to talk about her findings.

Get the names of every Aes Sedai who left the tower in the last few days because it seems that a weave of compulsion was used on Sheriam (so Black Ajah).

Get the prophecies about the DR for Moiraine ? (not sure that she ever did)

Liandrin cross examination

Liandrin successfully fails

[…]

"I, um, I thought you were in Jurene hunting a young man suspected of channeling. "

"Luckily it was nothing."

"Hmm. "

"But… I did… bring back some white asparagus. If you'd like some. It's a delicacy from the village. You can only… "

"Procure them there and only at this time of year. "

"Yes."

[…]

"That's strange. Novices shouldn't be allowed to… "

"Well, they've, uh… they've gone to a name day ceremony in Caemlyn. "

"I'd heard on the road back that a royal envoy going to Caemlyn was attacked south of here. "

"By whom?"

"Uh, a soldier at the inn. He said it was… bandits or Whitecloaks. But if the girls were with them… Come, we must talk to the Keeper immediately. Those girls are worth more than gold itself. Hurry."

Even though her suspicions about Liandrin are at an all time high, I think that she did go with her to go "talk to the Keeper". It's the last time we see her before Cairhien.

E06: Eyes Without Pity

It's been 4 days and 4 nights, Moiraine got to Rand the night before and finally separated him from Lanfear. Defeated and her plans for the Dragon Reborn interrupted.

MOIRANE AND RAND

[…]

Lanfear: "But, if you actually want to work with me… I have one condition. "

Moiraine: "What did she say?"

"I have to go."

"Where? Did she tell you where… "

"No. Away from you. That was her condition. If she sees us together again, she'll kill you".

Lanfear, goes to Liandrin who she's been prying on in the World of Dreams. They talk.

[…]

"Ishamael said he'd freed you, but I…"

"Tell me, why do you work for him? For Ishamael? You hate men. With one exception, it seems."

[…]

"Men hurt us… betray us, and still, we love them. You swore your oaths to keep him alive, but this is not life. "

"I know. "

"He's holding you back. The last tie to the girl you used to be. The girl who was beaten and starved, and forced to marry before she bled. "

"I know. "

"And that's why I'm here, to do what you can't. A gift only one woman can give to another."

[…]

"You swore your oaths to the Dark, not to Ishamael. You cannot take them back. It's impossible. But there are many paths to walk through the night."

(optional but recommended) : Torashi's thoughts about Lanfear and Liandrin

Liandrin ends up switching sides at the end of this conversation. She will now aid Lanfear, not Ishy and Lanfear gives her the task of killing Moiraine (it's the 2nd assassination attempt). She needs to get rid of her but can't kill her herself because she wants Rand to trust her and believe in her and her cause.

Meanwhile, Moiraine is in Cairhien with Rand and at some point she attempts to write a letter in response to her "Dearest Siuan" to update her on the situation and finally tell her the truth about being stilled but she can't. At least, not yet. Only, she did not expect Lan to overtake her.

Lan's point of view (during night 4)

It's night, Lan, Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon are travelling. We don't know where exactly they're going but we can expect them to be going towards the Tower as it was what was planned. All this time spent with them, Lan has been pondering on the idea, that, maybe, Moiraine, really is not stilled but something else. He does not know what but he needs to at least dissipate his doubts. On the other side, Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon still suspects Lan of being a Dark Friend. During their trip, they purposefully choose to stop at a Forsaken temple to observe his behavior and judge him. Lan having these doubts in the back of his mind, wants to get to the Amyrlin seat, Siuan Sanche, who happens to be Moiraine's secret wife. He needs more information on the forsaken and needs to know where to find Siuan, so that she can help him dissipate his doubts ( he understands the old tongue- he understood what Ihvon meant by "Blood calls blood") and help him find how to help Moiraine.

Alanna : "Here's as good a place to stop as any. I'm dying for some tea."

Lan: "This is a temple to the Forsaken. Interesting choice."

Maksim: "Shelter's shelter. "

Lan: "We'll need the Amyrlin's permission for me to return to the Tower. Moiraine's banishment applies to me until our bond is formally removed from Tower records."

Alanna: "The Amyrlin won't be back for another few days yet. She's returning from a visit to Caemlyn."

Lan: "Forsaken. Do you believe they had powers the Aes Sedai have lost? Weaves this Age has forgotten?"

Ihvon: "They were the generals of the Dark One's army. The things they did, our Aes Sedai would never even consider."

Alanna: "What you're willing to do changes depending on what you're faced with."

[sometime later Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon are supposed to be distracted, having fun in their tent. Lan attempts to leave but they were watching him all along. He's cornerded by Ihvon and Maksim then trapped in the One Power by Alanna.]

Maksim : "It's rude to leave while your friends are sleeping."

Ihvon: "Ruder still to use your weapon against them."

Lan: "I don't want to fight you. "

Maksim: Rejection's a relatively new experience. You'll have to forgive me for asking, but… where are you going, old friend?

Lan : That is my business.

[…]

Alanna: "The Amyrlin did not banish you from Tar Valon. You know that. You wanted me to tell you where she is. Why?"

Lan: "I need to find her."

Alanna: "What do you want from Siuan Sanche ?"

Alanna: "You will tell us the truth, al'Lan Mandragoran. We will kill you were you stand if you don't."

Lan: "We found the Dragon Reborn."

[Lan goes to Siuan to tell her the truth about her wife, so that she can help him check whether he was right to doubt a forsaken's ability to still someone alone and help her.]

It's the last time we see them before the new day starts. They had all night to talk to each other, research (if needed) and come up with a plan.

DURING DAY 5

-MORNING

Lan is preventing Rand from leaving to go to Falme, alone, without Moiraine. He's accompanied by Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon.

Moiraine sends Jonas to give a letter to a trusted sister of hers of the Blue Ajah so that she can "get it where it needs to go" (To Siuan I suppose). She apologises to Barthy and he hugs her, they're interrupted by Anvaere.

"The Amyrlin Seat is here, in Cairhien, with 14 Aes Sedai, and she's demanded an audience with you."

Liandrin's in Cairhien, thanks to her, we know that Siuan summoned them without disclosing why.

"The last time the Amyrlin Seat called 14 sisters to meet with her in Cairhien, we installed a new king on the Sun Throne."

"Well, maybe this Amyrlin is a little more frivolous daughter."

"Hmm. "

"We'll have to wait and see."

In this part, we learned that :

Lan was suspicious from the moment that he learned how Moiraine got stilled by Ishy.

He doubted what his next step should be and thanks to Ihvon and Maksim, he knew that he had to get back and COULD go back to Moiraine.

He needed to get to Siuan before so that she could help him get back to Moraine and check whether he could have been right or not about her not being stilled.

He told Alanna about Rand and never disclosed that Moiraine could not channel or that Siuan and her were working together or that they are lovers.

He went to see Siuan, they talked and planned an intervention to save Moiraine from herself.

Lanfear used Domon to get to Moiraine trough the fades to kill her before she could do anything about Rand. (educated guess when informed by E08)

Lanfear rallied Liandrin to her cause and tasked her to take care of Moiraine for her. (educated guess when informed by E08)

Verin now knows about the dragon and is going to the Tower to look for prophecies about the dragon for Moiraine.

Verin suspected Liandrin of being Black Ajah and of being able to use the weave of compulsion and left with her to "go see the keeper"

Siuan, Lan, Alanna, Ihvon and Maksim went to Cairhien

Siuan summoned 14 Aes Sedai there but did not disclose the reason why and demanded an audience with Moiraine

Lan prevented Rand from leaving without Moiraine for Falme accompanied by Alanna, Ihvon and Maksim.

Part 2. Liuan : Their off screen talk

Thanks to part 1, we can be assured that Siuan was the one who showed up at Cairhien and not the Amyrlin Seat. It was about Moiraine not the mission or Rand. They were secondary motives and afterthoughts. All that mattered when she saw Lan, was Moiraine. It would have been five days since she answered to Moiraine from their previous letter and she still did not have an answer, so she was already worried. In E06, when Moiraine attempts to write to Siuan before Barthy interrups her. It either was the first letter from E01 or a follow up one that Siuan sent out of worry. Lan showing up alone, probably was horrifying. As for Lan, is sole purpose and worry from the night Moiraine got "stilled" and they lost their bond was to help Moiraine, support her, be close to her again. Basically as he said:

Moiraine: "I don't know what you think you'll gain from this."

Lan: "Hopefully, everything we've lost."

Now onto the talk.

credit: @aflawedfashion

What we can deduce from E07 and the previous episodes we just deep dived into is that Lan told her more than she had just been stilled. He confirms that he went to Siuan doubtful near the end of episode 7 when he says :

"It never made sense to me, Moiraine. What you're feeling? Ishamael didn't still you. Not even a Forsaken could do that alone. It is a shield that he's tied off, which means… "

scene

He just told her what he tried to say from E02 (except this time he knows what it is if not stilling and how to fix it), but she wouldn't listen to him.

scene

So, between Liuan this is what he must have said:

Siuan, At the eye of the world, Moiraine actually fought a forsaken, he was not defeated.

She was mistaken, a few days ago she realised that we released him. We were wrong, we,lost at the eye of the world.

She's lost her ability to touch the source but she said that Ishamael stilled her alone. I don't think she's been stilled, Verin Sedai said that most stilled women ended up dying and that her behavior was not aligning with what's usually expected. After she told me that he stilled her alone I strongly doubted that she really was, I thought maybe it was something else, I told her but she brushed me off. Are they really that strong ? Can a forsaken really still someone alone ?

She's been casting me out for the last six months so I only learned about all of it 4 nights ago when she left me behind to go find Rand. He wasn't with us, she let me assume he died and let him leave.

She forced me to stay back with Alanna Sedai and her warders by threatening me of letting her take my bond by force. They were to take me back to the tower but before Moiraine left me I took a poem she had in her saddle, it was about Lanfear. Ishamael released her, Alanna Sedai found it and cornered me earlier as I was trying to get to you to confront me about it. She wouldn't let me go, she thought that I was to harm you and a dark friend, she was ready to kill me so I had to tell her about the dragon reborn so that she'd let me go.

Lan told her and knew everything she needed to know to be able to help her wife as she's always been doing. Only, this time, Moiraine would have to stay out of the loop. She's emotionally unstable and is not in a place where she could allow herself to think of such a possibility anymore, giving her hope for no reason wouldn't make for anything good.

optional but recommended : Thoughts about why Liuan decided to keep Moiraine out of the loop

We now wonder, what did they plan ?

Part 3. Liuan : The Plan

Before diving into this part, we need to know what might have happened between them beside their talk.

What can we deduce happened ?

Lan tells her everything and Siuan comes up with the plan and tells him what he'll have to do and they'll obviously use Rand as a pretext (well, Siuan will).

(I used to think that she could have not know as soon as he'd tell her since Moiraine herself did not think that a Forsaken wouldn't be able to do that but after further research and taking into account the fact that Lan immediately suspected it and that Moiraine judgement was clouded by her emotions, I now think that Siuan knew as soon as he told her. Anyway, whether she needed to check or not they had their plan which was not about the dragon in case you forgot but about Moiraine.)

Now, onto the discussed plan:

Siuan explains :

Lan you'll :

Get the boy, try to make him understand that he'll be fine but do not tell him the truth, we can't trust that he won't talk to Moiraine or that nobody will spy on you. I'll meet him and try and do the same and use our meeting as my main motive for coming to Cairhien, also, we'll need him to unshield her as I can't see Saidin (men half of the One power).

You'll check with Logain to know if we were right about her being shielded, we have to be sure before attempting anything.

Check if she ever wanted to kill herself if you have the chance.

Everything may not go as planned so be ready not to reveal that there's more than me meeting the boy and follow along with whatever I do.

This is what you'll have to do to un-shield her if we were right

If we get attacked you'll take her there. This will be our escape route in case we ever need it.

As for Alanna and her warders they'll be on the look out.

Most importantly, keep her safe, be careful and stand by her.

Siuan

I'll

Summon 14 Aes sedais and take them with me to Cairhien since we have 2 Forsaken on the loose trying to get him, they'll be useful in case we get attacked.

Meet and talk to Moiraine and distract her from what you'll be doing.

Meet the boy and try to make him understand that i'm on his side.

Alanna, Maksim and Ihvon

Look out for the Forsaken

Alert

Backup

Goals

The goal is to help Moiraine and that is it, probably discuss their next course of action regarding the plan since she might be stilled (which she can do with no problem since she doesn't know for sure that she isn't). As i've stated before, Rand and the mission in this case were the after thoughts as it is Siuan that decided to go to Cairhien and not the Amyrlin Seat.

Moiraine: "Siuan said you were leaving. Where were you going? "

(While they're the same person, they are not the same characters, Siuan isn't the Amyrlin Seat and the Amyrlin Seat is not Siuan but only a part of her, I thought the show made it clear enough but I'm reminding you all again anyway as i've seen that a lot (even other theorist and siuaraine shippers) seems to think that Siuan really went to Cairhien to take Rand away from Mo, cage him and stuff as if they did not show us that it simply was not how it worked between them and that she simply was not her position at all. Most misunderstood and underappreciated character sincerely (those who voted Hopper, i'm looking at y'all). Anyway, SHE IS NOT THE AMYRLIN SEAT AND THE AMYRLIN SEAT IS NOT SIUAN BUT ONLY A PART OF HER.)

So, Siuan shielding and putting Rand in a cell was improvised as he was leaving without Moiraine knowing and she needed him to be around anyway.

Daes dae'Mar : The Game of Houses, Liuan's plan put into practice

House Sanche-Mandragoran

Siuaraine meeting in the Sun Palace

Goals :

Meet and talk to Moiraine and distract her from what Lan will be doing.

Use meeting Rand as her main motive for coming to Cairhien.

[MOIRAINE] Mother. [SIUAN] Leave us, Daughter. She's no threat to me. [LEANE] I'll be right outside, Mother. [SIUAN] Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me you'd been stilled? Six months of letters, Moiraine. And not one word about this…this violation. [MOIRAINE] Well, what else did Lan tell you?

[MOIRAINE] That you threatened to let Alanna take his bond without his permission. You know he told her. That you found the Dragon. (half truth and deflection, she knew about the forsaken and talks about it later,)

[MOIRAINE] Why are you here, Siuan?

[SIUAN] I've let you carry this burden for years, love. You've given everything for it. From here on out, I row beside you. ( half truth, because she also was there to help Lan check her powers)

Moiraine: [SCOFFS] (not convinced)[gets hypnotised by Siuan's touch]

[SIUAN] It's time I met Rand al'Thor. (deflection)

scene

Lan takes Rand and prepare him to meet Siuan

Goals:

Prepare him to meet Siuan :

make him understand without telling him the truth that Siuan is on his side. Even though she's the Amyrlin. ( for the reason mentioned before but also, it's Cairhien)

[LAN] Tuck in your shirt. [RAND] What does the Amyrlin Seat want from me? Is this a trial? I saw what she did to the last man who called himself Dragon. (scared) [LAN] Is that why you ran from the Eye of the World? Why you hid here? (wonders why he left and questions if it was because he was afraid about sharing Logain's fate) [RAND] I left to protect the people I love. (angrily answers, offended by the assumption) [LAN] Don't be so selfish. You were born to protect this world. Every person in it. Not just the ones you love. (reminds him of his responsabilities as the Dragon Reborn)

Listen to me. The Amyrlin's a smart woman. She's a good woman. (reassures him about Siuan) And she comes from humbler beginnings than you. (she's not what she seems) [RAND] Does Moiraine know you're doing this? (asks about the only Aes Sedai he kind of trust) [LAN] There's one rule above all others for being a man. Whatever comes, you face it on your feet. ( ignores and teach him what his answer should be to the fear he's currently feeling)

Put this on. Give me your blade.

Heron Dips the Wing. You've been learning sword forms. (proud uncle moment) [RAND] I've learned a couple of things. [LAN] Keep the sword. (let him keep his sword as he is still stressed)

If the Amyrlin's afraid of you, it won't be for a sword. (build his confidence up)

If you're going to use one of the forms, use Cat Crosses the Courtyard, keep your back straight, every muscle loose. As if hung from a wire at the top of your head. (teaching moment)

Go. The Amyrlin waits.

scene

Siuan meets Rand while Mo'an are talking

[RAND] As you've summoned me, Mother, so I've come. I stand ready. [SIUAN] Do you now, boy? Lan has prepared you, I see. What else did he tell you? [RAND] That you aren't exactly what you seem. [SIUAN] Most people are not. In this world, it is wise to guard your truths, but not us. Not today. (she won't lie, since she can't but she's going to aes sedai her way out of his questions not to reveal blatlantly that she's on his side) I have questions for you. Answer truthfully.

[LATER]

[RAND] And then what? [SIUAN] You say you've been careful. How many times have you channeled? [RAND] Not many. Not deliberately. [SIUAN] You will continue to channel, as sure as roe makes fish. You can't help it. And if you don't learn to control it, you won't live long enough to go mad. (INFODUMP) [RAND] What kind of a choice is that? (when did she give him a choice exactly, please ?), (ignored question) Dying or going mad and killing everyone I love? (ignored) What if I'm tired of being a spoke in the Wheel? (acknowledged) [SIUAN] You're not a spoke, boy. You are the water that turns the Wheel itself or dashes it to pieces. (answers)

Do you know what Tower law says the Amyrlin must do if she finds the Dragon Reborn? (question and attemps at making him understand) [RAND] Gentle him? [SIUAN] Gentle him? No. How do you fight the Dark One without the One Power?

Some of my Red daughters would want that, I suppose, but… (beware of the reds basically) we are meant to cage you. (teaching, infodumping)

Keep you shielded, channeling only when we want, what we want. And when we go to fight the Last Battle, you will be the greatest weapon in our arsenal. But not our general.

This is not a conversation. (yes it is) You already made your decision. (indeed, 20 years ago dumbass) You made it before you ever met me. (how do you know? she made it looking in your other mom eyes the day you were born and ruined their retirement plans, BEHAVE RAND)

I won't live in your cage. (did she say SHE, would cage you or that the Amyrlin was MEANT to cage you ? she infodumped, you stupid boy)

(she had no other choice but to shield him as he was getting hostile, then Mother got mad, i can't blame her I would have too (actually I did), because how can you be so dense, mistaken and dumb, like why would you think you'd be able to do anything against the Amyrlin Seat, when you know nothing about channeling- je souffle (I sigh), je souffle, je souffle. Il fatigue(he tires).)

scene

Six months you've known what you are, and… you've learned nothing.

Six months! Huh?

She taught you nothing. (she's mad, and it takes a lot to get her to snap according to New spring so leave my girl alone, Mo took the decision alone, said nothing and did teach him nothing also from an objective stand point, she's not necessarily talking about chanelling. She's been over their whole discussion since he pulled a Nynaeve while asking about being tired of being a spoke or whatever )

A single Aes Sedai can handle you like baitfish. ( just an astute and accurate observation made with an iconic fish metaphor)

[SIGHS] (me too)

We would've been so much better off if you were a girl. (i'm sorry not sorry to the men who got butt hurt by this comment but she's right, had it been possible it would have been so much better and it's an objective truth, she basically stated a fact so get over it)

scene

Mo'an talk during Rand and Siuan are talking

Goals:

Check if she ever wanted to kill herself ( symptoms of stilling basically)

Do not to reveal that there's more than Siuan meeting Rand

[MOIRAINE] I don't know what you think you'll gain from this. [LAN] Hopefully, everything we've lost. [MOIRAINE] Leave. I have nothing to say to you. [LAN] I have a question for you. And I hope someday you'll forgive me for asking it. ( a single question huh ?)

After you were stilled by Ishamael, has there been a time… in all these months when you thought about ending it? [MOIRAINE] killing myself?

I read the Tower records. (keep that in mind,take a mental or physical note.) There have only been two women in history who were cut off who didn't. Most did it within the year. [MOIRAINE] No, I didn't. (Rand & Moiraine getting offended by Lan's perfectly reasonable and logical assumption)

Not for one second.

Because I know that protecting Rand, guiding him, that is the only thing that matters. More than me, more than you. More than anything. [LAN] That's what I thought. (happy Lan)

[MOIRAINE] And this whole thing you're doing with Siuan, it puts all of it… the Last Battle,the fate of the world… in jeopardy. (Yes, it's true but do I need to remind her "when have ever followed the rules?" or simply that these two never let her not take care of herself? WHY DID SHE EVEN EXPECT THEM TO CARE ABOUT THE WORLD IF SHE WASN'T FINE ? SUCH A DEPRESSED LOVABLE AND ANNOYING PUFFERFISH).

I apologise for my lack of professionalism,

It will definitely happen again though,you've been warned.

What isn't she telling me? (was not convinced by Siuan earlier, just hypnotised)

You have to trust someone at some point, Moiraine. You can't do this by yourself. You can't. And if it's not going to be me… then I thought it might at least be her. (deflect)

scene

Siuaraine, Mo'an, Liuan fight (+ red haired misbehaving toddler)

Goal:

distract Moiraine so that Lan can do his thing

improvised: shield rand and prevent him from leaving, as he's shown that he's ready to be hostile and harm, he's caged and to be kept shielded by Leane who knows nothing but that she has to shield him.

[SIUAN] Let them through. [MOIRAINE] Release him, Siuan. ( Mo, you don't even know what he did) Now. [SIUAN] No. We tried our way, Moiraine. -> true

And we nearly lost everything. -> true

The Tower's laws have stood for , 3000 years.-> infodumb

It's time we obeyed them. -> it was time from the moment they became accepted, it was already time in their hut when Moiraine was asking when did they EVER followed these rules. [LAN ] This is not what we agreed to. (true but he also remembered that bro was leaving alone when he found him and will stay quiet and follow along from now on)

[MOIRAINE] The Reds will gentle him.

[SIUAN] Not while I hold the Seat. -> true, even if she really wanted to follow the rules, she wouldn't let them.

[MOIRAINE] The Tower is filled with your enemies. -> true, she knows

You're this sure of your power? -> true, and siuan stays quiet because she can't Aes sedai her way out of this one

We each had a task, Siuan.

I was to find the Dragon Reborn. You were to get the Tower ready to support him. Or have you forgotten that day? -> something here snapped in her brain people, Moiraine angered her with this one and she loses her temper ( which is, AGAIN, hard to do according to New spring in case I needed to remind you)

[SIUAN]

Of course I have not forgotten.

But you were supposed to be with him, ready to shield him if he starts to go mad.

Yet here you are, stilled. (still isn't sure and it's what it appears to be so she can say it, and she is pissed)

You can't control him. -> true

You can't guide him. -> true

Can you imagine, Moiraine, if one of the Forsaken got their hands on him? (she gave herself away there, remember in the first meeting when I referenced this ? )

He's no more ready now than he was before you found him. -> true

You left the fate of the world to chance… -> true, she let him leave at the eye when she was not sure of what the fight they just "won" meant + she never told her that he left because she couldn't tell her why she let him leave and there was no other reason than she couldn't protect him anymore from the dark and himself and it was best if he laid low + it meant that telling, and admitting that she'd never touch the source again could be delayed

… for your pride. -> so yes but for those not agreeing with her statement there, we do not care, she just need to believe something to be able to say it. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

Tomorrow, when Queen Galldrian returns, we shall announce him as Dragon here in Cairhien… with Sisters by our side to show he is under our control. -> he's supposed to leave with Moiraine as soon as she's unshielded if they were right, no one knows about Rand but them and those who learned about it this season and it's one of the possible choice they could have made by actually having a conversation about what to do if Moiraine hadn't come in there after Lan told her to trust, ordering Siuan around, wanting to hear nothing else, when she didn't even know why he was shielded (he deserved the time out sincerely.)

Prepare him for what is to come.

I think she was saying this to both of them, and it had a double meaning.

Lan: Still on board, even though things got heated carry on with the plan, just lost my temper. ( would explain why the camera shows him and not Moiraine even though the whole conversation had been only between Siuaraine)

Mo and us: yeah i'm apparently ditching the plan we sacrificed 20 years for, and the one I came up with Lan, last night, without a discussion, just because i'm pissed after I told you her earlier that I was there to support you her. Yes, that is right, this is what is happening.

scene

Since there had been no objection, no attempt at bargaining or anything, just plain old silence. Siuan thought Moiraine had dropped the ball. She let her be, and Moiraine chose to stay with Rand. ( good because she'll still be distracted even though they're mad at each other right now) Had Moiraine been imprisoned too, she wouldn't have been allowed to be in the same cell, and Siuan would have disclosed that she had been stilled to Leane but she did not. Siuan trusted her, still, even though they just had a fight about their kid and knew that she had been Aes sedaying her way out of transparency for months. So,to her everything was mostly going according to plan but then Rand happened and introduced another player to the game that was currently unfolding before our innocent, untrained eyes and unaware minds.

House Lanfear- Al'Thor

Goals:

Get rid of Moiraine

Get Rand to Falme alone

[RAND] What is happening to me? [MOIRAINE] You've been shielded from the One Power. [RAND] Um… it feels… [MOIRAINE] As if you've lost everything you ever were and everything you could possibly be. Don't worry, it's temporary. She has to channel to keep the shield in place, but when it drops, you'll feel yourself again. [MOIRAINE] Siuan said you were leaving. (off-screen first meeting)

Where were you going? [RAND] Falme. Egwene is there. Ishamael has her. [MOIRAINE] Lanfear showed you this in the dream world? [RAND] I know they want me to go there. But why Falme, of all places? [MOIRAINE] The Dragon is supposed to proclaim himself there. "Bannered 'cross the sky in fire." [RAND] They want everyone to know who I am before they try to kill me. If they need me in Falme, then they certainly don't want me being held prisoner by the Amyrlin Seat.

He happened, and Moiraine broke Siuan's trust there once again by indulging in it.

As Justine Juel Gillmer( S1E06 and S2E07 writer) pointed out and explained : Moiraine feels like she lost Rand to Lanfear, operates without a clear path to follow for the first time and is all alone. She focuses only on Rand, nothing else matters (as i've pointed before myself too, during Mo'an's talk). (in the bonus)

So, she does nothing else than what she felt she could do : She stays by his side and tries to win him back. She says nothing,let him and indulges in his tendency to call on Lanfear (the dark) for help, thinking that she would be able to outsmart her even though she knows that she wouldn't have been able to see their interaction in the world of dreams, she trust Rand to give her all of the information that she'd need to know if something was wrong and Rand ends up asking Lanfear. A fair price to pay to gain some of his trust back: trusting each other and only one another and further harming the trust Lanfear made sure they would build while she was away and unaware. Without realising it, she built trust in one of her relationship, while harming one of hers too.

She breaks the trust that Siuan chose to still have in her, even though she knew that she was not in the right head space right now because of the shield, by actually trying to escape when she had dropped the ball earlier.

scene

Meanwhile, Liandrin is working on fulfilling the mission she has been given by Lanfear in episode 6. […]

[LIANDRIN] I remember her at that age. You have the look of her, you know. [BARTHANES] Why are you here, Aes Sedai? [LIANDRIN] To deliver an order. (from Lanfear) [BARTHY] What does our master ask of me? ( he assumed it was from Ishy or the DO) [LIANDRIN] Remove her from the board. [BARTHY] She is my aunt. [LIANDRIN] Exactly. Even she will be unprepared for this. Do it today. She's being held in a cell in the palace. (Lanfear or you got this one wrong Liandrin, she's in there voluntarily.)Oh. And if your mother suspects anything… take care of her, too.

scene

Meanwhile House Lanfear-Al'Thor,

[LANFEAR] You didn't even make it out of the city. ( she knew already) [RAND] I need your help. I'm in a cell in the Sun Palace. The Amyrlin's holding me. [LANFEAR] I know. [RAND] Can you get me out? [LANFEAR] Hmm. Isn't Moiraine with you? Surely she could do something. [RAND] Maybe she will. Maybe I won't need you. [LANFEAR] Oh, I do like it when you try to manipulate me. [RAND] Can you get me out or not, Lanfear?

scene

On the other side,

House Sanche-Mandragoran

Goals:

check with Logain to know if they were right about her being shielded, They have to be sure before attempting anything.

Alanna and her warders will be on the look out.

[ALANNA] Through there. What did he say? Does the Daughter of the Night walk in our world? [MAKSIM] Forsaken. Dragon Reborn. I miss the farm, Alanna. I even miss your cousins. [ALANNA] Come now. Did you expect we would fight the Last Battle against an army of kittens?

[LOGAIN] I would offer you a match, but.. stones is a gentleman's game. Tell your master that I'm still waiting for her to keep her promise. Or you can just run me through with your blade now, save her the trouble. [LAN] I can do better than that. You can see male weaves. What do you see when you look at Moiraine? [LOGAIN] A desperate, lonely woman who has given her life to a cause… beyond her understanding. [LAN] A half a year in an asylum, and you're a madman still. [LOGAIN] Madness is expecting a straight answer from the man you helped lock away. There are weaves on her. From a man. Thousands of strands pulled together, held in place, but nothing being channeled into them. [LAN] How is that possible? [LOGAIN] I don't know, it's just like…

scene

House Lanfear-Al'Thor

[PEOPLE SCREAMING IN BADASS LANFEAR ANNOUNCING HER ARRIVAL]

Meanwhile House Sanche- Mandragoran,

[ALANNA] There's a fIre. In the Foregate. [LOGAIN] The key. [LAN] You think I've forgotten what you did to Kerene and Stepin? You will get this key when they take you back to the White Tower. There are two Brown Sisters that are desperate to study a man who can channel.

[LAN] Go. (to Moiraine) [LANFEAR] 3000 years pass and I'm back to this.

scene

And another player comes in, unexpectedly,

House Damodred

Goals:

Save Moiraine

Save the name of House Damodred

Save herself

Get yourself absolutely adored by the Fandom in one action

[BARTHANES] You're sure my aunt's alone? [SERVANT] As you asked, my lord. And a sedative in her tea. She should be asleep already. [BARTHY]] Good. [SERVANT] Would you like me to open it, Your Grace? [ANVAERE] I didn't think you would do it. [BARTHY] Mother. No. No! No! No. [ANVAERE] Why? In Light's name, why? [BARTHANES] I did it for us. I did it for you, Mother. For our family name. Why do you think that we've risen so far so fast, Mother? I am to be king. And you would throw it all away for what? For-for her? Mother, Moiraine doesn't care about you. She trust no one. She cares about no one. She… She will leave this place, and she will not give us a second thought. [ANVAERE] I know. But there are two things my sister understands better than anyone. The difference between right and wrong, and how much harder it is sometimes to do what is right. [BARTHY] Mother. Mother, please. Mother, please. You can't tell the queen. You can't tell anybody. [BADASS, HEROIC ANVAERE] I already have. [CRYING BARTHY] Mother. Mother. Mother! No! Mother! Mother!

scene

House Lanfear-Al'thor

Goals:

release Rand while Lanfear's being the perfect diversion

give him the map leading to the Waygate.

[VERIN] The city's burning. The Amyrlin requires your strength to protect Cairhien. [LEANE] I've been told to watch the boy. [VERIN] This is an order, Leane Sedai. (from Liandrin or Lanfear?) I'll take his shield. [LEANE] Don't let her get close to you. (still doesn't know Mo is "stilled") [MOIRAINE] You are very clever with your words, Sister. (did not realise that she couldn't have known she'd need help) [VERIN] The Dragon Reborn. I'd say you've spent long enough in Cairhien, wouldn't you?

There's a Waygate hidden in the city. (how did she know she'd need to plan for this from the morning she arrived in Cairhien ? Lanfear or Liandrin but really just Lanfear has if not herself she'd give the order trough Liandrin) [MOIRAINE] That's just a rumor. [VERIN] With a grain of truth. An Ogier Stedding once stood in the inner city center. Cairhien families built right over it. Here. [VERIN] Where will you take him? [MOIRAINE] Falme. Toman Head. [VERIN] "Above Toman's Head shall he proclaim himself bannered 'cross the sky in fire." ( here's the reason you might be looking for if not for compulsion by Liandrin when she followed her to "go see the keeper") You plan to have him declare himself the Dragon Reborn. The Wheel weaves.

scene

House Sanche-Mandragoran

Goals:

If we get attacked you'll take her there. This will be our escape route in case we ever need it.

Alanna: Backup

[LAN] Good work. We'll take him from here to the Waygate. ( did not take the map or hear them speak, Verin and Thomas followed as he had the same destination than the one they had planned for Rand) Just make sure that we're not followed. [ALANNA] You're not alone in this any longer, Sister. But you need to hurry. This city is not safe. I hope you're worth this, boy. Light be with you. [LAN] Let's go.

sceane

Meanwhile, Siuan isn't worried about the dragon reborn being protected by a single abled Aes Sedai when she knows that it probably is one of the Forsaken, she carries out her duty as Aes Sedai and Amyrlin Seat with the utmost calm. She even seemed bored of it for a second. Then again, in the utmost calm and collected manner, she sees the only Aes Sedai supposed to be shielding the boy and doesn't pannick and order that they rush there and find him, NO, she calmly ask who's shielding her son and it's only when she hears Verin's name that she's not okay anymore, suddenly she needs time to process what she just heard and then leave in a rush.

[SIUAN] Link with me. [LEANE] I'm here, Mother. [SIUAN] Who's shielding the boy? [LEANE] Verin Sedai. You… you sent her. [SIUAN] Lead your Sisters and heal the injured. That boy must not leave the city. -> something is wrong I have enemies I did not expect and doubts to clear he mustn't leave before they are cleared. [EXHALES]

All the while, Lan is still oblivious that something is wrong and is just following the plan.

[LAN] It should be somewhere. There. (did not use the map) [MOIRAINE] You'll have to channel into it. Split it open with sheer force if you have to. [LAN] No, he won't. You're going to open it. [MOIRAINE] Just do it. [LAN] Look at Moiraine. With the Source. [MOIRAINE] Lan. [LAN] Not just your eyes. What do you see? [MOIRAINE] Don't. [RAND] It looks like a knot tied together. [MOIRAINE] That's im… It's impossible. (see, this woman really wouldn't allow herself to even think about it, Rand tells her he see them, yet she won't believe it)

[LAN INFODUMPING BECAUSE MOIRAINE IS STILL BEING STUBBORN ABOUT HER "STILLING"] There's a story from the Age of Legends about the Foresaken's powers… a skill that's been lost for thousands of years… to tie off weaves and leave them in place. It never made sense to me, Moiraine. (reminder that it is proof he went to Siuan with doubts about this) What you're feeling? Ishamael didn't still you. Not even a Forsaken could do that alone. It is a shield that he's tied off, which means…

[MOIRAINE] It can be removed. (finally) [LAN] Yes. [RAND] What do I need to do? [LAN] You don't have the skill to untie this knot. You'll have to cut it. [MOIRAINE] I trust you. [LAN] Go on. Cut through it. [MOIRAINE] I feel it. I feel it. Thank you. Thank you. [LAN] I am sorry it took me so long to do my duty.( it took you 4 day and nights but go off king)

scene

House Sanche-Madragoran + House Lanfear-Al'Thor

Siuan arrives, shields Rand as he was super dense and leave Lan alone.

[LAN] Stop! No!

Siuan yeets Lan to the side, she does not have the time to explains and maybe he lied to her too.

[SIUAN] Close the Waygate, Moiraine. Now. -> she needs a proof You lied to me about being stilled. -> the aes sedai way obvi

[MOIRAINE not suprised to see her as she knew they were hiding something from her, and she must have her coming with her Siuan tingle.] No. I cannot. -> ok cool you didn't but you know she doesn't literally mean lie -.- I've been more truthful with you than anyone else. -> this just means that she told her the truth more than to anyone else, not that she told her all of it. Moiraine speaking in codes is tiring sometimes.

[SIUAN reminds her, in an attempt to convice Moiraine to close the Waygate herself. ]

We failed, Moiraine. -> They did fail together At the Eye of the World, you failed. -> She did fail at the eye. The stakes are too high to fail again. -> stating facts

Close the Waygate. -> she asked

[MOIRAINE being the bratty bottom that she is] also where was she going ? SO dramatic i swear, she turns around and start walking to the Waygate as if Siuan was just going to unshield Rand and let her leave because she said no) No. [SIUAN] I don't want to force you.-> but I need and have to know.

You swore to obey me on the Oath Rod. An unbreakable oath, bound by the One Power. -> Moiraine knows , she knows she voices it because she doesn't want to have to use it, feels cornered and is trying to convince and brace herself for whatever will come of it if Moiraine ends up forcing her to use it. A real betrayal or she just violated her wife because of this damned Mission. Both, horrific for her.

Siuan… -> surely Moiraine understood after hearing this what was really going on for Siuan. She doesn't know if she can trust her anymore. For Siuan, surely Moiraine understood why she insisted so much and was ready to do what she never even though about as a possibility or as something that was anything but just wrong ( throwback to Lan's bond in the first suiaraine meeting)

Close it. -> this one feels like she's desperate at this point for her to close it there, not the same intonation at all, she's bracing herself for what is coming. No more feelings, no more asking, no more plea, no more bargaining, she has too know before it's too late, she orders. Even though, that's the intent she puts behind the intonation we can still see it on her face, hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes and in the way she moves.

[SOFTLY] Siuan… -> this one must have felt like a ruse, the same way Moiraine first rejected Siuan's touch because she knew what would happen. The facade would break into pieces and she'd give in. Here, Moiraine softly calling her name, almost like she's begging, after she's been warned, after her herself showed how much she just needed her to at least close it did not feel like something she could allow herself to hear so she cuts her off and the rest is history.

Moiraine Damodred… [MOIRAINE] No, if you have ever loved me, don't do this. [SIUAN] … I command you… … to close the Waygate.

House Lanfer-Al'Thor

[MOIRAINE surprised to even see Lanfear as she thought she escaped having to deal with her, when Verin freed her. I believe that she pieces things together here, not all of it but just enough to understand what she couldn't believe happened to her from Siuan, the last person she'd think would ever do this to her just the moment before she arrived, they did not talk but she understood]

Lanfear.

[LANFEAR LAUGHS]

[MOIRAINE] She's too strong, Siuan. Don't. No. [LANFEAR] I told you the next time I saw you two together, I'd kll her. [RAND] You're not going to touch her. Not if you want my help.

[LANFEAR] Every day you grow more like Lews.

Lucky for you, a broken Amyrlin is more useful to me than a dead one.

[SIUAN] Moiraine, please. (go)

[LAN] Moiraine, please. (come)

Highly recommend you watch this scene in particular

Conclusion

All along Daes Dae'Mar was being played, and we failed to realise that in the current game of the houses we were witnessing, there were 4 houses.

House Lanfear-Al'thor

Lanfear

Verin

Tomas

Rand

Liandrin

Barthanes

House Damodred

Moiraine

Anvaere Damodred (unknowingly)

Siuan

Lan

Alanna, Ihvon & Maksim

House Sanche-Mandragoran

Siuan

Lan

Moiraine Damodred (unknowingly)

Alanna, Ihvon & Maksim

House of The Dragon

Goals: different for each person but utltimately related the Dragon.

Rand Al'thor : leave Cairhien, to go to Falme to free Egwene

Moiraine Damodred : Help Rand, avoid Lanfear.

Siuan Sanche : Help Moiraine, Protect her and Rand from the Forsaken

Al'Lan Mandragoran : Help Moiraine, Protect her from the Forsaken and secondarily Rand.

Alanna Mosvani : Help the dragon reborn/ Moiraine

Ihvon : Help Alanna, the dragon reborn/Moiraine

Maksim : Help Alanna, the dragon reborn/Moiraine

Verin Mathwin : Help fulfill the prophecy

Tomas: Help and assist Verin

The Daugther of the night, Lanfear : Seperate Moiraine and Rand, Kill her, Get Rand to Falme

Liandrin Guirale : Kill Moiraine, Help Lanfear

Barthanes Damodred (unkowingly) : Help his house regain it's lost glory

4 houses playing against each other and for each other at the same time. What went wrong ? Everything. Who won ? No one. What was left of what was before ? Nothing.

I wanted to be a little dramatic. On a more serious note, they all lost and won something, except for Barthanes.So that is all.

To sum it all up, everything that went down with Siuan and Moiraine was genuine and real, Lan and her had a plan all along, everything was going fine until the other players of this game of houses started to place their pawns on the board to try and win the game. In the end, as they were all playing for each other and against each other at the same time no one really won.

On the first board,

Moiraine regained her powers, but still has to deal with Lanfear, Siuan is hurt and in a precarious position for both herself and their mission because she did not listen to Lan and trusted her.

Lan regained Moiraine's trust but Lanfear is still a threat and Siuan.

Rand is still manipulated and a pawn in someone else's game, no matter how much he thought he wasn't anymore because of Lanfear.

Siuan is heart broken that she had to do this to Moiraine, even though her plan still worked and Moiraine regained her powers which is a win but then again did she really win, when she's lying on the floor, hurt and surrounded by enemies, even in the tower, where she was supposed to be at her safest and strongest ?

Lanfear gets Rand but Moiraine isn't dead and she even have to deal with Lan now, as she said in E08, they're dead weight.

On the second board,

Liandrin being Black Ajah is known because of Elayne, Eggy and Nynaeve but now, even Anvaere.

Verin is black ajah and known ( or least suspected to be) because of Siuan (thanks to Leane), because she knows Verin couldn't have known about her plan to help Moiraine or known that she'd ever need to escape. Tomas goes with Verin.

Alanna and Maksim seems to have lost Ihvon.

Thank you for reading, answering the poll, carefully listening and watching. Leave a comment and tell me what you think about this theory-analysis of episode 7. I'd love to hear your opinions, answer your questions etc…

Well, it is finally over.

Onto the next one now,

Here..."Daes dae'Mar theory-analysis : What has been proved so far ?"

[ageless-aislynn]

Hm, a question for any of my PC gamer friends out there... Have you had any problem with Denuvo Anti-Cheat? I've heard of people attributing it with causing system instability and Blue Screens of Death and, if you've read my blog at pretty much any point after I got my computer last December, you'll know that system instability is the LAST thing I want to introduce back in. It's been 3 months now since Georgette (my computer) finally stopped blue screening often multiple times a day and I don't want to go back to that.

Why I'm asking: I noticed that the Dead Rising Remaster that I've been super looking forward to has Denuvo in it. 😬 I know nobody can see the future and tell me if that would cause Georgette to go back into the seemingly never-ending blue screens but I thought I'd just ask if anybody has had any issues with it while I'm debating what to do. Doing some research, I've found that several games I have installed right now did once have Denuvo but it was removed before I got the games. The Halo Master Chief Collection uses Easy Anti-Cheat, which, for the most part hasn't bothered Georgette. Though the very last time she did crash? It was caused by Easy Anti-Cheat. 😬😬😬

I don't know what to do now, honestly. On one hand, I adore Dead Rising and I've been practically counting down the days to this remaster (though I haven't pulled the $60 trigger on it yet 💸). But on the other hand, there is NOTHING worth going back to Georgette being almost unusable. I haven't installed my Vegas Pro back for that exact reason: I desperately want to be able to vid and make GIFs again but is it worth the risk?

I don't have an answer to that just yet and now I've got to figure out this thing with Denuvo. Also, I didn't realize at the time but some games I already own but haven't installed yet also have Denuvo: Dead Rising 4, Final Fantasy XV, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Um, yikes?

I don't know, like I said. It might be fine. I just live in complete and utter terror of going back to those "8 crashes in an hour" days, you know? But, at the same time, I know I could hold my breath every time I move the mouse or click a key and that won't stop something from going wrong if it's going to go wrong. I just don't want to be foolish about it and make things harder on myself if I don't have to.

Ugh. Decisions, decisions, which way should I go? I feel like I'm just spinning in place on this one...

[blackbackedjackal]

please try to sell me gw2. i really want to like it and ive tried a couple times over the years to get into it, but every time my experience is like: walk for 5 irl minutes -> talk to someone -> kill 20 things -> random world events -> kill 50 things -> go back and talk to the person. rinse and repeat

and then i uninstall the game

Hard to sell it to ya when it's free to play ;0

As a new/returning player I honestly recommend going in with some friends. It's a game were you can absolutely solo PvE with the right build, but I always have more fun playing with my friends for the shenanigans. I also, 100%, recommend plopping an OC in the game. My first characters were both in-game and all their lore is based around GW2, but putting June in there has been hella fun to see how she would handle being in Tyria.

Your first 80 levels are basically to help get you accustom to the game mechanics and the story. Though the story is optional, I recommend playing it so you get more of a feel of Tyria and the history. The story also leads you through the game an the map rather than just taking random quests as you explore. It's really the only mode that gives you a bit of direction in the game.

If you happen to get stuck or have any questions about the game, it's pretty safe to ask the map chat and usually people will help you out, especially in early maps. GW2 is a game that doesn't really teach you how to play, you learn as you go. There's also plenty of YT vids on how to get started and tutorials if you get stuck or suggestions of things to try out as you level. They've also updated the game fairly recently where you now have access to the Raptor mount without needing to have Path of Fire or doing the expansion, which is a HUGE quality of life change while you explore the early maps.

Once your toon hits level 80, that's when you unlock your mastery tracks that will allow you to do more of the endgame content and continue through the living story. Fractals, Raids, Dungeons, Strikes, World Bosses, Meta Trains, Gold Farming, PvP, WvW, FASHION WARS!!, There's a ton to do once you're set up, and again, lots of resources available to help you out (TaCO, GW2 Efficiency, Crafting Guides).

The world is unique. It feels lived in and ever expanding. The lore for all the playable races in the game is really interesting and they do a lot to subvert expectations from typical fantasy stories. Some things are a hit or miss for a lot of folks but there's so much to love about the game even my least favorite parts are like just mid to me compared to the parts I genuinely enjoy. My favorite expansion is Path of Fire + Season 4. The desert maps are my favorites followed by Maguma (begrudgingly). Cantha had grown on me a lot after a million Leviathan Farms for gold lol. THE SEASONAL EVENTS AHHH like again there's just so much to touch on but yeah the long and short of it is it IS a time sink at minimum to get to the more favored content, but even as a old player I still love making new toons and taking them through the early game content again just for fun.

But yeah, free to play, no subscriptions, all expansions are a one time purchase. You've got 10 years worth of content to explore and try out. It's a relatively inexpensive MMO (the expacs can be up to 50% off during certain yearly sales). An overall very helpful community. Any paid content is mostly cosmetics and convenience items, but nothing that gives you an advantage over other players. Basically everyone is grinding towards a similar end-goal, so you can always get the same gear as people through grinding. Nothing is really out of reach and people are always willing to help others out with multiplayer content.

I've been consistently playing for 8-9 years now. It's one of those game where I'm IN it for like a few months then may take a few months off until a holiday event I love is coming up and then I play for a few months again. It's probably the only other game I've sunk as much time into as Pokemon or Skyrim over the years (I jokingly call it Skyrim Online since ya'll won't catch me playing ESO). But yeah just, it's a game I never expected to play for this long and this consistently and it always feels fun to pick back up. Genuinely I do hope you give it another try. I've honestly had the most fun I've had in years with the wave of new and returning players jumping back into the game c:

[peachjagiya]

https://www.tumblr.com/peachjagiya/750650196170555392/im-wondering-where-did-daeun-get-the-dispatch-clip?source=share

It was hobi's phone, not dispatch's 🙄. She might've gotten the vid from jm. The conspiracy theories are off the charts on this 😄. Why is she an ex anyways? Coz she posted jm's videos? One of them was already public and the other one's another version is public. A jilted ex would do much worse than just alluding to them being in a relationship. Maybe she's just gotten tired of the barrage of hateful comments jikkrs and pjms send on almost all of her posts and wanted to prove that they are wrong and she's right? People can get petty sometimes yk? The amount of "ugly", "old hag", "clout chaser", "jimin wouldn't even look at you" comments I've seen on her posts is insane. Maybe she just snapped and decided to show them what's real 🤷🏻‍♀️

All possibilities are possible! I think the ex thing is coming from how incomprehensible it is that she's decided to tackle this on her own while Jimin isn't about to support - unless he is on vacation - BUT if they're a couple and she's been without him for 5 months now, I can see pressure getting to her.

Wait... Army are being ageist and mocking someone's looks? REALLY? ARMY?! 🙄

I'm still not nailing my colours anywhere until I get something from Jimin. It's only right that I apply the same logic as I do to Ta3nnie.

I mean I wish Jikookers would do the same thing instead of double standards all the time

[anti3000]

The Player and Narrachara: An in-depth Critique of Undertale

This is an edited version of my two Reddit critique posts of Undertale's Player and Narrachara concepts, now combined into one easy to read megapost for Tumblr.

This post serves as a critique of Undertale's writing under the what-if lens that Player theory and Narrachara theory are canon. On the rare chance that Toby ever directly confirms that the player is meant to be diegetic in Undertale, I've decided to analyze his execution of that concept and how well it works with the most important characters who supposedly know about us. And since Narrachara is the second most popular theory that people believe in, I'll also be considering it canon for these posts. 

Note: To bypass the 30 media limit, some of the images and vids had to be placed in Imgur links. Click on them when you see them for the full context of what I will be discussing.

How a Diegetic Player Affects Undertale

Let's start off with the character that is affected the most by the Player's existence in Undertale.

- Frisk Critique -

When not under the assumption that Frisk is being controlled by the player, the Neutral routes characterizes them as a kindred spirit to Flowey; motivated by curiosity and the desire to alleviate boredom. These traits coupled with the mentality altering Determination & Level of Violence systems, serve as good explanations for the varied good and bad things Frisk is capable of doing in the game. However, the second the player is factored into that, everything else becomes irrelevant. The consistent theme of Frisk's Determination getting stronger and giving them the resolve and power to do what they seek to do becomes invalid, because in reality it's just the player pushing them to do almost everything. https://imgur.com/a/eXNhSk8

While it's fair to say that the constant Determination theme has some underlining motivational message for us players, that doesn't change the fact that in-universe it's a substance and mindset for the characters. And if the player is canon, Frisk's Determination doesn't get them anywhere without us, so it's a waste of time to act like it's what's driving them.

And how about that way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt? It's also largely a waste of time establishing that for Frisk, since their capacity to hurt is non-existent without us in the first place. Even with zero LV gained, the game still allows us to kill enemies through Frisk.

But wait, some of you might be saying. "Frisk isn't just our husk, because they show little snippets of personality with automatic actions and non-visible expressions/statements."

Frisk may not be an empty husk, but the faintest semblance of a personality we occasionally get from them is far too rare, disjointed and contradictory to define. For example, there's been arguments made for Frisk "resisting" against some of our commands, which has been used to characterize them. But if those arguments are true, all they do is show that Frisk's writing is incredibly inconsistent.

Here's some examples of those arguments and their issues.

Frisk stops us from attacking Undyne

Under this argument, Frisk prevents us from doing any real damage to Undyne in the post-date battle.

The issue with this is that if Frisk can resist our attack commands to such a massive degree, it doesn't make sense why this is the ONLY time they do it. Outside of this fight, Frisk lets us hurt and kill as many Monsters as we want.

Even from the perspective of the player being canon, this could just be a scripted moment where we aren't supposed to ever want Undyne to be hurt.

But if the intention was for Frisk to actually stop us from hurting Undyne as a showing of their own character, that would just be one of the many examples of their character being inconsistent when viewed from the diegetic player lens.

Frisk doesn't want to hit the Dummy

If we choose to beat up the Dummy in Waterfall without LV, Frisk only lightly taps it, and then immediately feels bad for even doing that.

In a vacuum, you would be able to use moments like this to characterize Frisk as a very sweet kid that hates any type of violence, no matter how light. But again that's only in a vacuum, since we already established that Frisk consistently lets us use their body to hurt and kill others. What makes this Dummy moment even more ridiculous (if seen as Frisk opposing our act of violence) is the fact that the VERY first opponent we come across is a Dummy, and yet Frisk lets us use them to demolish it without ANY resistance.

If Frisk is a natural pacifist, why didn't their pacifism stop us from destroying the first Dummy? Furthermore if Frisk is so inherently nice, why do they choose to say very hurtful things to Snowdrake without any LV?

Frisk refuses to TALK to Toriel & Asgore

If we select the TALK Act when fighting Toriel, Frisk doesn't say anything to her because they can't think of anything to say. They do the same with Asgore, but only if we've killed someone before trying to talk to him.

This stands in opposition to the previously talked about moments of them resisting us though, since in the other examples Frisk is only able to partially resist our commands. These showings give the impression that Frisk isn't even compelled to do what we want them to do, which not is obviously contradicted by the other moments we've talked about.

Despite the significant issues that stand in the way of Frisk having a consistent and definable personality, they are still usually portrayed as a very loving and innocent kid in fanon. This is somewhat understandable, since the Pacifist ending is basically called the true ending of the game in the files, (also treated that way in outside material) and the only route where Frisk's name is revealed.

The obvious problem with all of this is the fact that the player is STILL a factor on True Pacifist. We are the ones that get Frisk that far. We are the ones who make friends with everyone. We are the ones who give everyone their happily ever after. Even in the pre-credit final stretch of the game, Toby made the decision to have the player dictate where Frisk's life goes on the surface, yet Flowey tells us to "let Frisk live their life." https://imgur.com/a/fPNWiJd

If Toby's intention was to establish that Frisk had the capability to resist/refuse our choices, they shouldn't do what we tell them to do even AFTER we leave their body and "let them live."

Toby would know about the player's control more than anyone else in the fandom, so why is it that most of the route is written in a way where it focuses on Frisk as the only one that is in control? https://imgur.com/IuREwhw

If Toby didn't mean for Frisk to be seen as having full autonomy over their actions, his writing decisions are what allowed player-free interpretations of them to be created and thrive regardless. If Toby intended for the player to be canon, our presence should have been treated as THE most important lore element in Neutrals and Pacifist, and the effort should have been put in to make sure how we operated in the world made consistent sense. But instead of that, the "reveal" of the player being diegetic is treated as some tacked on post-credit scene (that has it's own issues) after all of the misplaced praise for Frisk is said and done.

The Genocide route has even more problems with Frisk and the player, but I'll talk about them in the Chara Critique.

- Frisk Critique Conclusion -

It's clear that Toby wanted Frisk to be an avatar for the player, but he also made the choice to have them be their own entity, and that was where he messed up. He wanted the best of both worlds, but he didn't put in the work to make sure that Frisk was competent in either side.

If Deltarune's player "Connection" intro is any indication, I believe that a current day Toby would have just made Frisk a "Vessel" if he created Undertale with the noticeably higher level of writing experience that he now has. But just in terms of what 2015 Toby gave us, Frisk leaves a lot to be desired on a basic character writing level.

- Chara Critique -

Hoo boy where do I start with this one?

Chara may be a "true character" compared to Frisk from the perspective of having a defined history & personality before we start the game, but they are significantly worse than Frisk beyond that. To give Toby the benefit of the doubt, I'll be using as many popular fan interpretations as possible in an attempt to explain the numerous inconsistencies, plotholes and other issues Chara's character is plagued with. And to ensure this isn't too overwhelming, I'm going to save the narrator Chara issues for last. For now let's just work under the logic that Chara is not the narrator.

- The Player & Chara -

We are supposed to play most of Undertale under the belief that we named Frisk at the start of the game, only for it to be revealed that the "Fallen Human" of the past was the one given the name. However, even after Frisk's true name is revealed to us, our name isn't replaced by Frisk's on our Stat and Save screens.

Going by Toby's Twitter statement and the the last thing Flowey says in the Pacifist ending, the name "Frisk" doesn't show up in our stat & save screens because Chara is actually meant to BE the Player to some degree.

But of course we run into several MAJOR issues with the game's diegetic-player narrative if Chara is the player. The most obvious one is that Chara already existed with their "True Name" and played an integral role in the game's story long before we came around.

The only way to make sense out of Chara being their own entity AND the player is for us to simply be playing as Chara in the game. If this is true, that would mean that our role really isn't diegetic at all, because our decisions are Chara's own decisions in canon. The "player" in this context just means we are Chara's spirit, which woke up and took command of Frisk's body, Soul, and Determination when they fell into the Underground. This also explains why Chara's name is on our Save screens.

This of course means that "naming" Chara is a non-canon action that only exists so players can feel personally attached to the world, just like in other games without a diegetic player. No matter what we type in, the one True Name that is actually being used in-universe is Chara.

The only portion of the game that stands in DIRECT opposition to the player and Chara being one and the same is the Genocide route.

- Player & Chara: Genocide Route -

Killing all the random encounters in the Ruins and checking the mirror in Toriel's house will present the message of "It's me, Chara." As long as we stay on the Genocide route, that same message shows up whenever we check an object that reflects Frisk's face. https://imgur.com/3H06fj1

In a strange reversal of the Pacifist route giving the impression that kind-hearted actions are of Frisk's own will, things like these direct statements from Chara imply that they are the one making Genocide happen. But if Chara is supposed to be puppeteering Frisk on every route, these messages can't be about Chara possessing the body only when Genocide is initiated. And yet, Chara only taking control in Genocide is something that's explicitly pushed in our faces throughout most of the route.

After every monster in the Ruins is killed, Flowey says that we aren't human, recognizes us as Chara, and asserts that our human soul is stolen.

Since Flowey does not say these things to us on any other route, this gives the impression that Chara is an entity that only has a presence on Genocide.

If Flowey was the only one that said we weren't human, perhaps his statement could be written off as just being about him relating to our actions. But Frisk not being human is something that is brought up by various other characters in the route as well.

Despite Asgore knowing that Frisk is a human in the other routes, he is unable to identify what they are on Genocide. This makes it clear that there's some type of visible transformation Frisk undergoes thanks to Chara's spirit possessing their body.

Beyond these statements, the Genocide route has an abundance of cutscenes, dialogue and other moments that consistently reaffirm and remind us that Chara is the one steering the Genocide wheel through their possession of Frisk's body.

Here's just a few examples:

Frisk ripping chunks out of the Snowman on Genocide https://imgur.com/hhNf66k

Frisk doesn't do this on any Neutral where we have higher LV than on the Genocide route. This shows that Chara possessing Frisk's body is the only factor that matters.

Frisk smiling when finding Monsters to kill.

The exclamation point that pops up when we normally get into a Battle is replaced with Frisk smiling once we get to Waterfall.

This also does not happen on any higher LV Neutral runs.

In Frisk's way

On Genocide a fight with Monster Kid is automatically initiated, and we get a first-person message saying that Monster Kid is in the way. Frisk never visibly speaks, so the only one who could have initiated the battle with MK and said this is Chara.

Unlocking the Newhome chain

This is the cementing evidence for the impression that the ONLY entity using Frisk's body and making Genocide happen is Chara. But if Chara is supposed to be the player like Toby's statements and the other routes suggest, the game should always give us these type of explicit showings that they are directly controlling Frisk.

The portion of the Genocide route that we've discussed makes it seem as if Chara is only around when we start and stay on the route, but the ending of the route somehow manages to go against EVERYTHING established about the character up to this point. Let's get into it.

- Genocide/Chara Endings -

After Chara kills Flowey, they greet & thank the real player for awakening them from death. They tell us that they were very confused on why they were brought back to life, but from our guidance they learned that their purpose was to gain power by eliminating the enemy with us.

This already is a slap in the face to what most of the route presented. Genocide consistently pointed the finger at Chara as the killer, yet at the very end it's suddenly revealed that it was us? This is the exact same problem the Pacifist route has: the big reveal that the main character was being controlled by the player is unceremoniously slapped on at the tail end of the route, while leaving no explanations for the stuff that goes against it.

If the player is the one doing most of the work on Genocide, why is there so much focus on Frisk not being human because of Chara's spirit? It's not like there was any meta subtext for all the "you're not human" statements either, because unlike Chara, the real player IS a human.

Why have Chara say "In MY way" if killing all the monsters was a team effort?

Why have them say that they unlocked the chain when the player is the one to unlock it by pushing the button?

There's just so much wrong with the storytelling direction of the Genocide route if the player's direct actions are meant to be separate from Chara's in-universe. To say the writing is misleading is an understatement.

Chara acknowledging our existence makes us "naming" them problematic as well. Whether we use their True Name or our own, Chara doesn't say anything differently.

As I said before, our action of naming Chara isn't something that is treated as canon. This isn't a problem if the player is nondiegetic, but it's immersion and narrative breaking when you're trying to get across that the LITERAL player's actions hold weight in Undertale's world.

Chara tells us that they are the feeling when a stat increases, which is most commonly interpreted to be them saying that they are the concept of RPG player's desire to grind. https://imgur.com/4U1vmzw

If this interpretation is what Toby intended, it really means nothing. Chara couldn't have been this concept when they were a regular human child, and they couldn't have become it after death because we are the ones that have to awaken their spirit. RPG grinding also existed long before Chara did, so whatever Toby was going for with this doesn't work on any level.

Chara says that we reached the absolute, and that there's nothing left for us. They tell us to erase the pointless world and move on to the "next" one with them. If we agree with Chara's desire to erase the world, they say that we are a great partner that will be with them forever, and proceed to erase everything. https://imgur.com/1fz0Mg5

What's weird is that Chara doesn't take us to another world after they erase the timeline. We have to wait in the "abyss" for ten minutes before Chara starts speaking to us again, and when they do they find it "interesting" that we stuck around.

The most popular explanation for what Chara meant by "move on to the next" is that they wanted us players to move on to another game. What's really important about this is that by their own words, Chara would be going WITH us to those other games. This information combined with the "I'm the feeling of stats going up" statement, makes it clear that Chara is meant to be seen as a part of the game player. Even though we can't see Chara in other games.. the intention is for them to always be with us after we finish Undertale.

There's a lot of obvious problems with this, but the biggest one is still all the evidence that points to Chara being the player on Pacifist and every other route. Even the bulk of the Genocide route treats Chara and the player as one, so they can't just inexplicably not be us because the end of the route said so.

Even if we come up with alternate interpretations for everything that supports Chara being the player, Flowey calling us Chara is still the smoking gun. If Toby never intended for Chara to be the player in the other routes, him having Flowey say/believe that we are them is one of the most counterproductive things he could have done for his story.

There's even more issues with Flowey calling us Chara, but I'll save those for the Flowey Critique. For now let's continue breaking down the end of Genocide.

The next things Chara says and does cements them as a complete mess of a character. If we tell Chara that we don't want to erase the world, they say that we misunderstood, and ask us since when were we in control. They then jumpscare us while laughing, and erase the world anyway. https://imgur.com/OwRskMX

In an attempt to make sense out of this, many have interpreted this as Chara saying that they are only in control over us in the ending. While this interpretation is most likely what was intended, "since when" is still VERY poor wording, especially when the previous portion of the route did everything but say: "Chara is responsible for Genocide." What Chara says and how they act is really not a good look for the "YOU did this Player" narrative either way, and it brings the validity down on their claim that they are simply our partner. The super sophisticated and calm way they talk to us at the end of geno doesn't do them any favors either.

Toby making Chara come across as the Genocide mastermind in the same cutscene that establishes they were only guided by us is a big screw up, but at least he didn't choose to use Chara as a soapbox to scold and punish us for doing Genocide right??

..Oh.. yeah.. he did.

After Chara destroys the world they later tell us that WE did it, despite them being the one to come up with the idea and execute it no matter what we say. They say that our desire to return to the world means we think we are "above consequences." https://imgur.com/mdLMpnW

If we tell Chara that we don't think we are above consequences, they ask us what are we waiting for, (instead of playing another game) and make us wait another 10 minutes before speaking to us again.

Chara's wording and behavior makes them come off as a bit vindictive, which doesn't make any sense from the perspective of them being our self-proclaimed "partner" that's thankful for us giving them purpose in gaining power. From their perspective, everything we've done is good, and they WILLINGLY helped us do it without us even asking them to, so why are they giving these weird judgmental vibes now?

But okay maybe this type of conclusion is jumping the gun a bit right? Sure their wording might be a little too accusatory, but maybe that's just the way they talk, and them saying "consequence" has no negative connotations. Let's analyze what Chara says when they return.

When Chara starts speaking again, they say that maybe we can come to a compromise, and they'll bring the world back If we give them our soul. https://imgur.com/ap2XroD

If we refuse to give away our soul, Chara tells us to remain in the abyss for all of eternity. https://imgur.com/YhBlv7U

This establishes that Chara has the ability to bring the world back, but they are gatekeeping it from us as a consequence for our actions. If we want the world back, we have to give up something of ours in exchange. Once again, this is very contradictory to what their previous "partner" dialogue establishes, and it doesn't even make sense for Chara to behave this way after actively HELPING us kill people.

Chara's choice to wipe out the entire timeline/game is also FAR worse than anything we did in the first place. Despite some people thinking otherwise because of Chara's accusatory speech, (and the black backround) there's still Alyph's, the evacuees, and THOUSANDS of other Monsters left in the Underground before Chara destroys everything. Even if we assume that Undertale's world only has one planet, Chara destroying EVERYTHING in that world includes the innumerable humans on the surface as well.

With this in mind, there's absolutely N O reason the demented child should be giving us ANY lip as if they have the moral high ground. Get them out of here.

There's a lot more to be said about Toby's decision to have Chara say these things to us, but that'll have to wait until after we go over all the Chara endings.

- Second Genocide -

After being so judgmental, (and taking our Soul) you'd think that Chara wouldn't allow us to do another Genocide run again. But no, Chara brings the world back and lets us do whatever route we want with zero changes. After going through all the exact same motions, Chara greets us at the end of Geno again, but this time they claim to be a... demon. https://imgur.com/A00dtUf

Most people believe this to be metaphorical, (and for good reason) but Chara describes theirself as if they can be summoned by anyone no matter when or where they are.

Does this come out of nowhere? Yes.

Is Chara being an actual demon completely incompatible with their backstory and what the first Genocide ending established about them? Yes.

Is it impossible that an actual demon is one of the things Toby wanted Chara to be? No.

If there's one thing Toby did when writing Undertale, it's toss a ton of idea darts at the wall, regardless if they stuck. And there's no character that better exemplifies this practice than Chara.

Ironically enough, right after Chara tells us that they are a demon, they double down on shaming us for our actions. This time they say that we have a "perverted sentimentality" emanating from our soul, and they suggest that we do a different route.

Despite Chara being more condescending than ever, they still forcibly end all of existence even when we tell them not to, but not before giving us more unfitting chastisement. https://imgur.com/z6VEQG3

But what really makes Chara's second timeline erasure even worse than the first is how utterly pointless it is. Unlike the first Geno ending, Chara allows us to return to the world immediately after they destroy it the second time. This makes their act nothing but raw carnage that doesn't abide by their initial reasoning.

Of course, Chara still has our soul, so let's get to what they actually do with it.

- Soulless Pacifist -

If we choose to stay with Toriel at the end of a post-Geno Pacifist, Chara seemingly uses the power of our soul to transform Frisk's sleeping body into their own. https://imgur.com/s0GftVD

Chara's demonic laughter combined with the creepy Genocide theme playing in this last scene clearly insinuates that they kill people on the surface as our consequence. The alternative "I have places to be" ending seems to confirm this by showing Chara among our Monster friends with their faces crossed out. https://imgur.com/JGDvznT

The non-violent interpretation for this scene is that Chara canonically edited theirself into the picture with Frisk, and drew X marks on the faces of our friends as a reminder that we killed them all on Genocide. In other words Chara didn't take our Soul to kill anyone, but to scare us and ruin the good feeling of our happily ever after.

One of the problems with this interpretation is that we don't ever kill Alyphs, yet she also has an X mark on her face. Of course, Chara also puts the blame of their own choice of destroying the world onto us in the Genocide endings, so it's not out of the question that they would attempt to gaslight us on Alyphs's death as well.

One can argue that everything Chara does in these endings is meant to characterize them as a manipulative hypocrite, but that would require their hypocrisy to be pointed out and or challenged in the game, which isn't ever done. Because there's no counters to Chara's statements and actions, all their ending scenes come across as just Toby/the game using the worst character to teach us an incredibly flawed lesson. This is especially the case since Toby has even used Flowey to parrot his same publicly stated gripes with players killing enemies in other games.

If Chara in Genocide was meant to be in the wrong to some degree, Toby utterly failed to convey that. And considering Toby has gone on record saying that Chara carried a "message," what they do and tell us in these endings is definitely supposed to be his "moral of the story" lesson.

But if consequences are such an important theme for Undertale, Chara should ALSO be held accountable for the atrocious acts that they support and commit. They explicitly show that they know what they do is wrong after all. Chara getting off scot-free, AND treated like some kind of judge of our actions is a backwards and narrative flop of a writing decision. It seems like two wrongs don't make a right, and mutual accountability are two concepts that completely flew over Toby's head when writing Undertale.

If Toby wanted to teach a lesson to Genocide players so badly, he should have used a different character to get his point across. Why not have the manifestation of consequences just be a faceless entity that talks to us like Chara does after they destroy the world? Someone disapprovingly shaking their finger to us at the end of the Genocide routes isn't even necessary because of the actual judge character Toby created: Sans.

Beyond Sans literally judging us on every route, his ridiculously difficult fight and dialogue in Genocide very effectively gets the message/lesson across to every Genocide player, and unlike with Chara, it works without issues because Sans isn't our "partner" IN the Genocide. Imagine if Sans helped us kill people on Genocide, but randomly became judgmental and went Megalovania Mode on us by the end. The righteous impact of him fighting us just wouldn't be there at all, and yet the equivalent of that is what Chara does to us.

- Chara Critique Conclusion -

And with that, we've gone through most of the issues of Chara's character while excluding the possibility of them being the narrator. Is there a chance that viewing Chara as the narrator can fix the issues we went over?

- Narrator Chara Critique -

In my old Narrachara debunk post, I brought up the problems and nonsensical nature of Chara being the narrator, but that was just from the perspective of the player being nondiegetic. One of the things I failed to notice at the time was that the idea of Chara being the narrator automatically dictates that we are canon and that Chara knows about us. Player theory can exist without Narrachara, but not vice versa because the narrator blatantly acknowledges Undertale's world as a game in the Asriel fight.

When we factor in that Chara knows about us game players, them narrating Frisk's actions, thoughts and feelings makes a lot more sense. Chara knows that we are limited to viewing Undertale's world from our screens, so their narration serves as a way of relaying what Frisk is experiencing to us, as well as a method of guiding us in the game.

However, this still leaves the important question of why would Chara choose to be our video game narrator. There's nothing they gain out of being our narrator, and there's no need for them to take that role when there's already a narrator present at the start of the game.

There's nothing within Chara's backstory that we can link to a desire to be a narrator either, and they don't even bring up their choice to narrate for us when we see them at the end of Genocide. In fact, what Chara tells us face to face actively goes against the idea that they are our narrator. Chara says that they were confused and led by our "guidance," but as the narrator they are the one that confidently guides US without any sign of confusion.

If Chara is meant to be our narrator, their Genocide ending dialogue is unnecessarily misleading and contradictory to their most prominent role in the game.

- Chara's knowledge as the narrator -

There are moments within Undertale that some argue establishes that the narrator is not omniscient, and people have used those moments as evidence for Narrachara.

There are two problems with this line of thinking.

Standard narrators don't HAVE to be omniscient.

There's actually more in support of Chara being all knowing about things in Undertale than anything else.

Here's some examples:

Chara knows that Asriel is the one who calls us before he even speaks

Chara knows that going through the Pacifist exit ends the game

Chara knows exactly how many killable monsters are in the areas we go to

Another example of Chara's knowledge of how many Monsters there are to kill comes at the end of Genocide. As previously mentioned, we don't directly kill every monster in the Underground by the time Chara shows up, yet Chara says "there's nothing left for us here" after Asgore and Flowey are killed. Chara can't be saying that because we gained maximum LV either, since we already hit the cap after killing Sans, yet Chara doesn't show up the the Judgment Hall. Using Narrchara as a precedent, the ONLY reason Chara appears is because they know that Asgore is the last person that the game allows us to find and kill.

All of these examples make it clear that Chara is not only linked with us, but the entire GAME itself.

If Toby's intention wasn't for Chara to know everything about the game, he did an awful job at giving them the limitations that a non-omniscient character would have to abide by.

Another problem of Chara having such vast knowledge of the game is that it botches the story point of them being influenced by our actions. As many have pointed out, Chara's narration changes depending on the kills/LV we've accumulated. But Chara being the narrator effectively makes them an ungrounded deity that shouldn't be affected by the things they already know would/could happen in the game.

To make matters worse, the most significant shift Chara's narration undergoes (Genocide) isn't even consistent or permanent.

- Narrator Chara: Genocide -

Despite supposedly being jaded and darkened because of our Genocide, Chara still gives us a lot of the exact same jokey and easy going narrations that are on the other routes.

These types of narrations completely clash with the much darker "I just wanna kill" narration in the same route.

The lack of consistency is even worse in Monster encounters. Most encounters aren't changed at all on Genocide, which means we get the same quirky and excited narrator personality in most of the route's fights.

I understand that changing every single narration to account for Genocide would have been a big task, but if Toby didn't have the drive to come up with narration to replace all the unfitting ones, all he had to do was have Chara use the "silent" ellipses narration in their places. What's even worse is how as soon as the Genocide route is aborted, ALL the signs of Chara being negatively influenced by it vanishes. This wouldn't be a problem for a regular narrator, but it doesn't make sense for a character's narration to not have any traces of negative growth from our Genocide "guidance."

Even when we complete a Genocide run and do other routes, Chara's "corrupted" narration is nowhere to be seen. Their behavior is completely reset as if they never learned anything from us in the first place. But we know their behavior isn't reset post Genocide, since they show up at the end of a Pacifist run to devilishly dish out our consequences.

It has been argued that Chara's post geno narration isn't any different because the game wants to lure us into a false sense of security. But this still falls into the same problems of Toby not being consistent on what Chara is. Are they the game itself, or are they just a child that's easily influenced? A character that went through major development can't just reset back to their original behavior without any type of change at the drop of a hat.

Something else that doesn't make any sense about Chara's Genocide narration, is why they go back and forth between first person narration and second person narration. When not viewing Chara as the narrator, their first person Geno messages works as the GAME occasionally giving us Chara's thoughts or nondiegetic commentary on things. 

Here's some examples from two other games.

Outside of examples like these, there's no in-world reason for Chara to physically tell the PLAYER "I unlocked the chain," after saying things like "You got the Locket." They don't fit together.

- Chara & Frisk's Relationship -

As we went over, Chara's narration is meant for the real player, not Frisk. But this runs in contrary to one of the main things people enjoy about the Narrachara concept, which is the idea of Frisk and Chara developing a "dynamic"/friendship that's conveyed through Chara's narration. Practically all fanon portrayals of Narrachara have Chara exclusively narrating/talking to Frisk, and even living with them after Frisk leaves the Underground.

In terms of the canon however, Chara doesn't seem to think Frisk is anything more than an extension of us in-world. Chara only uses Frisk's name in one line, and it's meant to be a direct follow up to them narrating for the player.

When not accounting for Chara being the narrator, "Still just you, Frisk" seems like it's the game treating Frisk as if they are player-free. But if we factor in Chara being the narrator, this tells us the exact opposite. Chara seems to (somehow) believe that the real player's name is actually Frisk, and the ending of the Genocide route further proves this.

Chara claims that Frisk's physical SOUL and Determination is the players, and they don't give the faintest acknowledgment to Frisk once in any of their speeches. https://imgur.com/lkH62yV

For all intents and purposes, Frisk is treated like they just don't exist on Genocide; the only factors are the player and Chara. With this in mind, all of Chara's narration that has been interpreted as them developing a bond with Frisk, is really just about the player.

Even the idea that Chara permanently stays with Frisk after they leave the Underground isn't true. By Chara's own words, when all is said and done in the game, they go with the player to other worlds (games) and stay with us "forever."

Another reason why people like Narrachara is because they believe Chara helping us in the Pacifist route gives them a positive character arc and rids them of their hatred for humanity. But the crux of that belief still comes from the misconception that Chara forms a bond with a Human and stays with them.

The best thing you can argue Narrachara does for the overall story is allow Chara to "atone" for getting Asriel killed, by helping us save him in the final battle. But the lack of an apology to Asriel on Chara's end really makes that supposed atonement incomplete. We don't know if Chara is actually sorry since they don't say that they are.

As the narrator, Chara seems to intentionally hide who they are in Neutral and Pacifist routes, but if there was ever a moment where their true identity should have been revealed, it's when Asriel was opening up them.

It's been argued that the silent nature of the narrator in moments like this is supportive evidence that it's Chara, but it's actually the opposite since there's no reason for Chara to have nothing to say when Asriel is pouring his heart out to them. The complete lack of personal things to say on the narrator's end just makes it seem as if they don't have any connection to Asriel, and they only help us save him because it's their job as the narrator.

At the very least Chara should have made it known that they weren't gone like Asriel later believes, but we don't even get that.

Chara not being open on who they are in the entire Pacifist run goes against the idea that they had a character arc, and is one of the many things make it seem as if they aren't the narrator in all routes. All this combined with Chara not even sticking around in their world after the game is over REALLY makes their revival a rather pointless addition that does nothing but drag down the game's writing.

Speaking of the writing being dragged down, Frisk's own writing suffers even more thanks to Narrachara. Let's briefly go over how before we wrap up this critique of Narrachara.

- Narrachara overshadowing Frisk -

The part of the fandom that is defensive of Chara often act as if they are the singular character we control in Undertale.  Jump into any discussion about Chara's morals, and you're bound to see someone saying that we "force" Chara to kill monsters.

From Judgment Boy's "The Truth about Chara" Video. Notice the complete erasure of Frisk

And given everything I've went over in this post, it's really not at all hard to see why people think this way when everything that revolves around Chara (especially Genocide) overshadows Frisk.  And when viewing Chara as the narrator, Frisk even loses what would normally be seen as their "voice."

In any other game, these narrations would just be seen as the narrator relaying the visually silent protagonist's own feelings/thoughts, but the focus wouldn't be on the narrator because the narrator wouldn't be their own character. But for Undertale, this type of thing becomes: "Look at how Chara is feeling. Look at what you're doing to them by feeding them LV," while Frisk is rarely brought up.

Chara feeling what Frisk feels is redundant, and it shifts the focus off of the main character because they aren't the one who is visually speaking.

When you're constantly seeing the narrator as a character, even the simple act of the narrator saying what FRISK does can get taken as a "Chara character moment."

From Nochoco's Chara Analysis

----- Narrachara Critique Conclusion -----

The Narrachara concept has all of the issues that Chara brings to the (already deeply flawed) diegetic player execution, and it adds it's own gigantic layer of problematic elements.

Even when not factoring in Narrachara, Chara is without a doubt the worst character in Undertale.

Toby wanted Chara to represent way too many things that didn't fit together, but he felt that by combining all of them he could pass it off as his character being complex and up to interpretation, when in reality he just made a very poorly written mess. He threw that mess of a character into the final game and expected people to come up with their own headcanons to do his job of filling in the flaws like a puzzle. But the puzzle is so fundamentally broken that no headcanon peices can completely fill/fix it. Toby's subpar writing for Chara is also why the Chara Defense Squad and Chara Offense Squad came about, and why there will always be heated debates about the character.

While Chara's role in the story pre-revival is very much needed, the fandom, Frisk, and Undertale as a whole would have been much better off without the rest of Chara's baggage.

- Flowey Critique -

Now this will be a much shorter one than the others.

Unlike Frisk and Chara, Flowey's character doesn't run into an identity crisis if the Player is diegetic. Flowey's only notable character problems are the inconsistencies in his knowledge of the player's existence and Chara's revival.

The thing most people immediately point to show that Flowey knows about the player is of course, the ending of the Pacifist run. But as we talked about before, going by Flowey's own words, he believes that the "player" is Chara. Even though preponderance of evidence points to Flowey's statement being blatantly incorrect, if he really felt that Chara was the one controlling Frisk and the Save power, the timing of his revelation comes off as character regression. Flowey (as Asriel) had already come to the conclusion that Chara had been "gone for a long time," so it makes no sense for him to randomly think that it was Chara all along after that.

But since most people feel that Flowey knows he's talking to the player, let's use some of their arguments to make sense out of why he says Chara.

The common explanation for why Flowey calls us Chara is because they are supposed to have our own name. But as we all know, "Chara" is established to be the character's "True Name." Their name is not ours in-universe, nor is it treated like that by anyone in the game prior to the Flowey ending.

If Flowey was truly meant to be talking to us, we should have only gotten the ending if we didn't give Chara their original name. Or better yet, Flowey should have just..not used Chara's name at the end of his speech.

The only other argument that can be made is that Toby's intention was for Flowey to sarcastically call us Chara. But even if we assume this is how the ending was meant to be seen, that's still some misleading and convoluted storytelling.

The next issue is the matter of when and how did Flowey discover the player's existence. Going by the super fourth wall breaking Omega Flowey fight, you'd assume that Flowey knew about us by that point at least right?

Well it's very important to note that despite Flowey shattering our save file with Chara's name on it, he doesn't think that Chara is around until the end of a Pacifist run or in a Genocide run.

If Flowey was able to see the name he would have said something

This means that just like most fourth wall breaking moments, the meta stuff Omega Flowey does can't be taken too literally. It also wouldn't make any form of sense for Flowey to be able to manipulate the entire game and sense our presence within Frisk, but not Chara's.

But given the complete lack of polish with everything in the diegetic player execution, it's not impossible that Toby truly felt there was no issue with Flowey being able to sense a higher dimensional being, but not the character that lives in his world. After all, Flowey seemingly references let's-play viewers that may be watching Genocide right?

If Flowey knows about people watching the game, that means he knows his world is a game, which in turn means he must know about the player.

The problem is.. the entire context of Flowey's Geno conversations are about Chara. He believes Chara is the one that took over Frisk soul and decided to kill everyone. If Flowey really knew about the player at this point, he wouldn't tell Chara to stop chasing him (for example) when we are the ones making the movement happen. This means that at most, Flowey referencing viewers is a non-canon fourth wall break.

Okay so how about we just say that Flowey discovered us after he became the God of Hyperdeath. He gained higher dimensional entity level knowledge and perception from his newfound power. Does that work? Nope. Asriel makes it clear that in his delusion he felt Chara was the only one he was fighting against.

This means the only point in time Flowey would have discovered the player is.. off screen. He found out that we were the biggest driver of the story and even how to contact us without any rhyme or reason.. off screen.

Needless to say this is a pretty big plothole, and it's why I prefer the lesser of two evils interpretation that Flowey just regressed and believed Chara was the player. With that interpretation, at the very least you can argue that Asriel transforming back into a flower altered his mindset and made him go back to his old projection habits.

But hey, we're going with the most agreed on diegetic player interpretation, and under that interpretation, Toby just wanted to have one of his characters reveal that we existed in-game on Pacifist, and he chose Flowey for the job. It didn't matter to him if Flowey being the vessel for that revelation made sense.

- Flowey Critique Conclusion -

And just like that, we're done with Flowey. Like I said, the only notable issues of his character revolve around the Player/Narrachara concepts. Outside of them, Flowey is great.

- Sans Critique -

While Sans is theorized to be aware of the player's existence, the consensus is that the evidence pointing to him knowing about us isn't as solid as it is with Flowey and Chara.

Sans even refers to us as "kid" when we fight him, which shows that he doesn't *have* to know about us just because he believes Frisk to be a timeline "anomaly."

As usual, Sans is perfect. This ends his critique. 😎👍

- Fixing Undertale -

I have a ton of notes on how to fix most of Undertale's Player & Narrachara problems, (assuming they are canon) but this post has gone on long enough, so I'll just quickly run through the corrections for the two most important characters, and save the rest for another discussion.

- Fixing Chara -

Right off the bat, the prompt to "name the Fallen Human" needs to be removed, not only because giving Chara a different name is completely irrelevant in canon, but because I'm not including Chara in our journey. Nothing of any real value is lost if Chara isn't revived, and I already have a Chara-free fix for their most popular role in Genocide. What Chara does in the story before we start playing the game is important, but it also works perfectly fine as their only role in the game.

On the opposite end, the present day Chara is too many half-baked things at once, and everything that is established about them barely has any similarities with the past Chara. Aside from them dryly claiming possession over New Home items in Genocide, as the narrator they are treated like a completely separate character with no inherent life values.

Even the two most definable character traits about the past Chara (hating humanity and wanting to free monsterkind) are completely erased/treated as irrelevant to the present Chara. The revived Chara doesn't make a single comment that shows they hate humans, and they don't even raise any objection or discomfort when we MURDER the monsters they supposedly loved and sacrificed their LIFE for in the past.

Now you might be saying: "But Chara being around in the present as our narrator brings a lot of colorful commentary!"

That's Toby's humor/personality actually. A lot of the jokes made by "Chara" in Undertale are also made by Deltarune's narrator.

Aside from the first person Genocide narration, ALL of Undertale's narration can stay exactly the same even without Chara being present. Some of Chara's narration even fits perfectly as Frisk's own "voice," just as it would if the games narrator was a standard one.

On a more subjective note, I believe that Chara should also have a more unique character design. Chara leeching off of Frisk's character moments is bad enough, and their design being a lazy recolor of Frisk's gives many the initial impression that they are just the "evil side" of Frisk. It's not even necessary for Chara to look completely different. They could still have the same color scheme, but just a different hairstyle instead of Frisk's copied and pasted onto them.

Even though Chara would not be directly involved in our adventure, the ripple effects of who they were and their past actions would still be strongly felt in the present with Asriel. Asriel's arc of letting Chara and the past go would also work WAY better when Chara is actually..in the past.

Obviously this means that the "see you later Chara" Flowey ending must be scrapped too. Even if you interpret that ending as what establishes Flowey's awareness of the player, it's too confusing and open to interpretation to keep around. Flowey knowing about us is detrimental to the story anyway.

Overall, Chara being taken out of the main story significantly improves the game on every level. With Chara gone, the focus would be on the person it always should have been on: Frisk the main character.

- Fixing Frisk -

Using the groundwork Toby made, (but didn't finish) Frisk's default nature should be a very kind kid that hates violence. But for their character to work with the player being able to make Frisk do bad things, there needs to be explicit and consistent showings of Frisk resisting against our unfriendly commands from the start. For example, the narrator could point out that Frisk reluctantly attacks the monsters when we make them do it with low or zero LV. But Frisk's resistance and behavior should weaken and get more malicious the more LV we forcibly make them acquire. This works perfectly with what LV is supposed to do in the first place, but this time it actually matters for Frisk. Frisk also shouldn't be able to say cruel and rude things to monsters unless we fill them up on LV.

All of this works to subtly let the player know that they are canon in Undertale's story.

I would prefer for there to be an explanation on why we take control of Frisk, but Toby didn't establish one in-game, and I want this fixing to be as faithful as possible. Games with a diegetic player usually don't provide reasons for why we possess the main character anyway, so I can't criticize Toby too harshly on that front.

Since the Pacifist route fits like a glove with Frisk's inherently kind heart, there should be more things Frisk does without our input on the route. For example, Frisk should automatically hug Asriel and choose to live with Toriel. There shouldn't be an option not to do the most caring things when locked on the Pacifist route, because Frisk's own will/Determination to do good would be reinforced and strengthened. Because of this, the "you are filled with Determination" messages would be exclusively shown to us on the Pacifist route as a way of letting us know Frisk is steadily gaining more control over theirself.

In replacement of Flowey talking to the player after the Pacifist route is finished, the game presents to us a single question:

"Will you let them live their lives?"

- Genocide Fixing -

The higher freedom Frisk gains on the Pacifist route should be more restricted than ever in most of the Genocide run. For example, instead of Frisk's body automatically moving towards Papyrus while he's monologuing, the player is allowed to move in these cutscenes. This would be similar to how Deltarune allows us to interrupt Noelle's last cutscene in Snowgrave by making Kris move towards her.

Flowey believing Frisk to be Chara can stay as is, but all the "you're not human" lines that several of the characters have in the route needs to go.

As for the narrator's lines, the undeniably Chara related ones need to be replaced by standard narration. Standard narration in the Genocide route's case can even still have the same grim nature as a reflection Frisk's mindset, and the overall tone of the route.

Now here are the BIGGEST changes to the route:

Killing Sans will not automatically give us maximum LV.Instead the player must kill Asgore to reach LV 20. The game doesn't give us any option other than to press the  "FIGHT" button to kill him, and after we do, Flowey shows up to get brutally slaughtered by multiple automatic slashes from Frisk.

After Flowey is turned to ash, we transition out of Battle Mode and back to Asgore's Garden. The tint of the area is significantly much darker now though, and Frisk automictically turns around to face the Player.

For the first time, we see a smile on Frisk's face and their eyes.

In another first, we witness Frisk's words as they speak to us. They tell us that they were somehow freed from our control after the power boost their body gained from killing Asgore. This is a result of their body hitting their physical peak, (Max LV) becoming far too powerful for us to manipulate.

They tell us that at first they were terrified when we took control of them, and they suffered from the mental and physical pain we put them through. They tell us that despite their anguish, they eventually understood why we did what we did, which was to make them stronger.

They thank us for guiding them and showing them their true purpose in life, but they also tell us that they have a feeling that they can't get stronger anymore..and that..makes them sad.

They tell us that they know there's only one thing left to do, and that's what we taught and gave them the power to do: Annihilate.

With a deranged grin, Frisk makes a mighty slash, destroying everything in existence, including theirself.

All that's left is a perpetual blackness, and our feelings.

There's no one around to say anything else to us. We forcibly turned a loving child that wouldn't harm a fly into an insane mass murderer and got them killed. And knowing that, is the worst consequence of all.

After ten minutes, the True Reset option is presented to us. We are given the chance to make things right. Will we take it, or will we put Frisk (and the timeline) through that hell all over again? The choice is entirely up to us.

There is no Soulless Pacifist, since there is no character holding a grudge against us after Genocide.

- Post Conclusion -

And that wraps up the most important changes that fixes a lot of Undertale's problems. Given everything discussed in this post, I think it's self-explanatory how these alterations would improve the narrative and enjoyment factor of the game overall.

What do you guys think? Like my ideas? Do my solutions get the job done, or do you think they can be tweaked? I'm open to criticism on this, so let me know know in the comments or ask me questions if more details are needed.

Even though there's a high chance that the player being diegetic is what Toby intended, as of now it's still just a theory. But if Toby ever does reveal that the player was always canon in UT... well I believe I've shown why that is not a good thing at all.

And if Toby also happens to reveal Narrachara as canon, (hopefully not) that would be incredibly detrimental for the game's overall quality.

While far from flawless, (some of my criticisms apply to the game no matter what) I do love Undertale. I love the music, the characters, (Sans is God) the humor, etc. But if the Player and Narrachara theories are canon, they significantly soil what is otherwise, a great game.

[scyphosunny]

wasn't planning on doing it , but , vargastober day 9 was posted !

i knew for a fact i'd skip day 8 or 9 . either of them . the prompts were just too similar , and even if i already explained that i had different things in mind for both of these i still couldn't find references i liked . i would still fail , too . . .

still , i had two references set for nothing . i remember having this concept in mind and wanted to search for a random reference to use it but i also didn't want a background . told myself i'd just make it a black void and fixed but still ! found something i liked more .

mm . . . i'm sleepy and i didn't write any notes . . .

i watched the new tadc chapter with nyne , then talked to brusk for a while and i did manage to get the smallest sketch ever .

of course i had to draw his face . glad i did , he looks so pretty . you know i like a sketch when i add freckles or blush to it lulz

then took a break , got distracted talking to ai bots and i didn't pick this up until past midnight . 2AM maybe .

i usually take a long time drawing , and i just had less than two hours to finish it ! it wasn't anything super complicated , so maybe i could get it done ? or finish it next day . any of them worked just fine .

still , i kept working on it ! just watched some random vids on yt , added some text from chapter 8 . . . i remember just opening the whole fic and searching the word empty . then i browsed through it until i found a paragraph i liked lol . had to add the same text twice ! just for it to take enough space . god , csp didn't like the text . it was lagging a lot , so i get paranoid and save the canvas just in case the app crashes . i try to modify the text once again and the app crashes . SO CLOSE . once i finished the drawing , it was almost 4AM and my honest reaction was to look at it , smile , sigh and say

god . i told myself i wouldn't stress too much about these but here i am looking at my piece and thinking god this is lame and not worth posting

okay . i've made some great pieces so far ! specially the first two . i really think i outdid myself with those . so , getting everything with the same quality level is HARD as someone that keeps on insisting can't think properly . i swear . so i just look at this one like man ts is straight buns

i don't remember how ? but i just got this idea of adding a tv screen effect . might look super cool . even if it makes no sense . hahahaha . alright i already said this most of these will just , look cool . ough . so i go to alight motion , search for a tutorial on tiktok and add it to the drawing . looks slightly better ! i think

i added a tv frame on it but i don't think it's like , super noticeable considering everything's pretty dark already .

so , this is how it looked at first !

and . well . i still thought it was lame . i go to twitter , post about it . . . hawker encouraged me to post it so i was like alright mmmmaybe i will ? something i do like about this version is that i was able to add some smart blur on the picture . i've been a smart blur enthusiast since i edited kpop pictures back in 2020 lolz makes everything soft and hazy . i really love it . also , the tv effect is much more noticeable here , now that there's not that much movement going on .

i keep looking at it and i'm like . . . . . . i'll try to get it better . maybe add actual static on the face . that would be cool . before going to bed i exported everything in separate pieces , the background and the character in png . should work ! then i'm like hey but i also need to have a bit of transparency on the background if i want to stack the pic above the static thing . okay . i screenrecord a video from youtube with the shittiest wifi ever considering it was now past 4:30AM and i was in bed already , add the effect , get it red and realize that idk how i liked it better , export the thing , change the pic i used first time i edited the gif to avoid adding all of the effects again and well that should work . well , alight motion didn't like this . i already had trouble trying to export butterfly ,

FILE TOO POWERFUL , i guess . i spent some time trying to get it to export and eventually it did . so , now we have this version !

the static thing did made such a big difference . it also made more sense this way , why add the effect in the first place ? looked so pointless and out of place . so having more movement going on in the whole thing helped a lot . i removed his glasses , added some shading on his clothes and ta-dah ! should be everything !

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤshould be everything

FORGOT THE SHADING ON HIS NECK . UUUGGHH

i'd just fix it after waking up .

next day , both brusk and meta told me the thing was really cool and that i should post it so i just thought about it for a while . whatever . . . it was already done ! so why not post it ? i added the shadow and exported it . sssso now , for REAL we have the finished gif !

i honestly don't think it's that terrible anymore . still kinda lame . this one was originally for nothing , but works great with empty too . so i just posted it under that prompt . LOLOL i did end up doing nothing for day 8 . great . i didn't really care for tumblr ruining the quality , like it did with butterfly . this one isn't really about having great quality .

i'm sleepy . what else . . .

idk if i'll work on lies . i thought i wouldn't , but i checked on the thing i got to get my ideas together and i do have a reference set for that one , so it looks like i'll have to wake up early . UGH today i knew i wouldn't work on a piece so i tried to get myself to sleep past 12 and i woke up at 11 . I'M ALREADY SLEEPY AND IT'S JJJUST 1:30AM . i'm actually considering going to sleep earlier today because hawker won't come to twitter tonight . i'll miss her . don't tell her , but first time she had to stay away from social media to focus on school , i had a super bad meltdown and i cried myself to sleep because she wasn't there . i really enjoy talking with her ! it's one of the best parts of my day . she's chinese , so i need to wait until 4AM so she gets back from school and we get like 30 minutes to talk before i fall asleep . she's just the sweetest , i swear ! so endearing and nice . i really like her . and , i started waking up earlier recently to try and take care of vargastober's pieces before 3:9999999999999999AM and that small thing actually threw my whole internal schedule off . it's annoying , because i get sleepy as soon as i lie down in bed and i don't get to talk to her . i keep struggling to even write a good night text . ssssigh !

anyway . . . right know i think i'll work on a small sketch for a birthday gift i want to make for a friend . i've been wanting to draw her william design for so long now ! and today's her birthday , so i'll make a small sketch . . . god , i also need to take care of brusk's bday gift . WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN IN OCTOBER !!!!!! i already have three more parties to attend throughout the month . one of them is mlp themed lolz

might be all . see you later !

edit : i said i'd draw william for my friend and here it is lolz