#infinite theme

[geekeryisafoot]

Since their introduction, so many of us have been trying to find the theme and metaphor of World Hater as our primary antagonist. Is is hunter v prey? Hunter v farmer? Life v death? I love all of theories and I'm inclined to believe all of them are true in one way or another, and I'm excited to see what we lean into as the story continues

And now we have this page

Now I'm leaning more towards the circle of life. Ichi embraces the cycle. He kills only to survive, and he knows someday it will be his turn to be killed for something else to survive. What we've seen of the witches works this way too: they aquire and aquire until they fail, and when they die their majiks return to the ecosystem to be acquired again.

But World Hater breaks the cycle. They are not life until death until life. They are obliteration. They are entropy. And, as of now, I think our thematic core is that they will need to be hunted to be put back into their place in the cycle.

[heatherchasesyou]

GUESS WHO MADE A COVER ART FOR A BREAKCORE TRACK DEDICATED TO VINCENT ON SOUNDCLOUD AWOOOOOOOOOOO

THERE IT GOOEEES

[utilitycaster]

Honestly I did have some points re: other themes of the story but given how massive and, if I do say so myself, damning, the colonialism post is I think they can be addressed pretty succinctly. Here's what I've seen and a quick debunking:

Theme of self-sacrifice (as either a good or bad thing): would have been nice to have actually explored the party's grief and anger after FCG died then. Again, I can understand why this might not have happened given the real-world situation but that still means said theme wasn't well-explored.

Theme of the inevitability of change: as discussed, change will come regardless of the outcomes for Predathos, due to unprecedented international cooperation, revelations about the nature of Ruidus, and aliens. Unleashing Predathos doesn't really add to the theme - it's just more change. It's perhaps a more drastic change, but still, more of same. I'd also add that the fact that most of the party really hasn't changed a lot or their transformations have been rushed through to get to the moon plot also undercuts this theme, as does the focus on the titans - is this radical change, or is this a desire to return to an idealized past that the party never knew and which may have never really existed, which is a pretty conservative/reactionary viewpoint? I'd also add that generally a message of "change is good", "change can be good", or "change is inevitable" is best conveyed by a change that either happens no matter what and the characters or party must cope with it; or a change the party must make with significant drawbacks that, and this is crucial, they grapple with in terms of implications. I've sideswiped Rusty Quill Gaming a few times and they had, frankly, a structurally sound campaign with plenty of time for character development that simply failed to stick the landing of this message because the DM didn't bring up the issue until the last session. The fact that Bells Hells have had a billion circular conversations with themselves about this and never considered any implications truly cuts this theme off at the knees.

Theme of The Power of Friendship: even people who genuinely love this campaign have pointed out it fails to spend enough time developing character relationships and that the party members are often oddly silent when it comes to their commonalities. Watch a late game C1 or C2 episode that isn't all combat and the party is joking with each other or checking in to a degree that would be unprecedented with Bells Hells. I happen to think that the Power of Friendship is a perfectly good theme if we are talking about shows aimed at young children and is eyeroll inducing if it's the main theme on a show for adults but like...if this is the theme where the fuck was the downtime to develop it.

Theme of the difficulty of making decisions: this seems to be where a lot of people have landed - that actually Bells Hells' hesitancy is GOOD because there's no easy answers here. The trouble, of course, is that those same people have been banging on the KILL THE GODS drum much of the campaign and in some cases still are (and were, as of a few days ago, still on about how this is an anticolonialist work). Which is it? Is unleashing Predathos something that could have horrible consequences for the party and in the long term for Exandria, thus actually backing up the idea that this is, indeed, a diffficult choice? Or was it OBVIOUSLY the answer the whole time? And within the narrative why wasn't the aftermath or even the immediate impact of those possible decisions explored? It's rather like the inevitability/importance of change theme - doesn't hit if you haven't spent time considering what will happen. Bells Hells has been almost entirely focused, in fact, on the past and present and their own personal grievances that they never actually considered the world they might want to make. Which makes for a good tragedy, for what it's worth, but means their dull handwringing over the outcomes fails to hit because they never once thought about the outcomes.

Theme of power: hits better if you didn't have Keyleth on speed dial. hits better if the world didn't shower you with money and gifts from the start of the campaign. hits better if the fact that (for example) Ashton was relatively powerless for much of their life and then the second they got power went fucking nuts with it were explored. Hits better if we actually considered that the people of Gelvaan were terrified of Imogen and with just cause given that she nearly killed two of them in a way none of them had access to. Hits better if Laudna had actually leaned into Delilah. Hits better if they spent even a fraction of the time among commoners as they did among world leaders. Definitely doesn't hit if a rapid rise to power is seen as an excuse for one's behavior rather than as a condemnation of one's power.

If there's a potential theme I missed, please feel free to let me know but I think that covers everything I've seen and why, again, the building blocks were there but the party's general "meh" response to almost everything and the weird pacing puts a damper on pretty much any message.

[sebdoesthings]

I'm so glad i watched Sk8 the Infinity as an adult and not a teen so I didn't turn into one of those annoying idiots who complain about "renga not being canon because they didn't kiss"

[effable-as-f]

God I really hope the game doesn't End with Mel reuniting her family because the adjustment period is going to be SO messy and I want to see all of it

I want to see Zag have to come to terms with the fact that the sister who for all he knows was a newborn just moments ago has grown into her own woman and he wasn't around for any of it, like literally she was just a baby and now they're practically the same age how does that work

I want to see the angelic, idealized vision Mel has of her older brother clash with the reality that he's a mouthy little shit, a bit of a slacker and a goofball if you will, I want to see her actually have to share a space with him for the first time and get pissed off at how disorganized he is, maybe even snap and lose her temper at him before finally realizing that, good and bad, this is what it means to have a family, THIS is what Chronos took from her

[bvckbiter]

me going into the rr crit tag lately: perhaps you would be happier writing your own books

[squishosaur]

are we vibing

[teapetal44]

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

i'm making it my life's mission to get every locked tomb fan to watch arcane because i know if it existed in the early 2010s we would see its influence in tlt. guys this show has literally everything you guys want (spoilers!). a billion scenes of hot muscular women fighting each other and getting beat and bruised and bloody. the most devastating doomed siblings narrative you'll ever see and it only keeps getting worse. skrunkly weird mentally ill teenager with access to explosives who blames herself for her family's deaths and is haunted by their hallucinations. star-crossed angsty lesbian lovers on opposite sides of a class system. orphan CANON BUTCH LESBIAN rebel with a savior complex who is also the eldest daughter, who feels immense guilt and singularly responsible for the socio-political situation of her entire society, who becomes everything she once hated and crashes out spectacularly. the most beautiful woman on earth and she has a gold color palette. the complex politics of capitalist imperialism on a regional level. guy gains healing abilities and accidentally invents a religion out of it. am i not describing the locked tomb right now

[cungleart]

I think we as a community are ready to admit that Infinite goes hard

[fallenprophets]

resident evil has such WEIRDNESS potential. like imagine what you could WRITE it could be so strange and eery and odd but instead we all stick to the safe zone of leon kennedy smut (myself included)

[sirhamburrger]

i crave a new theme

[ribbononline]

My garde collection grows etc

[captinoflords]

I need to post here more often

[thepandalion]

help I'm going insane over deltarune and Undertale stuff again

[templeofvengeance]

Given the crescent shape, do you have any particular opinion on your avatars using bows as their weapon?

"My Knights manifest their own weapons, along with their own suit designs." Steven was the most pronounced example of both, manifesting a less lethal weapon instead of Marc's crescent daggers. "I have had a number of archers in my ranks, in the past. The crescent shape does make for easy branding, hmhm."

A golden bow etched with hieroglyphics, shining gold and white arrows cutting through the darkness. Shame they've fallen so far out of favor in the modern era.