#it shown in the writing of his dlc

[mistyscenter]

I love that this fandom doesn't understand Baxter's character, I adore how they patronize him,a whole ass adult, for facing the consequences of his actions.

I love how people make him feel like a sad little baby when he leaves mc as if that's not something he made extremely clear. I love how people treat this 19 year old as if he's not old enough to understand the consequences of his actions. I love how Baxter is aware of his flaw's but feels like he can't break them because people only see him as a tool and this fandom reinforces that.

I love how people will get mad at Nico for doing the cardinal crime of being 6 years old but will baby a 24 year old Baxter. I love how people make him this charismatic rich guy when it's shown that he's a hot mess that doesn't know what he wants. I love that Baxter's whole character arc is about his self sabotaging tendencies and how everyone ignores that. I love that people fell in love with the mask he had for most of the dlc.

I love that this fandom lacks reading comprehension skills and understanding of nuance characters, great job everyone for not understanding how writing works :)

[kaija-rayne-author]

Dragon Age, as a series, deserved so much better than Veilguard.

Spoilers for Veilguard and maybe other DA stuff.

Obligatory 'I'm not an asshole' disclaimer. Feel free to jump to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I was on media blackout while I played DAV. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Note. None of my writing on DA, but especially DAV, is edited. This is just my off the cuff writing. I don't have the time, energy, or heart to edit them properly.

The Solavellan romance deserved a much better end than 'die and go to fade prison'. I agree that Inky would likely be happy to leave. She's as traumatized as Solas for having to lead when she didn't want to. But I needed more than a craptastic Romeo and Juliet ending.

I refuse to do the heavy lifting for the writers. If it wasn't shown in the game or in supplementary materials, it didn't happen. Showing us the story was the writers' and devs job, not mine.

I mourn what will never be, even as I work on a Solavellan fix it fic.

How could they betray the IP so badly?

How could they betray their fanbase so badly? The fanbase that kept hope for that game alive for 10 years. I've seen so many people saying they've lost their interest or passion for the entirety of Dragon age. That they're not even remotely interested in another game because absolutely none of the choices we made in previous games matters anymore. They've wiped everything clean... or blighted it anyway. (I have absolutely no interest in another DA game. Not with Epler/Busche/Weekes involved. And whoever designed that ridiculous fighting system.)

The only way I could possibly be interested in another game would be if they loudly decanonized DAV, gave us a DLC (they've already confirmed there will be no DLC) that showed us Solas and Inky happy and not in a horrible place. One that showed us that somehow, something changed for the elves.

But that's so unlikely it's laughable.

The elves deserved a better ending. Are the survivors still enslaved or living in alienages? What actually changed for the elves except the largest portion of the Dalish being dead from blight? (That’s a real elvish win, isn't it?)

I'm a stubborn person. I refuse to let Epler's 'hate-revenge on Solas fan fic' ruin something I've loved for years. I still have the first 3 games. I'll make an actual happy ending and a decent romance for Rook in my fic.

And by the fact they paid a fortune to big gaming magazines while denying game keys to bigger honest reviewers... they knew.

They knew gamers wouldn't like it and tried to blow so much smoke up our asses with the interviews and AMAs.

How do they even sleep at night?

I'm a creative too, I write, do graphic design, digital (learning) and traditional (good) art.

My stories are important to me. They deserve not only an ending, but an ending that respects the characters, lore, and world that I've created.

My readers deserve that, too.

I, as the creator of my stories, deserve a decent, respectful ending.

Dragon age deserved it, too. A good, well thought out, and well written ending to the story of the Dreadwolf storyline, which, if you're paying attention, is intertwined through all 3 games. It's not just in Inquisition. One that made sense to the collected Lore, his struggles and mistakes, his literary role as an anti-hero.

I would never be able to do what they've done to a beloved series. I could never knowingly mislead fans like they did.

It's just a really painful reminder that beloved stories can be utterly destroyed in the wrong hands. And a reminder that there's so much talent and skill in Fan fic.

Busche worked on the Sims. No wonder the companions often feel as interesting as wet cardboard. Most Sims NPCs do, too. (I actually enjoy the Sims, but the NPCs aren't why I like it.)

And she had the gall to blame 'culture wars' and 'identity politics' for why the game is tanking. Rather than take ownership of the incredibly bad calls made for DAV.

It's just gross. I wish I could stop thinking about it. But Dragon Age got me through some tough times. It means a lot to me.

And it just deserved better. So did we.

[xamiipholia]

Since it’s been a year since Burning Shores came out, some thoughts on Seyka:

TL;DR: Great character, really happy with her as a love interest for Aloy. They do some really interesting things with her that I never really see addressed so I wanted to talk about them.

She is tangibly shown to be much more of a match for Aloy through gameplay. Compared to other npcs, she solves things faster, does more damage, is a much more formidable melee combatant, faster climber - she even has a fucking Valor Surge using her Focus that does pretty significant tear damage to large machines like Slaughterspines. Environmental storytelling- Seyka’s skiff has at least 2-3 Tiderippers’ worth of parts, meaning she’s been out on her own killing the things to build boat motors, and she has some ambient dialogue that strongly suggests she’s fought and killed Slaugterspines before. Is some of this npc tech advancements in Burning Shores? Maybe, but it feels intentional. 

Seyka has a natural probing curiosity about the old world that for the most part Aloy’s other companions didn’t have without some significant hand-holding from Aloy to get them started, and some of her close friend (but not base team) characters just don’t have at all. I don’t mean this as a moral judgement, everyone is different and has different strengths and priorities , but it’s absolutely critical that a partner for Aloy have that kind of curiosity - it’s such a big part of her character. While she lives in this new world, she’s never going to be entirely a part of it. Like she says, she finds belonging in individuals, and not really the tribes. I don’t really see Aloy settling down in Meridian or Mother’s Heart. She needs to have a life of exploration and discovery and Seyka seems cut from that cloth too, whether she was always that way or being marooned gave her a fresh perspective.

Seyka did risk death using the focus and decided to do it anyway- in Rheng’s notes he calls for capital punishment for her. The threat is never *too* present but honestly I think that’s a broader critique of the series and pretty consistent with the writing of conflicts in Horizon. I agree they could have played up the dramatic tension a bit, but this is a person who weighed the risk of a military execution by a totalitarian state and immediately decided it was worth it to save her sister and others. I think Aloy can intimately relate, given what she went through for Beta.

Even though it’s a DLC, she has a TON of screen time, probably comparable to Kotallo in HFW, and Horizon does SO much storytelling through gameplay and ambient dialogue. I think she’s given a LOT of narrative space to breathe. She’s also has her own musical cues and leitmotifs that do a ton of foreshadowing work through the DLC - in terms of musical cues and framing she’s very associated with the acoustic guitar, and the flute melody in ‘Her Sky, Her Sea’ has for Aloy and Seyka the same function that ‘It Can’t Last’ does for Ellie and Dina in TLOU2 - next time you play Burning Shores, listen for it. That and the guitar cues from ‘The Idea of Home’ and ‘For His Entertainment’ do a lot of emotional work. It’s great stuff.

Okay and lastly- YMMV on this one - I’ve def talked about it with friends before but I don’t think I’ve said it on Tumblr. I’m a firm believer that meta narratives and the way that stories are situated and created in our own world matter and that art deserves to be taken seriously and dissected. I love Horizon, but it, and Aloy as a protagonist, are absolutely drenched in white savior and colonial storytelling tropes. Every time I play Frozen Wilds, all I can think of is Jack Sparrow going “and then they made me their chief”. There’s a lot of iffy stuff in the games, as much as I absolutely love them. We’ll have to see how H3 goes, but Burning Shores is MUCH better about this and honestly Seyka is a huge part of it. The story centers itself on a queer woman of color who is pretty tangibly presented as Aloy’s equal with her own strengths and weaknesses throughout the story and takes the lead just as often if not more than Aloy does, which I find really refreshing. It doesn’t entirely fix Aloy’s white savior issues but I think it’s a really good move for the narrative that continues the themes found in HFW about community and connection.

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (2017)

[buffaloborgine]

I think the main focus of Death Mark 2 isn't the hopeless love (teacher-student love or man-spirit love) but rather the answer to the question "What's the real goal you are aiming for?".

See, Death Mark 1 and NG don't touch this, because spirits are just people's lingering grudge the gangs just go to clear all that to save themselves.

However, Death Mark 2 touched this aspect. Because love without a purpose is empty, and such student-teacher love and man-spirit love are both good example for it. Students are too young to understand their feelings and teachers of course are beyond that age and as Douryou (or Kabi Shibito) said, "Teachers that fall in love with students are disgusting". Of course, man-spirit love is more obvious, this love doesn't lead to anything and doesn't end well too.

Yashiki has been struggling to find an actual reason to continue investigating the spirit cases. This was shown in Red Riding Hood DLC, as he plunged along with Mashita without having any real motivation for it.

The question is finally answer in Death Mark 2, as Yashiki concluded that he wanted to reach his hand as far as possible to as many humans or spirits alike. We saw this kind of enlightenment with Mashita in Red Riding Hood DLC, as he figured that he is fit for investigating spirit cases but it wasn't made clear, although it is also made clear in Death Mark 2 as well.

Another point to note on this is the writing on the spirits. They aren't pure malevolent like some in Death Mark 1 and NG, namely Shimi-O, Miss Zoo and Kakuya but rather similar to Hanahiko, Kurachayome, Urashima Woman and Killer Peach - They want to be saved. In NG and Death Mark 1, this aspect isn't touched, and you have to figure it out yourself, in Death Mark 2, it's shown blatantly. I have to say that makes the story of spirits more sad and depressing, as after all, in the end, they were mistreated people who sought salvation.

I hope that clears out some confusion.

[baishiro]

Theory about the TV scene of the bad ending of DM2

Ever since I noticed this little detail in the bad ending of DM2, I haven't stopped thinking about all the implications that the impact of Yashiki's death, his relationship with the rest of the Mark Bearers and in general, the meanings behind the actions of many characters may have.

My head went down the rabbit hole analyzing in every possible way every bit of Spirit Hunter data, stories, what can be found of the manga and the CD dramas (they should be considered a sacred treasure for evidencing how eccentric our beloved anxiously stressed bunny is).

Spoilers for all of Death Mark, Death Mark 2, NG and extra content such as the CD dramas, manga, etc.!!!

(By the time I was writing this post the Kaerazu DLC had not been released for the west nor the latest streaming about a new game, and I haven’t seen them yet, so any extra information or lore shown in that chapter and streaming I will disregard them and ignore them completely).

So, we know from the bad ending of DM2 that Yashiki dies at the hands of The Departed and his body is left (aside from some beautifully grotesque CGI) on top of the clock tower. But aside from showing us an image of the outcome of the confrontation, we are shown via a news channel the headline about the death of a middle-aged man in Konoehara.

Obviously, it's Yashiki they're talking about, but the amazing thing about all this is how the news even got out.

Guys, Konoe literally did everything humanly possible to cover up each one of the students' deaths (Including Sakamoto, Kinukawa and Douryou, depending on the ending). It wasn't just because it would be inconvenient in the investigation, but for the reputation of the academy and himself.

Depending on the ending, Konoe managed to cover up the death of Izumi, Horikoshi, Manabe, Kakuta, Sakamoto, Kinukawa and/or Douryou. Manabe's death demonstrating the lengths he would go to cover things up, because seriously how do you easily allege that she runs away on her own from the hospital after a traffic accident, even with a brother as the director of said hospital? And pull it off?

That just raises more questions for me.

Yashiki was the last person he would want to see in a national headline as a tragic victim at his own school. Literally. His mere death could wipe out everything he was trying so hard to take care of in the investigation:

Sakamoto was a stutter away from poor Yashiki to report him for approaching the 2 girls and would have made a fuss if The Departed hadn't killed her or Yashiki confronted her in the true ending. The Sakamoto of the true ending, who is still alive, would have found Yashiki's death more than disturbing, extremely suspicious.

It is implied that many staff members and students found him strange and out of place, but he still managed to be popular among the students and it was hard not to notice him. Ataka (One of the main producers of Spirit Hunter) posted quite a lot on Twitter pictures and random little facts about DM2 when it was released and a few months after, one of them being that the subject Yashiki covered as a substitute teacher at Konoehara was Japanese history, teaching the things he did and knew himself without using any guiding text. We’re also told that his class was quite popular among the students (Either because he simply stands out too much by being himself or because of the free cake bakery this man apparently has), being hilarious when he was supposed to investigate and be a "professor" without drawing attention to himself. Abe only treated him with respect (How he made a comment about Mashita cosplaying as a detective is something I will never let fall into oblivion) and you can tell his little fanaticism for him during the events of DM2 and alongside Hazuki in the DLC, Saki tried to help him on the sides with Mister Kokkuri's case and in the good ending you can see a scene where she expresses that after talking about him to her cousin, he definitely wanted to meet him too and they both wanted to hang out with him sometime, let alone Kinukawa and Douryou (Seriously. If anything, it's one of the main themes EXP decided to touch on in DM2 for whatever reason. Why EXP. W h y.) and as expressed by Sakamoto in the true ending, she reluctantly admits that his presence and lessons did benefit the academy. Practically, everyone in Konoehara loved and/or liked Yashiki quite a bit, and to find out that the one person who had bothered to take the students seriously day after day, with a terrifying event like the disappearance and possible death of their classmates, not thinking they were saying stupid things or childish stories, passed away in the clock tower of their own school would definitely cause an avalanche of rumors and demand for answers, that is if it doesn't manage to become a scandal first.

Daimon is another important piece that could not have been solved for Konoe if Yashiki had died. Due to the jealousy and chaos unleashed by The Departed, Daimon fell into a coma, this being precisely the reason why Hiroo immediately entered the scene to back up Yashiki in his absence. In the end, Daimon wakes up and everything was solved in both the good ending and the true ending, but we are not shown what happens in the bad ending. What could be assumed is that he is either still in a coma or dead in this route, and taking into account what happened in the Red Riding Hood case, this would be quite likely. In the bad ending of that case, Shou, Hiroo and Banshee were left in a coma (vegetative state, to be honest) after being affected by the spirit and Yashiki hadn't properly saved her, and you can tell that the difference in spirit power between her and The Departed is huge, just to mention the fact that they are two spirits in one and there is a doll spirit involved. Which from the theories and what little we know about it from Mary, Kakuya, Rosé and the red doll: If there is a singular doll spirit around, the level of cunning, strategy, emotional intelligence, spiritual power and holy luck to solve those shits must be astronomical for even a few to survive. In that DM2 case, for Konoe it would not only be an immediate task to do something about Yashiki, he also needs to do something about Daimon, which would be complicated by having the rest of the Mark Bearers all over him because of what happened to their friends (Minimally to Hiroo, implicitly showing in the games her particular closeness to Daimon).

All the research and data collected by Yashiki was a giant stain on Konoehara's reputation. Sakamoto tried multiple times to ruin the investigation by not cooperating with him at all, accusing him of various ridiculous, baseless things as he kept trying to collect information from the students, directly ordering the students to throw away the notes from The Departed and making them wary of him because of her own prejudices. (Woman instinct? I screeched in pure rage from the bottom of my hearth when I saw that absurd response and Yashiki dejected self to the point he dreaded speaking with you, because you’ve got some nerve to be this irrational with the guy who’s just trying to do his damn job to save children’s life’s, whether you like it or not or even believe in spirits it does not justifies under any circumstances refusing to collab and assist him, the specialist hired for that specific problem that no one wanted to deal with, when you’re ordered to do so you can at the very least appease your student’s worries and fears. Yashiki is not looking for approval or to make everyone else believe in the crazy shit he’s seen and has to deal with on a daily basis, he legit only wants to do the job he was hired legally to do from your fucking boss and asked you personally to help him with, and to do that he has to talk with the children because no one else will give him any information no matter how much he tried to ask. There’re literally more important things for him to care about than some annoying teenager’s crushes on him that he doesn’t correspond at all or his appearance. And of top of that, having to be stigmatized as some child predator by the own dorm guard until he snapped at her and called out the academy’s own incompetence to take their own students’ worries seriously? Sakamoto, you’ve to be fucking kidding me- If that woman doesn’t have any haters, I’m dead) All this while she herself refused until she had no choice but to tell him things about Konoehara's past, like the teacher in the Slit-Mouthed Kashima case, worrying more about the reputation of the academy than the deadly risk to the students. While Konoe was trying to force her into accepting and helping Yashiki, it cannot be denied that Konoe shared a similar view by reiterating in multiple conversations that he would be the one who would fall and damage her reputation and image if anything that really happened came to light. Getting rid of and/or making sure of everything Yashiki had managed to find out and record would be a priority in trying to cover up his death.

Just by mentioning this, it is evident that covering up Yashiki's death was something he had to do immediately. But from that scene on the TV set in the bad ending, we see that this was not possible. Even if he had more than enough money, contacts and resources, he was not able to cover the most important one of all. Why?

Because of the Mark Bearers.

Trying to follow the personalities of the characters as canonically as possible, taking into account all the data from extra content such as the manga and CD Dramas and some Tweets from Ataka and Chikami, I would imagine the scene of how I managed to get the news out as follows, all assuming it as what happens to the other characters in the bad ending of DM2:

Mashita ran as fast as he could out of The Departed into the forest to give Yashiki a chance to flee to safety, being fully aware that to them he was the biggest threat to their relationship with their "Dear Husband" and that the likelihood of death was almost guaranteed.

The thing is, Mashita doesn't die.

Even in the bad ending of DM2, he doesn't die, and we know this from the call he managed to make to Yashiki in the other endings. The Departed sensed Yashiki's presence in the clock tower, where he must be in any of the three endings, so they immediately stopped chasing Mashita to go to him.

Mashita was already exhausted and in the middle of the chase he lost his phone, so he had to look for a pay phone in the middle of nowhere, hoping to hear that Yashiki was safe and how things were going on his side.

Yasuoka was the only person who would be at the infirmary to answer the phone, telling him that Yashiki had indeed made it out of the forest safely, but that he went to confront The Departed directly at the clock tower. Genuinely, I think Mashita could have run all the way to the other side of H City, but upon hearing that, he would turn into Princess Mach himself to reach and protect Yashiki from the dangerous spirit in the clock tower.

Mashita would be able to climb the tower all the way up because The Departed, having made their wish a reality and being satisfied for the moment, would leave that place alone to look for a new candidate. And entering the ceremonial hall, he would see him there.

Yashiki's body.

Whether one chooses to view the scene from a platonic-only point of view or a romantic one as well, knowing the implications Spirit Hunter has left on the deep relationship between Mashita and Yashiki and the popularity of that couple, it’s evident throughout DM, DM2 and the various mentions of Mashita by Yashiki that the two are canonically close.

Mashita has shown himself to be rude, a professional jerk and asshole, sarcastic, biting, leaving the job of being nice or gently appeasing anyone to Yashiki, distrustful, wouldn't hesitate to shoot a spirit whether it works or not (Which has already happened with Shimi-O, Mister Kokkuri and Kijima if NG's bad ending Drama CD is anything to go by) and somehow make it work, Withholding information to get what he wants (Christie would definitely still be mad at him for not telling her everything about the Red Riding Hood case), uninterested in the feelings of others and their opinion about him (Who knows just what the hell did he do for Ban of all people to still call him ‘The crappy detective’) and generally being hated by several characters after meeting him for a few minutes.

But the one obvious exception that has been shown in his brusque personality is with Yashiki.

For whom he has risked his life on several occasions by facing the spirits at his side, saving him from falling into the void in the Red Riding Hood case, has gotten another gun for him to be able to protect himself in case he can't do it himself, scolding him and standing up to him when he needs someone to bring him back to reality for his own good, comforting him in his own way when Yashiki believes that everything is his fault and trying to get him to acknowledge his efforts when he is more depressed than usual, leaving something evidently as important to him as his coat at Kujou Mansion, in a way marking the place as his own, being the only person in all of Spirit Hunter to call him by his first name in the case of Shimi-O, just three days after meeting him.

Yashiki for his part, has also shown a clear concern and level of importance for Mashita. (You know, EXP could at least try and hide a bit how important the ill-tempered detective, Mr. "Deep bond" is to Yashiki. I don't see a straight explanation for Mashita being the only one with his own jazzy background music or the little mental and emotional meltdown Yashiki has when he leaves after Shimi-O or believes he's dead because of him at the hands of The Departed. Just him, no one else. Come on man, at least disguise the overseas trip they had during NG which several fans treat as the honeymoon of these 2 or the constant calls they have, and that's if he doesn't materialize in Kujou mansion because he has "Nothing else to do" or "He was around the area"… An area surrounded by pure forests considering the official interactive maps. Uh-Huh Yashiki. Sure.)

I'm sure the developers haven't shown that much development to each other just because, but if anything for sure, they both care about each other's well-being.

So, to see someone important to him dead, in a pool of his own blood, covered in bugs and mold, making it look like all his hard work to save them all ended in his own undoing is unacceptable.

Unjust.

Yashiki doesn't deserve that kind of ending.

Even so, Mashita has no choice but to accept what happened in his absence.

The news would devastate the rest of the Mark Bearers. I see Suzu quite affected by the situation, due to the dream she had about Yashiki's final confrontation becoming a reality. (I'm not quite sure what conditions must be met to get Suzu to call Yashiki, but Suzu basically tells him that she was worried about him because she had had a nightmare involving him and a red room, which would be the ceremonial room of the clock tower).

Almost everyone was with Yashiki at some point in the investigation, trying to help and support him in any way they could, even being pushed aside for what he believed was to protect them. All to discover that their dear friend, the person they owed their lives to by saving them from Mary and deciding to dedicate the rest of his life to extending a hand to whoever needed it, spirit or human died in a grotesque way, with his name probably on the ground thanks to Sakamoto and leaving his efforts in vain.

Not only that, but the case also took Daimon as well, who they don't know if he will ever wake up now that the husband candidate he was related to has died. Knowing how close they have become through the CD Dramas and the extra panels in the manga, they would be too affected by how the case ended.

But they find out in the middle of it all that someone is trying to cover up Yashiki's death. And that was the last straw that broke everyone.

Mashita would never allow that.

Mashita knows perfectly well what it is to have his name stained, dragged in the ground by corruption and personal interests because of his own false accusation of sexual harassment

(With the era and stereotypes in mind, I assume it was a female coworker or something like that the person he supposedly harassed. Which I see as absurd to almost hilarious, even though it’s stated that he claims it’s false and the truth about what actually happened hasn’t been officially disclosed. Almost every single conversation this guy ever had with anyone from the other sex tells you enough about how he just feels about them in general. If they put verbal harassment, I bet not even him could try to deny that. But sexual? Hun, he’d rather die than touch a woman. Whoever made that report about Mashita clearly didn’t see him talking to one).

Maybe he is not a saint and what happened to him was totally unfair and false, but Yashiki?

Kazuo Yashiki?

The damn soft-hearted fool who was more good and human than any of them deserved to be, to witness?

The man who tried his hardest to help everyone else, ignoring himself and his own needs to the point of being oblivious to what is right in front of him?

No.

Over his fucking rotting corpse he would let someone so important to him be treated like that, unable to even defend himself against the false accusations that woman made about him, unable to do anything against the two love-sicked, obsessive and delusional brats who tricked him and made him suffer to the end, making him think that he killed a child in cold blood, killing him for a shitty ceremony where he had nothing to do and was a candidate to be their husband just for being himself, putting his kindness and solidarity in accepting a case that had absolutely nothing to do with him as a nonsense, a worthless case to begin with....

We don't know if this Mashita, the one from the games and canonical material, has killed anyone (Certainly the one from Blue Demise has, being creepy that there really aren't that many differences between that one and the canonical one beyond having murdered someone and being more openly sadistic); but I don't leave out the possibility that he seriously considered it when he saw the attempts of someone, of that man, one of those responsible for why Yashiki is no longer here, to hide what happened at the Konoehara academy.

Mashita had no problem in risking his life to unearth the truth of the case that took the life of his mentor, of whom little to nothing we know beyond being an extremely important person for the detective and to whom the coat he wears all the time belonged, but if anything is certain is that Mashita would be completely dedicated to expose and make pay all those involved in that case.

In fact, he can and has to follow the case. As Yasuoka explains in the final moments of DM2, Mashita lives by the rules and standards of a cop, acting like one most of the time when he’s not being a pain in the ass to the others; even if it means sacrificing himself for a case or protecting those he cares about, he will do so instinctively.

And after those events, Mashita still has a score to settle with Konoehara: Mr Kokkuri.

If you choose to go with Mashita to the forest when the Fox Laccata are disposed with Yashiki, Mashita promises to return to the site with a bunch of policemen to reopen the case of his murder and confiscate the mushrooms that started all the mess.

Mashita would be Konoe's first and foremost instigator to bring to light all the scandals and what happened at the site so far, from the events of the town before Konoehara to Yashiki's death. He wouldn't give up even if they throw millions of yens, lucrative promises or threats to shut him up; he won't let any jerk with money and power get away with it after snatching another person important to him.

If anything, he would directly push the rest of Yashiki's friends to help him with this cause, it wouldn't be hard at all to convince them after all.

Because the rest of the Mark Bearers wouldn't accept the situation either. They would do something about it, because it's the least they can do now for Yashiki:

Moe would pull every link and contact she has on Monthly OOPARTS forums to get the story out with every little detail and fact.

Shou would go to the academy solely and exclusively to cause as much trouble as he could cause as a delinquent and alleged student with that uniform he got, even recovering and stealing any documents or objects from the multiple scandalous cases that the damn place that took away the old man, the adult he so much admired and considered being "The old man’s right hand" has had.

Eita and Suzu would publish the unfiltered story in as many forums as possible about the ghosts and rumors going around Konoehara Academy, with loosely censored information from those involved in each case. (I feel like Suzu would deliberately ignore whatever Mashita has explained to her about client-employer confidentiality. He decides not to point that out to her when he sees the first publications of the grieving girl).

The famous singer and lead idol of a highly recognized group Ai Kashiwagi would make mentions about the beloved person she lost in a mysterious case in a haunted academy.

Yasuoka has no reason not to mention that the recent spiritual doctor and former family friend died of spiritual causes in her interviews and public outings.

Hiroo's stubborn curiosity and perseverance would undoubtedly make her fight no matter the scandal or the consequences the attention might bring on her for retrieving everything they try to erase about the case and actively work with the detective despite their differences for exposing the principal. (Leaving aside some glimpses of her closeness with Yashiki, having the confidence to playfully tease him whenever he has a minor around or gets into a new dangerous situation with the willingness to help as best as she can, it really is worth emphasizing how much her relationship with Daimon is emphasized in some short moments. Since her introduction, we rarely hear from Hiroo without Daimon nearby or mentioned) Literally this unhinged woman already has a considerable history of deliberately getting herself into deadly situations to satiate her curiosity and/or fulfill a goal, which is why Yashiki meets her in the first instance. Being on the brink of death to retrieve her map or prove a childish point to Mashita sounds more like a challenge than a discouragement to her. It's so iconic in Spirit Hunter that even the producers themselves acknowledge it. (Ataka even responded in a tweet a few months ago to a random comment about a joke of Hiroo damaging a shrine and carrying a deadly curse on her, the response was basically 'Yeaaah, in case the protagonist can't save her in a Live or Die event, Hiroo would straight up die. Her curiosity literally is what causes her death should she be among the options of destroying that thing, yk how she is.' They implicitly indicate what this woman is willing to suffer and risk for an answer). If Mashita is the first with the idea of bringing Konoe down and acting on it, Hiroo is the second.

Banshee and Tsukasa would be supporting these efforts as much as they can. Banshee has a whole system of sewers and the bunker to move around freely, he can safeguard anything found in this regard without having to worry about a third party destroying evidence. Tsukasa was not directly involved at any point during the case, but losing the one trusted adult who encouraged him to go along with what he wanted and not what was forced on him would be enough to help Suzu and Eita draft some of the forum postings.

Konoe would probably be stressed and annoyed by the number of people after the guy he hired, but it would not be impossible for him to detract and do something about most of these attempts, going to legal fights or futilely trying to bribe and/or scare them. If that doesn't work, then get people and contacts to get rid of any information he couldn't handle himself

And it is at this point that the only person, other than Mashita, that I believe the news came out on that television and all of Konoe's attempts were simply futile from the start.

Christie Arimura.

Konoe was already screwed from the moment Yashiki died in that case, because among the reasons why Yashiki was a problem as a fatality there was one he didn't consider.

The kind of contacts Yashiki had.

It's obvious to us onlookers, but to Konoe, who didn't live through the same terrifying nights and life-and-death situations as all of them did 3 months earlier, it's not possible to gauge the kind of closeness and trust between Yashiki and the people who were all around him hanging around the academy.

These were not just kids he had run into around and acquaintances with enough free time on their hands to help him with a ridiculous job.

They were his friends and the closest thing Yashiki had to a family.

And although it may not seem like it, many of them have many influential contacts, are the influential contact or have jobs that would make uncovering an unusual death case front page news on any national channel.

I don't know if this tidbit is also known when investigating the forest in DM2 chapter 5 with Hiroo, but it is known that when Yashiki was investigating with Mashita, Yashiki made a small mention in an internal monologue about Christie sending him letters to the Kujou mansion and being during the events of the game outside of Japan.

Considering how much Christie simply loathes and is terrified of anything to do with the lethal spirits that Yashiki so continually faces and the CD Drama of "How to Make Good Coffee", it's almost safe to say that she had no idea what was going on in Konoehara until she returned sometime later; if anything, Yashiki would have just mentioned investigating a new case and that's it, without giving her any further details so as not to make her uncomfortable.

Not as much as Daimon and Mashita, but Christie spends every now and then some time with Yashiki as do the rest of the Mark Beares (The manga extras and CD Dramas show us that they literally spend most of their time at the Kujou mansion doing the most random things like telling him spirit stories, teaching him how to use a computer, or dressing him up like a hottie for a formal event); With no news of what has happened in her absence or why she stopped receiving her own letters from her friend, she would find out through the others of Yashiki's heartbreaking fate.

It should be noted that Christie IS shy and quite withdrawn. Not only because of her own scandal for which she was forced to resign but also because that is the intention according to the official art collection with the initial concepts of the characters. Aside from being shy, she also must deal with her suicidal thoughts, the reason why she was even in that forest where she met Yashiki.

But we have also seen a brave side and a certain sense of justice in her.

For some reason, the fact that she was totally willing to rip Eita's head off when she first saw him with Suzu is very much ignored.

Did it look supremely suspicious and very out of context? Yes.

Did she care? As long the little girl in the middle of the night and in a desolate roadside parking lot got away from the suspicious guy, Christie was determined to ruin him if not for Yashiki jumping into the discussion seconds after processing that Christie had materialized to threaten the poor guy meters away from him.

Christie is passionate about journalism and if she thinks something is wrong or has a duty to report something, she will say so bluntly, sometimes forgetting that other people may be nearby (almost mentioning in front of Suzu what she knew about the Red Riding Hood case). From some of Shou's comments when they first met, it seems that Christie was particularly famous and good in her field, and it's not surprising considering the valuable information she provided during the Hanayome case and the information she managed to get in such a short time in the Red Riding Hood case despite Mashita giving her very vague details of what to do or what she was actually investigating.

Like the rest of the Mark Bearers, Christie has a good close relationship with Yashiki, at the very least being a close friend and someone who admires him and thanks him deeply for saving her life.

And when she came back, she finds out the blunt news that Yashiki had not answered her letters because of some casual situation or because he was busy in his investigation again.

He was dead. He died trying to solve a spiritual case, Daimon was in a coma or dead, and one of those responsible was trying to eliminate the evidence, belittle him and cover up his death and the whole mess, just to save his skin and avoid accountability.

Christie and Mashita (most likely who informed her of everything that happened in the case) would collaborate immediately after being informed of the case and through the contacts that her career as a recognized reporter would manage to make front page news with the story of a man who mysteriously died at the top of a clock tower of a prestigious academy.

Such juicy news, with evidence, facts, witnesses and testimonies of all kinds?

 About the death of spiritual doctor Kazuo Yashiki?

Who really turned out to be Masamune Kujou?

The head of the family of the prestigious, ancient, occult-indebted and "blood-cursed" old-money Kujou family, that Masamune Kujou?

Konoe was fucked from the start.

Konoe can have all the resources he wants to cover up the shit that was caused at his academy, but Christie wouldn't have made it as a prestigious reporter if she didn't know how to navigate through that kind of people to publish a story of that caliber. Which can include not only Yashiki's death, but also the death of all those students and the stains on the history of that school in a more shocking and organized way than an internet forum or an occult magazine could.

Hence, the TV news report that we saw at the end of the bad ending.

While it could be said that an extensive investigation was done to expose all possible points just for the sake of investigating well, the director now knows perfectly well that he aroused the anger of almost a dozen people suffering a huge loss, who would do anything for that man who was only trying to help and extend his hand to whoever needed it no matter if they were alive or dead, of who tried to erase his trace in any way to save himself, but it seems that he was much more important than anyone would have imagined.

More than Kazuo Yashiki would have ever given himself credit for.

This post ended up being much longer than I expected. I wanted to portray as close to canonical material the thinking, reasoning and actions of the characters to explain how the events could have unfolded for us to see that news on TV, although at the end of the day this is my personal interpretation of that little scene, being also kind of biased by, for example, my personal take on Mashita and Yashiki relationship and particular hate against Sakamoto, Kinukawa and Doryou. While I don’t think it really impacts the main points of the theory, it’s something to have present when considering it.

How I started the descent down the rabbit hole began vaguely watching again some CGIs of Spirit Hunter. It struck me that unlike the other Spirit Hunter bad endings that usually only give hints as to how or at what hands they died at that point, in this one aside from showing Yashiki's death we have vague information as to what happened next.

It left me thinking "Konoe and Sakamoto practically did everything to cover up any 'stain' on their prestigious academy How the heck did Yashiki make it in the news if no one even goes to the clock tower?... Unless Mashita- Huh, well it’s not impossible and it does sound like him to do that…Hmm".

One theory came, then another and then another, followed by intense searches for any official information of the game or Ataka and Chikami's Twitter plus the analysis of almost all the characters. Until I ended up coming to this conclusion.

Anyway, what I wanted to portray the most was how I thought the relationship with Yashiki and the impact he has on the story may come to affect the rest of the DM1 cast if something were to happen to him. I don’t think he's half as aware of how many people care about him, but I don't think anyone in his close circle would stand idly by if something like this were to happen to him.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone else had published a similar or more accurately summarized theory about that scene years ago. Maybe there's even already a canonical explanation about it and I just haven't seen it. But I wanted to share this theory and analysis that just wouldn't leave my head alone with the fandom.

This series seriously is very much discredited and dismissed as a weird visual novel with fan-service every scene, completely ignoring how deep and meaningful it can be if you look a little bit deeper. It deserves to be recognized and get some love ;w;

[noirandchocolate]

so I plan on writing Kohga for fic purposes eventually and I REALLY want to make sure I get him right. do you know of any common pitfalls people have when characterizing him?

Oh hey, flattered you'd ask me! <3 The thing about Master Kohga is that a lot of stuff about him is very your-mileage-may-vary because a lot is left up to interpretation about his origins, backstory, etc. and the way the Clan operates and things like that. So I'll try to stick to things we see in canon and away from my and others' headcanons.

The other thing about Master Kohga is that he's kiiiind of a tightrope walk of a character to write, imo.

For example, there's a fine line with him between how theatrical and silly he can be, and how serious of a threat he and the Clan pose. So on the one hand, I think characterizing him as a complete dunce and clown who's totally reliant on his underlings (Sooga, someone's very serious and competent OC, etc.) as Thinking Brain Lackeys, is a common trap. I feel like whether one headcanons the guy as 10,000 years old and the only Yiga Master ever or the latest in a long line of them or something in-between, one has to think of him as clever enough to keep an entire group of people together and operational. TotK suggests he was able to figure out how to use Zonai tech without a magic Zonai arm, and under his leadership the Clan has spread throughout the Depths. In AoC he successfully infiltrates Gerudo Town posing as Urbosa and nearly kills Zelda. So he ought to be able to carry out an interrogation or come up with a good plan in fics, I think!

He's also a very powerful guy who can hold his own in a fight with practically anybody but Link (and maybe the Champions but I think he's on a more even footing with them or stronger--this is one of those ymmv things though). He has a dang face laser in AoC and in all three games is shown to have various magical abilities that not even other Yiga possess. He has a demon carver in AoC and Zonai tech weapons in TotK and giant spike balls in all his games. So again, writing him as a weakling reliant on others to protect him is a miss when it comes to canon.

However, on the other hand it's easy especially when one really likes Kohga, to fall off the tightrope onto the other side of the pit by making him out to be a total badass who's the best at everything and always right. Canonically, he's very theatrical, and he has so many comedic moments that I think it's important to let him be silly sometimes in fanwork too. A corny banana pun. An over-the-top line delivery ('thestupendouschiefoftheyigaclanMasterKohga! IIIIiis gonna KILL YOU ALL! To DEAAthhhh!!'). Getting distracted and humming to himself. Faceplanting with perfect comedic timing. Failing and blaming the failure on someone else/the situation. Defeating himself by getting carried away with explosives/spike ball size. All things that happen in canon. He uses the word 'thingamajig' in AoC and stomps his feet like a dork in TotK. So fanworks where Kohga is never even a little bit cringe also kinda get him wrong IMO.

(Also that thingamajig thing is a small segue to say that giving Kohga informal-sounding dialogue fits with canon. However he's also capable of issuing a genuinely ominous villain monologue, like he does before his final battle in TotK. He's a character who's funny but also a threat. That's the tightrope!!)

Next I wanna say there's also a fine line between cowardice and pragmatism, when characterizing Kohga. He does run away when things aren't going his way in his first three TotK battles, and he does peace out in AoC while saying 'Yiga, assemble! Meexcludedofcourse.' He yells for Sooga and others to protect him. There's also a DLC mission in AoC where he pulls the Yiga back when too many monsters show up on the battlefield, saying 'Well, that's that. We'll try again another time.' So he does have a self-preservation instinct and will bail when the going gets too tough at least some of the time. But nevertheless I think writing him as a total coward isn't quite right (and I have seen that a fair few times, folks just having him always hide behind Sooga or abandon his lackeys etc.). Because he does gamely face Link down in the first place, multiple times in all three games. Also, in the Yiga Clan Retreats AoC DLC mission he's genuinely upset that his comrades are thinking only of his safety and not their own, and because they're all seriously injured he's kinda the one protecting them by ordering them to stay close and 'protect him.' So it's more accurate to write him as having a bit of a cowardly streak, but not when it really matters.

One other small thing I wanna mention is that we see in AoC that Kohga can be kinda brusque to his underlings sometimes. He yells at Sooga for being late and calls him a bum in one mission. So putting that offhanded rudeness into him fits. He shouldn't always be sweet and understanding to others, especially when he'd logically be frustrated or someone does something stupid or harmful. But Yiga you run into in BotW and TotK also speak highly of him, say he has 'a smile like a sunbeam,' etc. He does seem to be very good at keeping the Clan's morale high. And like I said in the last paragraph he does care about his people not dying; in that Retreat mission he tells multiple people to quit talking about sacrificing themselves! So making him completely callous or never nice to anybody doesn't fit.

FINALLY, because I'm rambling, another pitfall I've seen sometimes is people getting Kohga's motivations a little sideways and forgetting what the Clan is about. Now this is definitely ymmv with regard to how much a given fan thinks the Clan worships/reveres Calamity Ganon or Kohga, and I'm not gonna get into that 'cause tbh most all of that topic involves headcanons. But we see in AoC that Kohga's primary concern, as it turns out, is the preservation of the Clan, with the goal of revenge and destruction of the Hylian Royal Family as the second thing. His willingness to turn back on the Clan's allegiance to/alignment with Calamity Ganon in that game when the Harbinger and Astor start killing Yiga is proof of that. So again, writing Kohga as considering his people disposable or recklessly sending them off to get killed by good guys or monsters as an end-justifies-the-means thing (or harebrained stupid unthinking scheme) for achieving a Calamity-Ganon-or-Ganondorf-related goal? That's just...yeah IMO that's just plain wrong. Kohga cares about the Clan.

BUT! Revenge on the Royal Family and hatred for its members and Link runs DEEP, and is the Clan's prime motive and goal beyond surviving and thriving for themselves. Kohga has a very big drive for that and especially in TotK speaks in quite definite terms about wanting to assist in Hyrule's destruction. So on the other hand, if one wants to write Kohga as allying with the 'good guys,' it's important to have a very good reason for him to do so. It took an immense betrayal by Ganon and Astor involving a swathe of murders to make him do it in AoC. So I doubt Kohga's gonna flip sides genuinely in any timeline, meaning with no plan for a double-cross or at least thought of backstabbing, at the drop of a hat. (And even in AoC timeline he speaks of not being completely comfortable with it.) In a temporary truce, I think he ought to be grumbling and resentful of it.

I went on and on but I hope this was even sorta what you were asking! ^-^; I had fun talking about Best Guy so thanks for the opportunity to do so!

[shade-of-vermillion]

Gonna be honest. The DLC ending isn’t as out of left field as people think it is. (Spoilers under cut)

Yes, even the Radahn part. There is some evidence for it in the base game. Specifically, we know Miquella had or has ties to the Carian Royal family. We can infer that from two pieces of evidence, 1) Loretta’s presence in the Haligtree and 2) the description for the Miquellan knight’s sword. In the case of Loretta, you could of course make the argument that she sought him out on her own while looking for a place for the albinaurics, but with the sword, I think to go as far as to model a sword intended to be given to his knights after Caria’s implies he had contact with or at least a great deal of respect for someone from that house.

I’ve seen people in the past posit this as evidence he and Ranni were in cahoots but frankly I don’t believe their goals are aligned even in the slightest. Ranni after all believes that the best path forward is to reject godhood utterly and leave the lands between so that mortals can decide their fates on their own, whereas Miquella in the base game has literally been growing his own Erdtree, a new system to replace the old rather than a rejection of the system altogether.

I know there has also been a lot of upset about how Godwyn may have made more sense as his lord consort, however I believe Radahn was chosen specifically as a way to save Godwyn. In the base game through exploring Castle Sol and looking through the descriptions for the gear of mausoleum knights we discover the possibility of returning soulless demigods to life via an eclipse and find out that Miquella was working towards making one happen to bring Godwyn back. Radahn is shown as capable of binding the stars to prevent Ranni’s destiny from coming to fruition. He could probably force the moon into position in front of the sun if he wanted. If Miquella’s goal really was to restore Godwyn with an eclipse it makes a lot of sense that he would tap Radahn to force one to happen.

As for the Mohg thing, come on now. Gideon gives you the recipe for the bewitching branch the second you tell him you visited Mohgwyn palace. If it was just because Miquella was there he could’ve given us sleep pots or sleep arrows or maybe one of the rings of light spells. But no, he gives us the bewitching branch. How the hell else am I supposed to take that.

Honestly I also don’t think this ruins Miquella’s writing. I think it just makes him more interesting in the long run. He does have good intentions, but pursuing godhood requires dirtying your hands. I also don’t think this undermines his connection to Malenia or his drive to see both of them healed. I just think he’s more complex than people thought he was at first brush.

[rallamajoop]

What if Shadow of Rose isn’t actually a sixteen year time skip? We know Rose has a lot of the same symptoms as Evelyn. Wouldn’t it also make sense for her to be so ostracized if she were aging faster than her peers?

I like that you're asking the question, Anon ‒ the same thought has occurred to me too! You're correct that nothing in Shadow of Rose is dated (or if it is, I missed it too). The possibility that Rose might have aged at an abnormal rate isn't that out there either, considering that we know Eveline's apparent 10-year-old age was artificially maintained, and that she aged rapidly without those treatments. Rose isn't Eveline, of course, but who knows what's true for her? (I mean, one hopes at least any accelerated aging Rose might face will cut off at adulthood, but still.) Miranda's experiments have clearly frozen people at the age they were when experimented on too, which is further proof the mould can fuck with aging in various ways.

Regardless of when Shadows of Rose is actually set though, I'm not surprised that we aren't given any hard dates. Resident Evil is a rare franchise that's always aged more or less in real time: events like the Raccoon City Outbreak are still referenced as taking place in the 90's, and RE8's Chris certainly looks like he's pushing 50 these days. (I also suspect this is one reason why all those fans clamoring for a return of Jill or Claire haven't got their wish yet: letting the fanboys deal with how both women should have aged just as much as Chris is more than Capcom probably has the balls for.)

But if Rose really is, say, 16 in SoR, that puts the date around 2037 (the wiki uses this year, but as usual cites 0 sources, so is likely bullshit). And that's just a little awkward from a continuity standpoint, because SoR would also have us believe that not only is Chris still alive and working well into his sixties, he's apparently still working with his Dog-Dog squad too. That could be a problem going forward, because it really limits what the franchise can realistically do with Chris for the next solid generation or so.

It's not just Chris, either: selling the audience on potentially-world-changing future major bio threats is going to be that little bit harder when we "know" that there's a future in canon already, and that future looks like SoR.

So it's very much in Capcom's interest to play a little coy with the dates for SoR. Fans can't come to them complaining that (say, for example) RE11 comes along and tells us Hound Wolf disband in 2035 when we don't actually know for sure that SoR is set later than that. It may well be one of the reasons why we don't see any recognisable faces like Chris or Mia in the DLC: the time gap is more ambiguous if we don't get to see how much they've aged. Besides, keeping them unseen leaves RE9 free to have them lose an eye or gain a sexy new scar without contradicting anything SoR's shown us already. And if the timeline does get tight, they've always got the option of going back later and telling us that Rose actually does age unnaturally fast, and in fact SoR is only 4 years after RE8. When writing for an ongoing franchise, leaving that sort of wiggle room for later installments to explore is often the best policy.

But all this aside, is there anything to suggest that Rose does age fast, or that SoR is set closer to the present than it looks at first glance? The biggest flaw in the theory would be that baby!Rose is already six months old, and seems to be developing at a normal rate. She's recently started solid food, she doesn't seem to be crawling yet, let alone walking (Ethan makes a comment about dusting out the spare room before Rose gets mobile) ‒ from the outside, she looks pretty normal. Given the range of different ages at which babies hit different developmental milestones, that doesn't really prove anything, but no points in our favour so far.

Surprisingly then, the single biggest indicator that a serious number of years really have (probably) passed is, well, this guy. Remember K?

You wouldn't know it, but he's apparently a member of the same incarnation of Hound Wolf Chris is leading in RE8 proper: apparently K = Canine. Honestly, I didn't even make the connection until I found out they had the same voice actor (Conner Marx), 'K' appearing in the credits for SoR only under the name 'Canine'.

But in my defense, they've done their level best the mask that connection, given that Rose calls him only 'K' in the DLC, while Chris was calling him 'Canine' in the main game. And it was consistently rendered in subs and text as a six-letter-word: 'Canine', never 'K-9'. Nor is this helped by the fact that unused concepts tell us he's a dog handler called Charlie Graham (written in katakana next to his pic), or that the voice actor's performance in the two stories is so wildly different.

Heck, for all I know, maybe 'K' and 'Canine' are two different characters played by the same VA, and the SoR credits used the wrong name. They're both dark-haired, blue-eyed white guys, but the resemblance isn't that obvious (they don't even use the same eye texture ‒ because you know I'd check that). Conner Marx also played Sebastian, the guy with the crutches from Louisa's house, so it's not like Canine is his only role either way.

Assuming they are supposed to be the same guy though, 'Canine' does seem to be one of the more prominent members of the team throughout the main RE8 storyline, not that you'd know it without applying the Hound-Wolf No Mask mod to reveal the team's faces. He's the guy who jumps Ethan and gets judo-flipped in Moreau's area, the guy Chris tells to check out what the BSAA's up to at the start of his section, and the guy in the chopper at the end showing Chris that bioweapon under the BSAA helmets. So he's arguably one of the more logical characters to bring back. Conveniently, you can watch all those scenes with their faces revealed in this compilation video if you're interested.

(Naturally, when I'm playing with mods, Chris does not escape unscathed either. Alt-costumes from RE5 are TOTALLY canon, convince me otherwise!)

While I'm on the subject, can I also mention what a terrific job Conner Marx of bringing K to life in SoR? It's a real shame that everything we learn about K is retroactively proven to be one of Miranda's illusions. She's really upped her game since mimicking Mia back in the original RE8 opening (but then, when Mr. Denial himself is your only audience, why not phone it in?)

But getting back to the original point, K/Canine is the one character who does at least appear to have aged by a solid decade or two in the intervening years. You know, if you compare his SoR appearance to concept art, and that unseen head model that doesn't actually appear in the original RE8 at all.

So here's the thing I want to underline: unused concepts and models you have to hack the game to see are not canon. They can be interesting, as a window into the evolution of creative intent, but no-one should feel beholden to them. There clearly were some plans to reveal the faces of the Hound Wolf squad in RE8 that didn't make the final game, or they wouldn't have distinct faces modelled at all ‒ there's even a storyboard suggesting how it was meant to happen ‒ but it's still hard to guess how 'finished' those face models really were. There's no reason Capcom couldn't completely redesign the whole squad between now and whenever we do officially see their faces in a later RE title (assuming we ever do at all).

So basically, there's nothing to prevent them from coming back a few years from now and telling us the K under the mask in RE8 always looked like the middle-aged guy from SoR, if they want to. The info they've actually given us leaves that open, for now at least.

But in the meantime, the fact K's model appears to have been aged up a good decade plus is probably a decent indicator that SoR is probably intended to be a long way into the future, and that Rose probably ages at a normal rate. But it never hurts to keep your options open. The less concrete lore you have, the less risk of contradicting yourself later on (as so many 'facts' from guide books often do). More is not always better, just because some fan wants to be able to post a definitive RE timeline on Reddit or something.

So yes, as usual, I have taken an innocent little question and spun it all into a whole lecture on unused concepts and some of the realities of writing for a franchise! (Look, if you're reading this blog, you should what you signed up for at this point.) But to reiterate: I do like the idea that Rose may be younger than she appears! It may or may not be intended, but there's certainly nothing in canon to contradict it, and it's a very interesting possibility all on its own.

[dreaming-of-citycrows]

/ / / Season 2 spoilers / / /

What’s up yall, I want to talk about season 2:

Personally (and maybe unanimously) it isn’t as good as season 1. However, it isn’t the worse, albeit there are some flaws and story directions that I find questionable, and that agood amount of what I have to say is probably a broken record, but y’know…

First, Kenny.

I always love to get a sense and try to understand a character when there is change to their character, what I have to say about Kenny is that, when he loss Sarita, he lost himself. Kenny is a Family man, without it, he has no sense of direction, and it shows. He became very unstable both mentally and emotionally. No better example than at the half-constructed home. My play through went the route in which, Clem went for Luke, fell in the lake, and was freezing to death. What does Kenny do, not comfort Clem nor start a fire, but to pummel the shit out of Arvo. Which I couldn’t justify to myself. He ignored the immediate situation (Clem freezing) and went after some kid for whatever reason, like bro, are we serious right now?!?!

Second, Carver and Howe’s

Leaving just an episode at the hardware store and Carver was such a waste of development. I hear all these talks about how good of a villain Carver is, yet all I remember from him is his death, his first name (like, imagine being kidnapped by a guy named William 💀) that puffy jacket he wears, the beating he did on Kenny, and him telling Carlos to wallop Sarah. No development, no immediate limbo of how bad or “good” he is. If we spent, maybe two episodes in Howe’s, learning about Carver, I feel it would be better, like one episode is getting captured and understanding the inter workings of the store, the next, trying to retaliate and escape.

Plus, where the hell is the 400 days group?!?!? We had a whole DLC only for 2 second cameos?!?!

Third, Jane and others like Mike, Bonnie, etc.

Jane is selfish. She put AJ on the line in order to make a point that Kenny is unstable, and she did it at the worse moment, and provoking and insulting him leading up to that point?!?! Don’t hate me over it, but she deserved what she had coming.

I understand but don’t like the decision of both Mike and Bonnie when leaving. I understand that, yeah, Kenny is unstable, and he pummeling Arvo is a red flag, but leaving? Personally, I would’ve tried to reach a midpoint between the two sides, but Y’know Telltale.

I don’t understand why y’all are hating on Bonnie. Sure, she didn’t do much to make herself helpful (maybe giving my that f#ck ass jacket) but she ain’t to bad. She even ask Clem if the group ever done what she wants, which was so huge in understand just how much the group relied on Clem (11 year might I remind you).

Now the Cabin group. I hate how they killed Pete off so quickly, I feel like keeping him around and having him die at Howe’s would’ve been better, as it could help highlight the cruelty of Carver (giving more depth into Carver’s evilness😱). Other honorable mentions could include Nick (after episode 2, was kinda useless), Sarah (if Clem could’ve tried to help her more than a pep talk, and try to teach her how to survive only for it to fail, could’ve been better), and Alvin (could’ve shown how more conflict between Alvin and Carter, to add tension). The other characters from the cabin group were as good as you were gonna get them, so, yeah.

P.S. I don’t think Carlos is a doctor.

A solid 7/10

So much to write about, holy moly. But, I’ll see y’all after I finish season 3!

[krakenguard]

But like! I know you have talked about Mohg wanting children and not being able to have them. But! WHAT IF in this wonderful AU where everyone lives the Tarnished and Ansbach are able to reunite Mohg's soul with his body and then somehow, in an additional miracle, he CAN have kids now. And the result is a handful of adorable little Mohglets. I mean if we're making a "best timeline" might as well fix it all amirite?

(I was very depressed yesterday and the concept of tiny Mohglets was making me very happy so I had to blather at you about this.)

Man ever since reading vuarde's writing I've been obsessed with the idea. It just works for him. 😩

And, like... I don't even know how or why, but the whole idea is just SUPER endearing to me. It's a sweet idea, and I think Mohg deserves a bit of sweetness. Especially after the DLC. 😭

And, like... I keep mulling over the whole Initial Perception vs. Present Perception. Like in the case of the Tarnished, or Schel.

Arriving at the Lands Between. There's this group called the Bloody Fingers that she learns about via Yura. So she's on the lookout for them.

And then learning about the Haligtree via the Albinaurics and Gideon. Feeling a sense of motivation to help them, only to find that the Haligtree has rotted. And Miquella is nowhere to be found.

Tracking him to Mohgwyn. Killing the Lord of Blood seemed the right thing.

All that... And then meeting Ansbach. And suddenly the initial perceptions for both Mohg and Miquella are changed. The catharsis she once felt has now turned to remorse.

And seeing him again, now free of his enchantment... He is fearsome, and prone to cruelty. But he has shown frailty and compassion as well.

And the wild thing is, now she considers him a powerful ally, as well as an unexpected friend... She understands where Ansbach is coming from.

[puppetofdreams]

Lies of P Overture Trailer Frame-by-Frame Observations/ Analysis

I mostly wrote these notes out as I watched the trailer, so I end up contradicting myself in earlier points. These were all wrote out very roughly because I am just so damn hyped about this ahhh!

overture n. 1 an orchestral piece at the beginning of an opera, play, etc. 2 an introduction to something more substantial. - This could be relating to Romeo, since he is associated with the King of Puppets, who is found in the Estella Opera house, it could signify the beginning of him and Carlo's friendship. Maybe we will be given more insight into their lives at the Monad Charity House. It could also mean the uncovering of the more significant, darker inner workings of Krat (Zelator Laboratory perhaps?) Or, it could just be referring to the DLC itself, how it's bringing more content and all to the game. We'll see.

- P holds a heart-shaped trinket of some kind. I initially thought it was the Moonphase pocket watch, but the designs are far too different. This trinket contains a white magic inside what looks like an orb in the center. It is covered by swirling branch patterns, and is cased inside a blue, heart-shaped outer wrapping. A magical white butterfly bursts out of it. We have never seen white coloured magic before in the game, so I wonder if it will act as an anti- Ergo of some sort? Ergo is the purified essence of a person's soul. Could this white magic serve to heal or cleanse the people who are either afflicted by the Petrification Disease, or by the Alchemist's experimental disease?

- P appears to be standing at what looks like the Path of the Pilgrim, where the golden Stargazer is, because of the old wooden shack situated behind him. He looks surprised as a group of white butterflies lead him down along a path. The white butterflies could also serve as his guide for the DLC, but wouldn't that eclipse Gemini's role? Maybe the butterflies will reveal hidden paths to different locations (perhaps relating to someone's memories?) and Gemini will be there to react to new information, or just yap at P lol.

- It's very snowy here. FOXES!! P walks up to the edge of a cliff, overlooking a massive snowed in city. Based on the shape of the rooftops, this could be the area to the left of the Cathedral's balcony that everyone was theorising about. Gemini says "how can it be WINTER all of a sudden?" Good question. I have no idea. Maybe the experiments being carried out in that laboratory looking building later on could have caused this sudden shift in weather. The railway or tram line that connects to the large round roofed building has, what looks to me like flat giraffe cutouts and other small animals behind them. Could that building be the Monad Charity House, since that sort of animal imagery could be associated with younger children? Or, could it be a very fancy circus? (In hindsight, it could be the Hall of Adventures shown later). There are lots of hot air balloons floating around, though the people riding them have probably died by now from hypothermia.

- A tram is seen travelling towards Hotel Krat. This might serve as a means of transport between the hub area and the DLC area. The tram might take us to that snowy city.

- A male voice says "Sorry? You want to know the year?" He sounds a lot like Vander, so this confirms that Arcane and Lies of P take place in the same universe /s. A new NPC, probably will be met at the beginning of the DLC. This line of dialogue may confirm that the DLC will take place in the past, in someone's memories. It could be Carlo's memories. Oh my God, I'm getting so excited writing this I need to calm down. This shot depicts a carnival, once again all snowed and frozen over. The electricity still works though, so Carlo and Romeo can still share a romantic moment on the ferris wheel. More hot air balloons, nice.

- A Pistris submarine is lowered into the water. I don't think this takes place in the Relic of Trismegistus though, only because there is a flight of stairs to the left, which aren't present in the current day Relic of Tristmegistus. Another male voice says " What a pleasure to meet a Stalker worthy of the name. It's been far, far too long" He sounds a bit like Neil Newbon to me lol. Balder's Gate 3 is canon to the Lies of P universe too, it seems. Perhaps this NPC has witnessed first hand P's fighting prowess, and is complimenting him on it. Or maybe he's talking to a different Stalker NPC.

- Okay, I only just now decided to look at the description of the video, and yes, it will take place in the past, in the lead up to the Puppet Frenzy. The Legendary Stalker will be P's guide for the DLC, which is very exciting. I've always wondered what she was like. Maybe we'll get to spar with her later on in the DLC. Perhaps she could teach P new combat skills (such as that CRAZY Puppet String x1000 move at the end of the trailer).

- P walks into a dilapidated building, with a banner hanging above a Woolly Mammoth, the latter of which has a body impaled on its sharper left tusk. The banner says " Hall of Adventure". It gives me very similar vibes to the Grand Exhibition. This place could be a museum. Maybe P will have to fight off the reanimated remains of long extinct creatures here. I can imagine them bursting out of their glass cases as P walks by. Also, a sick new Legion Arm is being worn by P here. It looks very frilly and elegant, but I can't tell what it will be able to do. I also want to appreciate P's amazing drip here. One of the most annoying parts of becoming human is that you need to keep yourself warm in freezing weather. The pain is all too real, P.

- Kitty!! This might be a baby Spring! You can get a better look at the Legion Arm here. It looks like a double barrel shotgun. I like the juxtaposition of such an elegant, innocent looking arm having a built in shotgun. Well actually, maybe it's very fitting that such an elegant arm would have a shotgun built in to it, as shotguns require a lot of precision to wield effectively, nothing like spraying acid everywhere with Pandemonium.

- A feminine voice says "Oh, my forever friend. Help me to hold your hand and dance!" P proceeds to slay on the circus dance floor. There is a clown puppet, seemingly some kind of Jack-in-the-box spraying out confetti. The sign behind it probably says show your talent or something. The voice has a robotic sound effect to it, so this could be either the clown puppet saying this, or a different, more hostile puppet, wanting to "dance" with P in battle, and hold his hand after he is destroyed. Maybe these two puppets will be one in the same.

- A blue string of light follows P as he walks through a big archway. It stops just short of his face. Judging by the next shot, this could be the giant winged puppet leading him towards something or somewhere. Actually, no, it's the Legendary Stalker I think!

- Oh my God, oh my God, I'm freaking out so bad right now. A voice, that I'm assuming belongs to the Legendary Stalker, says " You're not the puppet i was expecting. Who are you?" She wears a glove of some kind on her left hand, which allows her to puppeteer the massive angel puppet which flies around the room. The architecture looks similar to that of the Grand Exhibition, with the glass dome ceiling. Her glove reminds me a LOT in Geppetto's hand in that cutscene before the Nameless Puppet fight. Her skin has turned a light shade of blue, possibly from overexposure to the Ergo she uses to control the angel puppet, or any other puppet really. Do you think she will try to take control of P at some point? Either with malicious intent, or as a method of showing him how to pull off some new combat tricks. She looks so badass.

- There is a giant, monstrous cocoon which had been chained up, but the chains came undone. The statue of a face in the background looks a lot like the statues found throughout Arche Abbey. A strange creature begins to hatch from the bottom of the cocoon. It reminded me a bit in how Calamity Ganon hatches from its cocoon in BOTW. A male voice says " I heard she was looking for... for someone!" The voice sounds gelatinous and distorted, so this could be coming from an NPC who is half way through the Alchemist's mutation process, like how Atkinson was.

- P is standing in a room within the frozen laboratory (the Zelator Laboratory maybe?) I can't tell what that giant falling object is. A container, with an enemy inside? As I look at it more, it seems more like a hydraulic press, meant to alter the laboratory's environment in some way. It descends slowly, and rotates. The next shot shows objects which look more like descending canisters of ice.

- In this shot there is a tall, gooey, bloody alter? Composed of human bodies. Very One Reborn- esque. There is a little candle flame present in the bottom left corner. Perhaps this is part of a sacrificial ritual? For what, i wonder. To banish the Petrification Disease? The body at the top of the alter looks very happy, with their arms embracing the sky. Blood drips onto their head, the source of this blood being out of shot. A male voice says "Legendary..."

- The voice continues with " She stepped up only because no one else could." I was wrong about the previous woman with the angel puppet. THIS woman pointing the rapier at P is definitely the Legendary Stalker. She looks exactly like the woman in Carlo's memories on the beach leading up to Arche Abbey. The feather, the outfit, they're all the same. Her and P are standing in a very cosy looking building, with a stove fire and a nice little work bench with a lantern sitting on it. I think she will be suspicious of P to begin with, but will eventually learn to trust him as time goes on. It must be weird for her to see the boy whose dead body she stood over before, now approaching her, alive. "She stood up because no one else could." She clearly has a deep desire to protect the defenseless people around her, so she must've felt very guilty about what happened to Carlo. "If I had known this would have happened..." as she said in Carlo's memories. Perhaps taking P under her wing and teaching him all she knows will help her get over her guilt of not teaching Carlo to fight all those years beforehand. Also, her and Gemini may have some very interesting interactions with one another, as she clearly has a history with him, and is the only character who interacts with him in the base game other than Sophia.

- P fights a giant mutant which appears to have its head encased in a yellow substance (oh god please don't inflict Disruption build up). There seem to be empty canisters along the walls of the room. P is wielding a new weapon, ready to perfect block any attack that gets sent his way. He pulls off a perfect block, which still sends him flying backwards, so this mutant is STRONG. The room actually looks really like the supposed boss room in the scrapped section of the Relic of Trismegistus, judging from the shape of the room and the mesh floor. The mutant looks like it's wielding a spiky whip, possibly made from its own flesh. P whips out a trumpet with a red flag tied to it. At first, I thought it was attached to the Legion Arm, but he actually just pulls it out of his pouch. Maybe it can disorient the enemy, or summon in backup for help?

Okay, I just got my answer, Alidoro shows up. This Alidoro is probably the TRUE Alidoro, Eugénie's brother, who i really want to know more about. Do you think we might see Parrot then alongside him at some point? It would be really cool to see them interact, knowing what will eventually come to pass between them later on. The same male voice says " Too many Stalkers were lost to that evil." Could this actually be the True Alidoro speaking to us? What evil is he referring to? The crimes of the Alchemist's? He clearly doesn't hold them in high regard judging from what he has to say about them when interviewed by Medoro for the Venigni newspaper. He has insider knowledge on their disturbing practices, so it would make sense he'd say this.

- P is in the laboratory again, facing off against someone wearing a ram's head, wielding a badass hammer. I'm thinking this may be a fight against another Stalker, as they both seem to be standing at equal height to one another, though that might not matter since Nameless Puppet was similar in height to P. The person just gives off Stalker vibes, and I'm hoping we'll be able to loot their attire. Many pipes are visible underneath the mesh floor of the arena.

- P is standing at the edge of a frozen lake, readying an arrow shot with another new Legion Arm. A large mutated shark monster with feet leaps out of the water towards P. Why would a shark be in a frozen lake? I think I might have gotten the location wrong, or maybe the monster isn't a shark at all, just an aggressive fish found in a lake.

- A mutant that looks a lot like common depictions of Frankenstein's monster slams a ball and chain down on P. I think P is using another Legion Arm in this fight, or maybe it's another weapon type. It looks like Wolverine's claws. Actually, yes, it definitely is a new weapon type, since the particles it emits after pulling off that big attack look like the ones that come off of Fable Art attacks. Whatever this new weapon is, it totally obliterates the mutant, so I'm looking forward to trying it out.

- THIS is the creature that emerges from the chained cocoon. At the start of the shot when it was hanging upside down, it looked a bit like Bongo Bongo, but after it fell down it looked more like Metyr, Mother of Fingers. Suffice it to say, I have no clue what this thing is lol. I only know that it's GINORMOUS. It may be the biggest boss in the game. I've just now noticed that it actually has a face.

- A feminine voice says " I'll do whatever it takes. You're survival is all that matters." This one has an English accent, so this myst be the Legendary Stalker speaking to P. She also says " Nothing else comes close, not even in my life. I swear I would be late." These lines don't seem to connect to one another, and may be spliced together from other pieces of yet unheard dialogue. The "Late" part is similar to what she says over Carlo's corpse in the beach memories: " I'm sorry. I was too late..." She knows that P has the capability to put an end to the suffering of the people of Krat, so it seems she will give P all the wisdom she has, and teach him all the combat techniques she knows, to help him in whatever trials he may face in the DLC.

- P unleashes Puppet String x1000 on a poor mutant in the snow. There's nothing else to say about this, other than that P is now at Malenia levels of insane.

I am exhausted now. I've been writing about this the very second I woke up this morning. I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this trailer, the summer cannot come any sooner!!!!!!

[cristaq]

Beating a dead horse, I know, but I saw that Activision changed Soap's bio to confirm his death in the reboot timeline. Damn, what a massive disservice that is to a character with so much potential and history. How can random people on the internet write infinitely better plots than the ones that are actually paid for it? :(

Corporate gaming sucks. As long as graphs shown at the annual shareholder meeting go up, everything goes. And I am ready to bet that 95% of them have never played a good game.

Sorry for the rant, but I grew up with these games and characters. And now they use them as nostalgia generators and kill them off for shock value. I believe that characters that are ingrained into video game history should be treated with respect.

Video game stories are like any other stories. They are tales made to be retold and enjoyed so I agree with a reboot actually! I think it is great that so many other people got to interact with these characters in a new light. But killing off your assets is not the way. Bad writing at such a high level is not the way. Creating a DLC and marketing it as a full game is not the way.

There are other franchises that managed to reinvent themselves a bit and become relevant again. We can talk about DOOM or Ratchet and Clank for example, but there are so many others out there. Unfortunately, you can only create soulless art when you yourself are without a soul.

It's probably not that deep but it still sucks.

[awhisperofbluevn]

Is the game nsfw? or sfw

I realize I didn't put this anywhere on this blog or game page even though it's an important topic, that's my bad. I'll add it to the pin post for all to see, thank you for bringing it up so I can adress this message to everyone !

This game (and by extension, this blog) is meant to be SFW.

Though, I suppose if I had to set a limit of age, it would be 16.

Since it is still a horror themed game, there will be depictions of violence, blood and death (as seen in the demo) but no gore nor explicit sexual content will be shown for reasons I'll list down below.

So I'll ask everyone to please remain tame with your questions. If you're not sure of the limit, just ask, I promise I don't bite (unlike a certain someone).

Now if you want the reasons :

I have neither the confidence nor the skills to write/draw gore or sexual content, even in my own language.

I don't want to police who interacts with my game or blog. I have minors following me on Instagram where I first advertised the game and character, and I don't want them to be redirected to a media that is not suitable for their age.

The love interest is not human. Though it could be interesting to explore this aspect as it would add a new layer of characterization, it adds a whole new challenge. I would have to adapt to his unconventional anatomy and habits in detail compared to a human and as of now, that's not really something I'm comfortable with because I feel like it could be a slippery slope since I base a lot of his traits on actual animals for credibility purpose.

Far in the future of the game, I may consider adding a DLC or something that would include NSFW elements if people express interest AND if I'm comfortable enough, but it would be locked behind a paywall. At the end of the day, it's up to anyone's own discretion to respect the rules and boundaries set, but I don't want to give an easy access to unsafe work to minors. That won't dissuade the most determined ones, but it should filter them at least.

Tl;dr : Base game and blog SFW ; possibility of NSFW DLC (?) in the far future but no promise.

[yournextflame]

Elden Ring Theories: A Retrospective

So, enough time has passed for me to form my opinion on Shadow of the Erdtree and revive this blog. But before posting new theories based on the DLC lore, I decided to take a look at my old speculations and see how well they aged.

Does the Greater Will even exist? ✅ In this post, I compared the Greater Will to the Big Bang and suggested that it might not be an actual deity, but rather an attempt by the people of The Lands Between to explain the world around them: the creation of the universe, the fall of meteors, evolution, and the natural order. The Shadow of the Erdtree continues to present the Greater Will as a scientific concept described by the inhabitants of a fantasy world, allowing players to decide whether it’s a god beyond the microcosm or just an empty circle in Count Ymir’s hat, a mere projection of human imagination

The outer gods are natural forces. ✅ 🟡❔While the Greater Will's cosmic origin was emphasized even further in the DLC, the motives of the outer gods were tied even more strongly to earthly concepts. I have many thoughts about the outer gods and godhood in particular, but one of my ongoing ideas is that they manifest human emotions, given how perception and sacrifices shape reality in a material way in the Lands Between.

Elden Ring and Color theory: ✅🟡❔ While I disagree with some points I made in this post, many of my observations were quite accurate. One clarification I’d like to make is that the scroll sigils indicate the heritage of magic rather than its source of power. I also appreciate the DLC narrative that suggests all the differences are actually man-made.

Translation of Marika's echoes from JP, ✅ The DLC gives Marika such human and deeply personal motivations that reducing her to a mere puppet of an evil outer god feels like an insult to the collaborative work of GRRM and Miyazaki. I must admit that my initial reading of her character was too harsh; I even questioned why FromSoft would write such a one-dimensional character. However, I’m very glad that The Shadow of the Erdtree gave Marika awesome depth without depriving her of agency.

My musings upon Helphen's Steeple design and DLC predictions ✅ 🟡 Well, the Shadowlands are described as a place where all kinds of death come only to be suppressed, and the Shadowkeep, as pointed out by the community, very much resembles the design of the Helphen. You can even find Tibia Mariners' boats here. It’s not the exact version of the spirit realm I predicted, but it’s very close.

Small bonus: Even though I insisted that the DLC should be centered around the spirit realm, I pointed out that exploring Godwyn's story beyond what was shown in the base game is pretty unnecessary.

What's wrong with Ranni's Two Fingers? ✅🟡❌ Right direction of thinking, wrong conclusions. One of the biggest reveals of the DLC is that everything is wrong with the Fingers and their mother, Metyr.

Children of the Erdtree 🟡❔I'm not sure what to make of it. The DLC continues to toy with the Empyrean connection to plants, from the special properties of Marika's people's flesh to St. Trina being a literal flower, but it never makes any direct conclusions.

Bells and Bell bearings ❔ The connection does exist, but it should be explored in greater detail.

Candletrees, Miquella, Death and Sleep 💡❔✨ Now that the DLC has revealed Miquella's plan to replace Marika all along, it’s astonishing to realize that my earlier discovery about Necromancer Garris — who likely collaborated with the Black Knives — had Miquella's butterfly and candletree in his basement is actually quite wild

What is Crucible? 🟡❌❔Although the nature of the Crucible is still a mystery, I think my old theory that it was a different tree is not exactly right. I’ve even started to wonder if the Crucible and the Primeval Current are just different names for the same thing.

Some of my old takes haven't aged well, but if anything, I'm glad that Mohg isn't the "walking uooohh 😭💢 joke" I used to call him. However, my opinion on Miquella was surprisingly accurate. For two years, the fandom preached that Miquella wanted to abandon his godhood, making me seem like a major contrarian for insisting that godhood was still his ultimate goal (at least because it would be pointless from a writing perspective to create another Ranni).

I still believe that characters like Marika and Miquella are primarily vehicles to deliver Miyazaki's and GRRM's ideas regarding civilization development, human nature, religion, and philosophy. So, whatever faults they have are the faults of the concepts they represent. Nevertheless, *Shadow of the Erdtree* did an awesome job of elevating these characters from mere ideas to something more human and relatable.

My old description of Malenia is so relevant, it hurts.

Mohg, Radahn, Rykard and Snakes 🐍 Honestly, I'm not sure if Messmer was initially planned by FromSoft or created specifically for the DLC, but looking back, it's pretty funny that I noticed something weird going on between the demigod brothers and the serpents.

Elden Ring lore is a disaster 🤡 Elden Ring story is such lackluster that it was rewritten with the first day patch on top of the giant mountain of cut content. I’m not sure that DLC, if there will be any, can fix this mess or give any proper answers as it seems that writers got too much carried with the idea of making story as vague as possible.

Someone was overdosing on doomium.

To my surprise, the DLC managed to address most of my old frustrations. While I do wish certain things had better foreshadowing or were explored more, it still did a good job of filling many gaps in the base game lore that were making me frustrated. Looking back, I think some of my grudges over the lore were no less important than my theories because they served as a good indication that something was intentionally left unexplained. It seems that the gaps and ambiguities were not oversights but deliberate choices.

As I explore the new content in Shadow of the Erdtree and revisit my old theories, I will also share my thoughts on the new lore and its impact on the narrative. This fresh perspective has already sparked some intriguing insights, and I am eager to see how these revelations will reshape our understanding of the game’s world.

[transdreadwolf]

hello hello, and happy thedasweekend! uwu how about renehn/emmrich and the rook story time dlc: aldwir prompt of: Rook fighting a new creature from the forest that the magic has mutated? hope it's fun!

-broodwoof

Thank you, and happy thedasweekend! This one took me a minute to start, but I really enjoyed it! I don't write a lot of action scenes, so it was good to flex those writer muscles.

For @broodwoof & @thedasweekend!

Renehn ducked behind a tree, panting, and nocked another arrow.

"You all right?" they called out.

"Yes, dearest! Excellent shot!"

Renehn blushed despite themself and the situation. All they'd wanted to do was show Emmrich around Arlathan Forest.

Just the two of them.

He'd shown them the Necropolis, after all. Even brought them to meet his dead parents, which was… maybe a little morbid for a first date, but Renehn didn't mind it.

They were starting to think they liked a little bit of morbid. They certainly liked Emmrich.

More than that, Renehn thought they might be starting to love him.

Just a bit.

He was certainly a gentleman, and that was something they weren't used to, at least not from their romantic encounters. It wasn't as if the people they'd slept with were course or rude, not at all. It was just that there was something different about Emmrich.

So, with the help of Lucanis and Bellara, they'd packed a meal, mostly Dalish food, and invited Emmrich to go with them to Arlathan. He'd been delighted, or at least, it seemed that way. The two of them had left Manfred behind with Neve to look after him, and set out to go on a date.

At first, things seemed to be going well. Emmrich was interested in seeing more of the forest and learning more about its history, yes, but he mostly seemed interested in Renehn.

It was after they ate — Emmrich enthusiastic about trying new food and even more so about Renehn's history — they went for a walk.

And that was when they met the Varterral. Renehn had heard of them, of course, in tales handed down by their clan. But there was something wrong with this one.

It was huge, for one, almost twice the size it was meant to be. And the air was heavy with magic; abilities no Varterral should possess.

"I need you to distract it while I line up a shot!" Renehn shouted. "Can you do something with fire or lightning?"

"I have just the thing!" Emmrich said loudly. "Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"One moment!"

Renehn heard the crackling sound of lightning building, and grinned. They knew he would have something up his sleeve.

When they heard the Varterral scream, a terrible sound, they leaned around the tree, taking aim with one of their special arrows.

The Varterral was cracking with lightning, staggering backward, away from Emmrich. Good.

They let their arrow loose, and their aim was true. It pierced one of the Varterral's eyes, sending yet more lightning through its body. Distracted by pain, it didn't notice them darting forward, a flask in each hand.

Renehn through the flasks, with exploded into flame upon contact. The Varterral let out terrible cry, and collapsed to the ground.

The forest was silent.

"Well," Emmrich said. "I certainly didn't expect that."

[kaibutsushidousha]

Could you elaborate on why you said Ibuki's writing got a lot of mileage out of the latest El-Melloi?

Volume 7 of Adventures, the most recent El-Melloi book as of this question, has a scene demonstrating how a god sees the world. Gods can know anything by seeing past, future, and alternate timelines as their eyes perceive the world full of what I can best describe as spiritual Wikipedia links. With temporary access to a god's eyes, Ergo tries to learn more about Shirou and "clicks" links that show him practically every route of Fate/stay night.

I'd argue the most prominently featured god in Type-Moon is Fate/strange Fake's Ishtar. Ishtar demonstrated aspects of this since volume 3, with her searching through other timelines to find which would be less harmed by her removing Gugalanna, until she finds a Babylonia Singularity (world not connected to anything) and pulls from there. But she uses her divine eyes openly in volume 8, the one written more concurrently with Sanda's divine eyes plotline. There Ishtar notices multiple times that Rin has a link to herself thanks to FGO but chooses not to "click" that link while she's busy with other things. Then in her last moments, she uses the link in the arrow that killed her to be able to see her shooter.

This ability to see people's pasts at will is something Ibuki is passively shown to do a lot throughout the DLC, with her being able to find and summon the ghosts of Ming and Shimabara to fight in Zheng's and Chiemon's routes respectively, and the part I commented about: main story Ibuki choosing to join Iori's party based on what she saw happening in the DLC timeline.

There's another, more spoilery reveal of Adventures 7 that connects directly with Samurai Remnant, so I'll keep this one under the cut.

One of the long-term questions of Adventures was "Why Ruo doesn't have memory saturation too?". And then volume 7 reveals that his trick is that he doesn't have a trick. He was a god from the get-go. Any human who tries to use the power of a god will have memory saturation without exception. Which brings us to Saber, who:

A) Has Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi as a Noble Phantasm which makes them a temporary kami.

B) Is full of holes in the pack of basic knowledge they were supposed to have a Servant.

Iori's Valentine's scene has this to say about it:

"It's a real bother, let me tell you. It was no different back in the times of the Waxing Moon Ritual. I never have sufficient knowledge inserted in my head. Even I can tell something is up with that, so I questioned the Child of Ibuki about it, and she answered that the more a wielder draws the… "perks" (whatever this word means) of the Divine Sword, the more is subtracted from them."

The drawback of the sword that makes a temporary god overlaps quite neatly with the natural and inevitable consequence of wielding the power of a god in a human body, wouldn't you say?