#like this idea that there is a central timeline that time does not like being diverted from

[nancywheeeler]

hopeless time loop. the way out isn’t to save everyone. the way out isn’t to save even one person. the way out isn’t to change anything. the way out is accepting how it happened the first time is how it always will be. that’s how you acted, that’s how they acted, that’s how you would have acted every time if you weren’t given the curse of hindsight. the way out is accepting you can’t fix the past; you can only forgive yourself for it.

[liridus]

The loops, role reversals, and Walpurgisnacht: A PMMM meta

Madoka and Homura seem to consistently take on roles similar to each other. And because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this, I’m going to write it all down. This stemmed primarily from NezumiVA’s video Understanding Madoka Magica- Part 2, especially where they pointed out that with each loop Madoka becomes more docile and the other magical girls tend to die earlier.

Timeline 1

At the beginning of the first timeline, Homura is relatively unconfident. When overwhelmed by others talking to her, Madoka steps in, and converse to what we see in episode 1, Madoka introduces herself as the nurses’ aid, asks to be called “Madoka” and asks if she can call Homura by her given name.

When Homura expresses hesitancy about her given name, Madoka says that it’s a cool name and Homura should become “cool” to match it. Immediately after this, we see a compilation of Homura performing relatively badly in both academics and athletics, both in front of an audience. While in both cases, others mention that she likely needs time to catch up, Homura seems to take this on herself. She also seems to have taken Madoka’s comment about becoming cool to heart, seeing herself as not being able to. Though most of this is likely amplified by the effect of the witch, Homura sees herself as being useless and a burden on others.

After Mami and Madoka save her and explain that they’re magical girls, we see Homura happy, visibly happy, opposed to earlier in the episode.

When Mami and Madoka fight Walpurgisnacht, Homura is the one to call attention to the fact that Mami just died, also here seemingly caring about death more directly than in other loops. As Madoka says that she is the only one left to defeat Walpurgisnacht, Homura pleads with her to run away, saying that no one would blame Madoka for doing so. Madoka persists, saying she is glad that she became a magical girl, eventually dying in the fight.

After Madoka dies, Homura is left with an immense amount of survivor’s guilt, placing emphasis on the fact that Madoka should not have died “Saving someone like her”. Bringing back ideas of her being a burden on others. Thus, as opposed to just saving Madoka, Homura wants to instead become someone who can protect Madoka, someone “cool” like Madoka wanted her to be. And most centrally, someone who would not be a burden, someone who others can rely on; someone who Madoka can rely on so she won’t need to fight alone.

This wish traverses time and continues to rewrite it. Homura finds a moment of gaining control in a moment that seems hopeless, and decides to take responsibility for the new world she wants to create herself, regardless of how long realizing this wish may take.

Through the loops, Homura continues to do what she believes is necessary to protect Madoka: she trains, she becomes less docile, she becomes more hostile to the other magical girls (especially Mami and Sayaka who more directly influence Madoka’s involvement as a magical girl). She becomes colder, and she physically loses aspects of herself (her braids, her glasses) that might stereotypically be associated with weakness, or her old self. Then we arrive at the present loop.

The series loop, loop n.

In the nth loop, Homura begins with taken on the initiative of reaching out to Madoka, who in this timeline is visibly more timid. She also seems to speak with less conviction than she used to in timeline 1. She seems hesitant to approach Homura as she previously had. Homura introduces herself, and initiates Madoka and herself referring to each other with their given names. Homura is notably leading the way this time.

Homura here has restarted their first meeting, however she seems to have taken on a role similar to Madoka back then. Here she issues Madoka her warning, telling her that she does not need to change, ironic considering that Homura’s timeline resetting seems to have affected Madoka’s personality the most.

Just like Homura in loop 1, we find here that Madoka does not see herself as anything special, the idea of becoming a magical girl in itself gives her a sense of joy and a sense of purpose. This is cast aside with Mami’s death. However, Madoka does try to help out in whatever way she can. The feelings of being a burden reach a hight for Madoka when Sayaka (at this point almost a witch), brings up how unhelpful she is despite having an enormous amount of potential (this likely coming from Sayaka’s frustration in not having the same abilities despite putting her all into her fights).

In this timeline, Homura has decided to, like Madoka in timeline 1, take Walpurgisnacht alone. But Madoka decided that she will not let her. With each timeline, Madoka becomes a magical girl later and later, this potentially being the latest in the timeline Madoka has become one. Madoka here decides on a wish to rewrite time, like Homura, and be directly involved, taking a position of control and executing her wish herself. She is also willing to take on this role for however long it might be necessary, similar to what Homura continues to do.

It is interesting to note that in every timeline despite what Homura does, Madoka in the end, due to the cosmic energy now tied with her, ends up becoming more powerful than her, and ultimately due to differences in how involved they want to be with the world, Homura is consistently unable to “save” her from her “fate”. Even when Madoka takes on Homura’s timeline 1 role, Homura is consistently unable to escape from her own role at the end of timeline 1; being helpless.

At this point Homura cannot restart as she usually would, and even if she was able to Madoka has become so powerful that Homura cannot be the one protecting her.

Rebellion

As a witch, Homura here is essentially causing herself misery and despair, perhaps partially due to the incubators containing her, or perhaps due to her self-loathing being so great that she first enacts it on herself.

The labyrinth she traps herself in is ideal where she and the others are safe. Interestingly, Homura here is Homura similar to herself in loop 1. As time passes, even with Homura figuring out the true nature of the world, she is essentially unable to do much able it, taking back her role from loop 1. Before her witch form takes root, there’s a scene with Madoka literally braiding her hair, putting her back into the mindset of this role. We see her consistently fail to save Madoka, consistently being helpless, consistently not being strong enough. Emphasized further by the Nutcracker imagery (Homulilly’s imagery is similar to the Nutcracker in the story of its’ namesake after it’s jaw has been cracker, rendering it useless. Pointed out by NezumiVA (Understanding Madoka Magica- Part 2)).

Rebellion changes things however, as here Homura learns that Madoka does not like her fate at the end of the series (interestingly, Madoka never said she was okay with in in the finale as far as I could find, she mostly just assures Homura that she technically won’t be alone). Homura at this point has tried to fight fate countless times, and each time, despite what she does, Madoka does get involved. Her braid unravels, things are moving away from their usual loop. At this point she realizes that she needs to protect Madoka from herself. She has to fight Madoka.

She pulls Madoka away from the circle, again taking on a role of control and resetting the world to create something that she desires (similar to the end of loop 1). However this time, similar to Madoka at the end of loop n, Homura herself moves outside of the loop, gaining power (likely connecting enough cosmic power to herself via the loops, largely unintentionally, to do so), and considering that Madoka here is now to be not in her God form, Homura finally has more power than her (and even in case of Madoka regaining her powers, she at least has a chance of having equal powers).

Loop n+1

When we reset this time, Madoka and Homura more literally switch roles from loop 1, with Madoka being the transfer student and Homura guiding her. Homura gives back Madoka’s ribbon, perhaps signifying that she will not be taking Madoka’s role in loop 1. Homura has decided that she will do everything necessary to keep Madoka safe, even if that means fighting her. Somewhat unwittingly, Homura also seems to have taken a little more of Madoka’s sacrificial nature here, seeming to have less self-preservation her than in the past, though this could also be due to the influence of her witch state.

Walpurgisnacht

Seeing that in the finale we see Madoka save magical girls before they become witches, I find it interesting that we do not see this for Walpurgisnacht.

From the wiki:

“Its nature is helplessness. It symbolizes the fool who continuously spins in circles. The Witch's mysteries have been handed down through the course of history; its appellation is "Walpurgisnacht." It will continue to rotate aimlessly throughout the world until It completely changes the whole of this age into a drama.”

As many others have pointed out, the chairs that appear randomly, for example in Madoka’s room, and the curtains that at points seem to resemble a stage with curtains and a seated audience.

At the beginning of Rebellion, as @atamascolily has pointed out here, there are several elements that go around in circles. Knowing what we know now about this being Homura’s world, and her time loops, essentially causing her and Madoka to circle and loop around one another, both literally and in terms of roles, and Homura’s primary fear being too helpless to have influence and help Madoka, I think at some point Homura or Homulilly becomes Walpurgisnacht, or the primary witch that triggers the creating of the merge of witches that we now know as Walpurgisnacht. As pointed out by @sayaberry, here, in the trailer for Walpurgisnacht Rising, Homura’s dress becomes similar to Walpurgisnacht’s. The loops also are consistently linked to Walpurgisnacht’s appearance, so she ends up keeping the cycle going. Additionally, it might be that the way that Homura might move away from the helplessness of not being in control, might be in taking total control via creating, essentially the ultimate show.

Also, interestingly, Walpurgisnacht and Madoka’s witch form, Kriemhild Gretchen are said to form two halves of an hourglass; together needing to literally switch places in order to reset time.

[lime-bloods]

Homestuck's Gnosticism: The World / The Wheel

Everyone knows Homestuck is "a Gnostic story".

Wait, why does it feel like we've had this exact conversation before...?

AH. SO NICE OF YOU TO JOIN ME.

If you followed along with the first post in this series, you'll be familiar already with the Gnostic nature of Homestuck's central conflict between the spirit world and the flesh. And even if I say so myself, I think that post is pretty definitive; if you're ever unsure what a particular character's motivations or end goal are, the Conflict will tell you. But what's conspicuously absent from the post is any explanation of what actually happens in Homestuck. We've covered the why, but very little of the how.

I left us off on the "synonymous goals" that spring naturally from this conflict between flesh and spirit; attaining ultimate knowledge, and escaping the confines of Homestuck itself. Eagle-eyed readers probably spotted what was lying between the lines, there: the comic is called Homestuck because it's about being stuck in a house, so the ending is about escaping the house. But what does that really look like? And how did they get in that house in the first place?

Let's return very briefly to a quote I used in the previous post. "[Y]our ultimate self [...] unlike god tiers or bubble ghosts or whatever, it really IS immortal". Two assumptions naturally grow out of this fact. First, and probably most obvious: when John dies, he's not really gone. The idea of him still exists out there, somewhere, and in our minds, so he still exists. Second, though: if the idea of him is eternal, John obviously didn't start existing when he was born. So again we ask, where did he come from?

How did John get here? Where does he go? The answers to these questions are like the four sides of one hypercoin, in that Homestuck is a time loop... of a sort.

To begin to understand this, we need to reiterate what was basically "the point" of the first post: Homestuck operates on two distinct levels, a spiritual plane consisting purely of ideas, and a "literal" physical dimension. What happens on these two planes often mirrors each other, and because Homestuck itself is a work of fiction which operates in the realm of ideas, they can even intersect. But ultimately, what "literally" happens to the characters in Homestuck is not the same as the ideas the comic is expressing in its spiritual metanarrative.

The fact that a physical time loop is impossible is something Homestuck inherits from real-life physics: to put it simply, John being born can't be the physical John from the end of his timeline, because that John would be way too old to be a baby! But ideological time loops are not only something sanctioned by Paradox Space, but essential to its very being; they are where it gets its name, after all! To repeat another lynchpin quote from the comic: there is essentially nothing new in paradox space. Any idea that seems new necessarily must have just come from somewhere else.

"SbaHJ has the distinction of being the symbolic language of [Dave's] subconscious." (Homestuck: Book 3: Act 4, p. 282)

Frequently we see this expressed in the rooms representing characters' dreams, which, as discussed, sort of transcend the character's physical form and represent the broad ideas that characters are made of. Dave's dreams (pictured above) are covered with drawings of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, characters he seemingly invented as a child after being inspired by a drawing Terezi sent to him. But Terezi's drawing was based on Dave's own illustrations she saw later on in his timeline; so which of them truly "invented" Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff? Neither of them did; SBaHJ exists as pure subconscious ideological matter floating through Paradox Space, only sometimes being picked up by a character's conscious mind. Similarly, Gamzee tries to manipulate this subconscious realm when he uses his psychic powers to place a terrifying effigy of Jack Noir in John's dreams, as punishment for the destruction of the trolls' session. But as we know, Jack Noir only took that form because of the nightmares this doll caused! So again; neither John or Gamzee thought up the demonic clown "first". It existed in the realm of ideas before either of them ever had the chance to invent it.

These kinds of ideological loops are the bread-and-butter of jujus. We're told their origins are untraceable and that they can't be destroyed, but neither of these things is really true; these superstitions exist only to obfuscate the true rule that jujus "emerge spontaneoUsly from the void." Rather than be erased from existence, a juju can only be banished to that same void of nonexistence where disembodied ideas live, and then pulled back into the world of dreams by a prospective psychic.

With these rules established, now we can really delve into with appreciation the ideological time loop that underpins all of Homestuck. And like all good time loops, the best place to start is at the end.

ACT 7 (Are you tired of seeing it yet?)

Let's not insult anyone's intelligences here: you know and I know that Caliborn's little house juju looks like the Homestuck logo because it is Homestuck; when he wins it from Yaldabaoth, he takes control of it, and when he sucks the heroes inside, he's trapping them in the confines of his material world.

What's essential to keep in mind here, though, is that the power of a juju is the power of the idea itself. It's easiest for us to think of the word juju in Homestuck as a concrete noun, referring simply to a magical object. But the word's real-life origins, referring more abstractly to magic or enchantment, are still relevant in this fictional framework. Lil Cal isn't just "a juju", but is "FILLED WITH BAD JUJU." Magic in Homestuck has always really been about the idea that believing in something can make it real, and the purpose of all Homestuck's dealings with chucklevoodoos and jujus is to evoke the anthropological concept of the "fetish"; an item whose power comes from human beings ascribing supernatural qualities to it. Jujus are all part of the "game" the cherubs play, with all its rules and quirks; breaking an enchantment is like breaking a rule, in that it changes nothing about the real world: you've just infringed upon an idea. The juju isn't the object; the juju is the power, good or bad, ascribed to the object.

All of this is really just to say one thing: Caliborn's home juju can't trap the flesh versions of John and his friends; as we established, you can't send old John back in time to become young John. But what a juju can trap is something far more important; the ideas of John and his friends. This is why it doesn't matter if the heroes who travel back to the beginning of everything to beat Lord English while he's still a kid are the "main" timeline versions of those heroes from some point in the future, or if the Epilogues' version of events is truth and they're some "irrelevant" offshoots: because all of those characters are represented by the same idea, and that's what Caliborn puts in the box. No matter what timeline John is from, he's from Homestuck, to Homestuck he must return, and as such Homestuck is what he must be forced to escape. Refer again back to the previous post: Caliborn can't create or destroy, only take pure ideas and alchemise them down into a form he can control.

And that's why Act 7 so enigmatically features two different white home-doors (above), seemingly so interconnected yet effectually unrelated. Because Act 7 takes up the hefty role of concluding two storylines simultaneously: allowing the "real", flesh-world versions of John and his friends to escape Lord English's reality through one door, while also concluding Homestuck's metanarrative by setting the ideas of John and his friends free of their prison through another door.

So far, most of this is probably stuff you'd have either figured out on your own or at least heard from someone else already. And if we set aside such distractions as run-ins with radioactive imps and omnipotent dog-gods, the "whats" and "hows" of the heroes' story are probably the easier parts of Homestuck to figure out. What's more difficult to fully comprehend on a first pass is how Lord English himself fits into all of this.

If you've been following me for any stretch of time, you'll notice in my analysis of Homestuck I've returned to the topic of black holes frequently. I've lost track of how many versions I've published of what I call "Black Hole Theory". And I won't link to any of them here, because ultimately Black Hole Theory was a corkboard to which I could pin the evidence that would eventually, piece by piece, lead us to where we are right now:

If the home juju is a white "hole" leading out of the confines of Homestuck as a story, then black holes are the doors that lead back in. An early clue to this comes in the form of Calliope's stage in the heart of a spiral: these spirals are Calliope's visions of black holes, which she uses as "dark pocket[s]" from which "no information can escape" - a literal description of a black hole - and that stage is the very same one Caliborn stages his story on when he takes full control of Homestuck's narrative. The meaning here should be clear: Calliope creates black holes, and it's the center of these black holes where stories can take place.

But for all the evidence we need to suggest that Lord English's fall into a black hole leads to something more complex than just his destruction, we need not look further than conventional science:

In the quantum world [...] information cannot be created nor destroyed.

Lisa Zyga, on the conservation of quantum information.

This rule that "ideas" are truly immortal, and that any time an idea seems to be destroyed it must have merely been transported somewhere else, holds true even in the scientific world of black hole physics. This has been played with in MS Paint Adventures before; theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking's take on black holes was that some stuff could in fact escape a black hole, contrary to Calliope's assertions, in the form of Hawking radiation. But Hussie's own version of the story was always a lot more to the point: something gets sucked into the center of a black hole, it gets shot out somewhere else. In hypothetical physics this is called a white hole - no doubt you can see where this is going.

So Lord English's final moments in Homestuck see him not destroyed, or killed, or defeated in combat in any traditional way, but sucked right back into Homestuck. What exactly does that mean?

Homestuck, p. 8105

As long as we're talking the power of ideas and symbols, possibly the most blatant a symbol can get is in the form of a gesture; and the thumbs-down is possibly one of the most ancient gestures there is. Dave gets one, Tavros gets one, and, so they say, even the Roman gladiators got them. This precedent makes the meaning of the gesture clear: "you're going down." And it makes sense, too, that Hussie, the "good author", would signal the "evil author's" demise in such a way. But some might question the effectiveness of the power of gesture at such a pivotal point in the comic. Are we really to believe that English's defeat was, even in part, the result of another author merely willing him away like a tyrant doing away with an entertainer who has fallen out of favour? Or did the Hussie-character actually have some kind of plan to deal with his Hulk-like alter ego?

Of course he did.

...now Caliborn has hijacked the property of his experiential continuum which he has reason to believe is called "the narrative". Little does he know you recently made the shrewd decision to purchase(?) the ACT 6 ACT 6 SUPERCARTRIDGE EXPANSION PACK! Just plug it into any in-universe console port to unlock a variety of exciting new gameplay features and proceed through remaining canon unfettered, while Caliborn muddles through six new sub-sub-acts of infantile "subversive parody" targeting the very tale he inhabits, none the wiser!

To allow our heroes the chance escape their narrative prison, English isn't just to be trapped in their old cell; it's to be trapped within an infinitely-recursing cell, not just reliving one story over and over again but forced to live out infinitely many different stories. Not just a narrative loop; a narrative spiral. That's what being sucked into the black hole means for Lord English.

When Roxy - the Hero of Void whose very symbol is that of the black hole - banishes Caliborn-as-Cal into the void, he becomes one of the very wandering ideas with which English plays like dolls. "Instances of [Doc Scratch] have spawned in countless universes", and they have "never once failed to complete [their] objective": whether he wants to or not, Lord English will always be born again. In a new universe, perhaps, maybe even in a different shape, but his role always the same. Caliborn thinks that by filling the supercartridge with special stardust and corrupting the story, he's won, but looking at the bigger picture the truth is clear: he's only playing by somebody else's rules.

Just as Skaia uses lotus "seeds" to store items away for later use, and employs meteors as "Seeds" to send important elements back in time to set up the beginnings of new stories, so too are English's cue ball "seeds" only a means of transporting his essence from one place to the other; the black hole and the Rapture are, after all, only Skaia and the Reckoning sized up to a truly macrocosmic scale. The cue ball is able to be a font of endless knowledge because it is the "white hole" at the other end of the black hole! No information can escape a black hole, and therefore there is no information that escapes Scratch's attention -- he is limited only by his "pockets of void", which exist only to, in time, be filled, as more and more falls into these black holes like a multiversal game of billiards. Not only is this a transparent allusion to one of the most fundamental representations of the paradoxical time loop as a concept, but it is also the ultimate insult to injury: despite having lived an infinite number of lives, and being cursed to live out an infinite number more, Lord English cannot know what his fate will be until he literally falls into it. This is what forces him to lose, over and over again for eternity, while our heroes triumphantly escape Homestuck onto greener pastures.

[shoezuki]

rambling bout divinity au in the wake of the new fic:

sampo Did in fact wipe gepards memory of that night. but at this point in the rough timeline i have in mind sampo has fucked w gepards memory So Much and hes... not really good at it like thats fuli's job. so gepards building up a resistance

sampo has a tendency to wipe geps memory a Lot and often for stupid shit. like mid chase sampo trips and eats shit? oo thats embarassing cant have gep remembering that.

(another fic idea is the first chase where gepard actually catches sampo and sampo is so flustered he causes a localized ecological disaster around em and accidentally grows plants n flowers around gepard and then wipes geps memory)

gepard 100% knows that sampo was the one who arrested elias/the dude who stabbed him. he knows that sampo somehow got around all of their guards and security. he knows sampo tried to mess with his memory somehow.

i dont want gepard to seem like an airhead in this. kind of hard to balance it because his obliviousness to aeonic influences is central to the whole au but at the point of this fic. he Knows theres something not 'right' w sampo

at this point gepard knows sampo isnt human or has some inhuman things going on. hes decided its not relevant to the records against him and refuses to mention it or allude to it.

serval was mentioned for exactly 1 line but i have a fic planned from her perspective. she knows sampo isnt human and does her own investigations against him which leads to her butting hands with natasha. pela also knows 'something' is up w sampo but moreso about how sampo feels bout gepard.

gepard shuts down all insistances that sampo is abnormal esp from serval and pela because he doesnt want anything to change for sampo. its sort of his own way of being protective

i cut out that segment where sampo goes to natasha before finding elias but my idea is that sampo goes to natasha for comfort very often. they have a strong mutual understanding and shes kinda like an older sister/maternal figure sometimes to him

(his 'childhood' was shit and he sees his own experiences in the underworld children. so hes envious of how nat treats them lovingly because he never had that and has never had any supportive older figure considering hes not human)

i loved writing the segment with lan because lan's origins as an aeon are interesting to me.

considering lan rose to aeonhood from a hatred for Yaoshi, how sampo felt when spiralling in his anger towards elias is how lan 'feels' all the time. Lan is an aeon but is a very... emotion based aeon.

thats why lan reached out to sampo but never aha. he could feel sampos anger and relate to it. (lan's message was almost a warning as well as a jab at sampo being 'weak')

sampo thinks gepard is an emanator of qlipoth but hes so wrong.

sampo considers making gepard his emanator. he wouldnt though. if he was aha? absolutely. but hes human now and knows doing something like that and altering gepard without his knowledge would be a betrayal. gepard isnt suited for elation anyways

people who know sampo isnt exactly human: gepard, natasha, serval

people who know sampo is so down bad for gep: pela, seele, natasha

i dont think anyone fully realizes hes an aeon though. because thats so unimagimable. nat is the closest though

[eahtheramblings]

A deeper dive into how the destiny system would work in a rewrite

Alright, little housekeeping before I get into it, I have finally created a tag for the hypothetical rewrite fanfic that I keep procrastinating due to college - so people can use the tag to either find the posts related to it or block it depending on if they like/dislike my ideas. You can now find it under #RamblesRevamp. Felt after posting the time loop au idea that I should probably start creating tags for these or else it’ll get confusing very quickly.

Moving on, I have come across the problem that every eah fan and fanfic writer has to face after thinking about the story for a while; just how in the world does the destiny system actually work? 

The books and show give us some threads to make sense of it, we know it’s generational in most cases, and we know that signing the book ensures the story plays out again, but beyond that most things are speculation. It was definitely written as a looser magic system to ensure that no matter who was writing a special or a book for eah they would be able to bend the rules to fit the plot, but for something so central to the story it really feels like it should be fleshed out more. Luckly, this is the world of fanfic, and I am not beholden to make a story that can adopt different writers quickly, so I can world build as much as I want!

Below is a list of changes/rules/expansions upon the original destiny set up we were given that the Revamp AU follows. These rules are what the average character in the revamp AU would know:

Rule 1: Destiny is understood to be a set of two cycles, one for fairy tales that need to be retold every generation (snow white, goldilocks, etc.), and one for the greater myths that covers universal creation to universal destruction and would happen over billions of years (Greek myths like cupid would be here). Here's a very quickly made visual example: 

Behold! the Destiny Cycle, or Narrative Cycle as it’s sometimes called. When we start the story with Apple and Raven, they are on fairytale cycle number 1,017. No one knows how many myths cycle’s the universe has gone through since that encompasses the creation and destruction of the universe, but scholars enjoy debating about it and saying a person “thinks they know how many cycles the universe has gone through” is akin to saying a person thinks they know everything.

Rule 2:

Oftentimes in fairy tales the characters have set ages that are much younger or older than what someone who just graduated high school would be referred to as, such as little red riding hood and Hansel and Gretel being referred to as children, or other characters being referred to as old kings or hags. However, having everyone complete their stories at the age they would be in our version of the fairytales would negate the whole point of a high school to prepare students for redoing those stories. In the revamp au the storybook of legends gets around this by comparing the character’s ages not to each other or to a timeline but rather to itself. 

You see, the book is magic, it somehow holds signatures from every generation with an individual page for each character and yet looks to be the same size as a standard textbook. In essence, it is a non-Euclidian object, not tied to rational laws of time or space. If the book wants, a character can seem like a young child to it, it’s been around since the start of the cycle! And if it needs to write a character as old, then that character can seem old in comparison to it, it’s a magic object that for all anyone knows popped into existence with a new cycle last Thursday! It isn’t bound to time the same way the characters are, so it can get away with fudging the ages a bit when writing each generation's version of the stories down. 

Rule 3:

In ever after, there are 2 kinds of people, the common folk and the destined. 

All destined regardless of birth order have a destiny, but what type is dependent on various factors. For Example, there are two types of destinies in the land of ever after, blood bonded and soul bonded. Blood bonded destinies are the most common, they’re what happens when a character's first child takes on the same exact destiny for the next fairytale cycle. Apple, Raven, and many others fall into this category. Then there are Soul bonded destinies, which are either destinies that have a role in the fairytale cycle but aren’t exactly the same as your parents, or in extremely rare cases destinies bestowed upon a person from a non-destiny family.

 The Charming's are a good example of the former. The original blood bonded destiny of Siegfried passed down to Grandpa Auspicious's eldest son, but he had no other destiny to pass down to the younger children. Because they are a part of the destined, however, all the children needed destinies, so the book bestowed soul destinies of being prince charming's and damsels in distress onto them. Their children in turn also got soul destinies, which is why the Charming’s know what their general role in stories will be but not the exact character (with the exception of daring, which I will explain in a bit). 

The latter, the case of a soul bonded destiny going to someone not already part of a destined bloodline is extremely rare, but does occur occasionally, especially when an old charming line dies out. You see, to keep the destined bloodlines from getting too interconnected, those with familial soul destinies like Charming's will often have fewer children as generations go by because fertility issues set in. Eventually, the blood line will either no longer be able to produce children or will produce merely 1 every 1-2 generations or so. When this happens, a new charming family might rise from the common folk in the form of a rags to riches prince story like the penniless owner of puss in boots. Again, this is really rare, but is also why the Charming's push for Daring, Dexter, and Darling to have prominent destinies. The sooner they marry into blood bonded destined families the less likely their bloodline is to disappear or thin out. 

You can have a family with both blood bonded and soul bonded destinies. Holly as the presumed oldest got the blood bonded destiny of Rapunzel, but Poppy as the younger one has an unknown soul bonded destiny, assumed to be a damsel due to her royal blood but no one’s really sure.

 And furthermore, while we're on the topic of pairs of siblings, a story that includes a set of siblings will have those siblings born to the oldest child of the last generation, not the weird cousin thing that happened with Helga and Gus. This means that if you're a part of the twelve dancing princesses for example, only the oldest princess’s twelve children would have the blood bonded destiny of being a dancing princess. The daughters of the other eleven princesses would get random soul destinies like the charming's. 

Finally, the first line of this rule is a little false. While unofficially there are two types of people, the destined and the common folk, Headmaster Grimm, and those who truly believe in the destiny system from both camps of people, would say that everyone is destined, as it is the destiny of the common folk to continue on their family trades and support their kingdoms. They even have symbolic legacy signings in some villages where a single page is signed by every child of age and then sent to Grimm to bind into the storybook of legends, and the one held in Book End village each year is attended by nearly every child of age within reasonable travel distance as they get to see Grimm bind the page into the book at the end of the ceremony. 

Rule 4: this brings me to the next point, Grimm isn’t just the headmaster of the school in the revamp au, he is also the Oracle of the Storybook. Grimm is thought to be immortal, here since the beginning of the cycles themselves, and he interprets the Storybooks will through visions and the like. This is why Daring knows what his destiny would be, Grimm saw a vision of a blonde prince in armor that had the Charming crest on it leaning over a glass coffin and told his family. He doesn’t control when these visions come, but despite this his position as Oracle makes him almost the head of all the leaders in ever after.

Rule 5:

And finally, number five, the storybook will make little changes each cycle to continue its and the universe's ensured existence. When the original tales happened, they were quite violent, with villains always dying at the end and even some hero’s dying as well. This however started to become a problem for the cycle, as destined who died without having a child first didn’t pass on the story by blood and thus their destiny got spat out randomly to a soul bonded destined. To keep this from happening, two things started to emerge. 

One, for stories where the deaths happened right before the end, the book started to look the other way so long as the character was dead until the last words were written. This is how Ginger's mother and previous ancestors survived. Yes, she was pushed into the oven and died, but one, fire resistance potions exist, and two, her oven had a door on the other side that could be opened, so after the storybook wrote “the end” the second door was opened by Grimm/someone else he trusts, and she was given a powerful healing potion. This is the equivalent to your heart stopping for a minute and then being revived by a doctor. You were dead, but like, it was temporary. 

Two, for other characters whose deaths happen too early on to be reversible (or that kept the story from being retold entirely), they slowly morphed into other fates. Cinderella’s mother doesn’t so much as die now as she becomes a tree. Somewhere in the middle of the cycle Odette stopped dying and just became stuck as a swan. The little mermaid is an extreme example of this, as Meeshell's ancestors went from dying, to turning to seafoam, to living happily ever after through a very long line of generations. Some say these softer endings have to be repeated a number of times before the book considers them the new versions, but no one's sure what that number is. Some also believe that you can convince the book to give you a softer ending, but this has no proof and is vehemently denied by Grimm who insist the book decides of its own merit what to keep or change each generation when it comes to large plot points based on what's needed to ensure the safety and continuation of ever after. 

That’s it for now folks, tune back in whenever I get free time next for some light Snow White and Apple angst. 

[thecedarchronicle]

not to be posting again about the story quest but im posting about it again

i think (besides the abrupt ending, which didn't really faze me. if there's anything that HASN'T changed about star stable it's the story quests ending abruptly. it's only missing brutus' little pop up that goes "the story will be continued" or whatever it said exactly) the main thing that irks me about this is like

what is Anyone doing?

like yeah, it's an issue with most of the story right now because the writers seemingly have no idea what most of their characters want. but and even on a small scale? action to action, story beat by story beat?

like, if you stop and put it together, here's what happened:

the soul riders destroy the oil rig, and the dark riders summon erissa

erissa immediately runs off after being freed and insulted (presumably): understandable. it seems her whole thing is chaos and impulsivity, so that's completely believable. and that's where the believability like. comes to a screeching halt

katja's comment about it being "five minutes" seems to imply today's quest takes place directly after the last one. this doesn't make any sense at all since alex mentions at the start the other three soul riders are off doing "real life stuff". so did we all look out over the ocean as friends and then the other three immediately dip? or is katja exaggerating? has erissa been causing random issues for much longer? (random side quests or even secret quests over the last few months where we have to deal with erissa's chaos without our character knowing it's the fourth rider in-universe would have been an awesome way to hype up her debut, btw, but i digress) the issue here is that we as players have no idea where this takes place on the timeline. for us it's been months, for any players going through the story after this it's been minutes. and the game itself doesn't know which version is correct.

the keepers of aideen and fripp both agree it's important to dip IMMEDIATELY, without even holding a meeting, without leaving any way for the soul riders to contact them? sure, you want to capitalize on the oil rig going down, but you didn't have even a second to check in? according to alex, the soul riders didn't even know the keepers of aideen were aware that the rig had gone down. listen, i was actually really on board for this part. taking away the "safety net" of the keepers is a great idea to raise the stakes, and narratively to open up the story for the soul riders without the influence of the keepers. but you're telling me they've just decided to dip on a whim? the story has spent it's entire run beating into the player how cautious the keepers are. at every turn they try to hold the player back for plot convenience out of the fear that the player isn't "ready". this is so wildly out of character for them to throw the soul riders on their own with nothing but a "good luck" and "stick together and believe in yourself!" that for the first half of the story I assumed it was some kind of trick. I love this, I love taking away the heroes' safety net right when things get really bad. but this felt kind of like a last minute decision. as most things do in the story right now (because i would bet they are)

like are you really telling me Avalon is going to up and leave Valedale/central (southern?) Jorvik on a whim without leaving behind a ten page list of things for the soul riders to look out for?? a seven hour briefing? Avalon is like a mom leaving her 12 year old at the house by themselves for a night for the first time

then: WHY oh WHY did Erissa think to target Maya

Again, i love it (as long as we aren't burying our gays okay star stable im watching your ass) I love putting real consequences into these encounters.

Does she know about Maya and Alex? How did she just somehow know that Maya knew Alex and MC?? Supposedly she's been freed for all of five minutes; or has she been watching the group this whole time? again, the game itself doesn't even know.

and most of all

WHY WOULD MC GO THROUGH THAT PORTAL ??

there was NO GOOD REASON.

you're telling me that any good-aligned MC would go through the portal that almost certainly contains the other dark riders, outnumbering them, and literally who knows what or where on the other side

instead of trekking their ass back to Alex and Maya and using their star circle abilities to at least TRY and save Maya?

Hello?

Where are we, SSE

What is going on

and lastly, the second MC saw Sands and literally all four dark riders there was no reason for them to trot up to the circle like this is a show and tell session

genuinely, i did love this story quest, it ticked my brain in a way the others haven't in a while. but like. sometimes playing these quests really does feel like when I was 12 and learning how to write and i would just come up with whatever i could think of for the next scene because i had no idea what an outline was. the jorvik story bible is a wattpad story and they just keep hitting "new part" and seeing what comes out before they have to go to soccer practice

[tgmsunmontue]

More than movie magic... 10/24

Hangster AU. Explicit (eventually). Jake is a Hollywood actor and Bradley is a stunt coordinator. Jake's about to make a few self-discoveries. So is Bradley.

ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE

PART TEN

                Jake knows being annoyed with his mom is unreasonable, but a part of him also just can’t help it, she’s an annoying person hell-bent on making him do something he’s been putting off. God, he can never tell her that he’s had Bradley’s phone number for over a year, she’ll never let him live it down. It’s Wednesday morning now, so he has three days, assuming she doesn’t change her mind on the timeline. Now that he’s had two proper full-night’s sleep his brain feels less like it’s been put through a grinder and sat in pickle juice for days on end. He’s also feeling like he’s adjusting back to the right time after a couple of weeks skipping through time zones and continents for the promotional tour.

                He’d spent a fair amount of time last night lying in bed mulling over the fact that Bradley has been here for over two weeks, has met both his parents and cousin Freddie and Uncle Andy. Not all of the cowhands have watched him grow up, but a few did. He’s definitely met all of the current ones more than once. His other aunts and uncle all live in surrounding farms and ranches, his parents ranch the main central point geographicalluy, which is why they had based so many of the key building developments here. So the chance of Bradley having met several more members of his extended family are alarmingly high. He has no idea what he was thinking when he suggested this ranch as a potential location.

                He goes down to the kitchen, only to find it empty and he guesses the welcome wagon is well and clearly gone, now that he’s been home a whole twenty-four hours. Then his not-tired brain kicks in and he realizes that if his mom isn’t here then she’s likely in the mess hall, talking to people. He scrambles through getting dressed and then dithers over riding Blitzen or taking a car, but seeing his dad pottering around in the family stable decides it for him and by the time he steps into the stable his dad has already got Blitzen saddled up, is looking amused and no doubt his mom has talked his ear off.

                “Good luck today,” his dad says, slapping his shoulder.

                “Did mom tell you?” Jake asks, double checking the tightness and running his hands over Blitzen, stroking her nose so she can smell him and he smiles when she snorts and licks him.

                “I meant with the first day of filming. But yes, the other thing too I guess.”

                “Right. Okay. Yeah,” he says, sucks in a breath. “Thanks dad.”

                It’s still early, not even seven, although he’s got makeup at eight, so he doesn’t have a heap of time, and now that he thinks more, he’s got work, which means his time to actually talk to Bradley before his mom’s ridiculous ultimatum isn’t actually three days, but more like a few hours of spare time, which isn’t very much all, because he doubts his free time and Bradley’s free time are going to overlap. The ride between his parents house and the main buildings isn’t even ten minutes at a walk, and he does take it at a walk, despite the urge to suddenly just ride away at speed. He’s not a teenager anymore, although no doubt his mother would argue differently.

                Of course, when he leads Blitzen into the stable Bradley is there, brushing down Buttercup and talking to her under his breath and he doesn’t know whether to feel blessed or cursed. There is going to be the ghost of Bradley Bradshaw on his family ranch for years regardless of whether anything happens between them or not. He’s not prepared to see him, hasn’t thought about what he wants to say, what he can say. Fuck.

                “You’re up early. Already gone for a ride huh?” Bradley asks, gesturing toward Blitzen with his head and Jake reaches for her and begins taking off the saddle and bridle, hanging it in one of the empty stalls.

                “Just a short one. I miss it when I’m in Hollywood,” he admits.

                “You seem pretty at home here…” Jake gives him a sharp look, wonders if he knows. It’s not exactly a secret, it’s even meant to be part of the promotional PR for the film, the whole city boy returned to his roots and finds romance while saving his family ranch. “I figure you grew up near here, everyone seems to know you.”

                Jake blinks.

                Somehow, despite being here for over two weeks, Bradley hasn’t made the connection that this is Jake’s home. He feels a little inkling of amusement and wonders if this is how his mom feels when she’s telling him that he’s smart and yet somehow a dumbass at the same time.

                “What do you think of it?”

                “The ranch?”

                “Yeah,” Jake says, because that’ll do as a nice safe starting point.

                “It’s like a well-oiled machine. I can’t begin to imagine what work needs to happen, but everyone seems to know what needs to be done and just gets on and does it. I didn’t realize we’d be filming on such a large working ranch, it’s pretty amazing to see.”

                “And the land?”

                “Well, I’m a city boy, grew up thinking nothing could beat the lights of Hollywood. But got to say the night sky out here is beautiful.”

                “Hmm,” Jake hums, because he agrees, still enjoys going out camping just to get away from as much light pollution as possible and spend the time staring up at the night sky and a part of him wants to extend an invitation to Bradley to do that, wants to do that with him.

                “I’ll let you get to breakfast, I’m heading out for my own early morning ride. I’ll see you later.”

                “Yeah, sure. Enjoy your ride.”

                He watches Bradley leave, is still watching him when Bradley turns his head to look back at him and instead of looking away Jake just raises his hand in a wave of acknowledgement.

                Baby steps.

PART ELEVEN

[starflungwaddledee]

Okay you gave me permission so now it's time to go fully autistic

*inhale*

So something I'm really interested in (mostly for my Bandee x Marx bias) is that comic with Marx and Bandee interacting, like, what's their relationship in this au, how'd they get to that point and heck, what was even happening? also it kinda seems like Bandee may be the main guy in this au or is just really important which makes me happy as Bandee isn't treated the best by Nintendo at all (hell, Sakrai said he didn't add Bandee into smash because he didn't like him) so seeing Bandee get the spotlight always brings me joy

And about the Meta and Galacta comic, it seems like Bandee plays a factor here too, with the mention of him being what gets the most reaction out of Meta and that makes sense because canonically Bandee is the weakest of the four and most likely to die quite easily, so it would make sense for the others to be protective of him

ALSO META BEING SEALED AWAY AND GALACTA SAYING HE'LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF, I'M ASSUMING BANDEE, DOES THAT MEAN GALACTA TAKES META'S PLACE??? HELLO???

anyway hi im really invested and also your art is fucking astounding

hell yea, fully autistic! the best kind of message! thank you also for the sweet words about my artwork ahhh! but hoo boy isn't this The Ask Ever. okay, let's get into it!

Bandee is, i think maybe obviously, my most specialist little guy ever and everything i make is likely about him in one way or another. so you're correct that he is indeed the main guy in both these AUs; he is the central protagonist which i think he deserves!!

(but he does also go through the angst blender a bit, just like... a warning. i adore happy endings but before that i do tend to meat-grind my faves pretty well in the drama machine.)

clockwork heart is actually a spin-off of awtdy (we do a little AU-ception in my household) which is our* primary au. (*a lot of my au work and headcanons are fleshed out very collaboratively with my girlfriend! the initial concept for awtdy was her idea, which i then very meanly shoved my bandee-important agenda into lmao)

awtdy sets this basic alternate world-state: during the Haltmann invasion, Galacta Knight defeats Meta Knight in battle and makes a wish on Star Dream to trade places.

this causes all sorts of terrible fun problems for everybody and basically gives rise to a bad timeline that a lot of folks do not come out of intact (rip floralia)

the Meta Knight vs Galacta Knight comic covers an important turning point in the story, where Meta Knight lets slip that he cares about Bandee the way he cares for Kirby. Meta Knight has an especially strong reaction to this for two reasons:

one is because, as you said, of the three remaining heroes Bandee is the most vulnerable-- seasoned and experienced fighter he may be, but against someone like Galacta Knight? 💦 he's still ultimately just a mortal dude. this obviously puts him at terrible risk, because Galacta Knight also considers him far more expendable than Kirby.

"i'll take good care of him" is transparently a threat and not actually... you know, kind.

secondly is because (unbeknownst to Galacta Knight) Bandee uniquely remembers Meta Knight. he knows that the timeline is screwed up and Galacta Knight is not meant to be there, and is actively working to rescue his real dad mentor. Meta Knight knows that if he's found out, Galacta Knight won't hesitate to kill him.

suffice to say the guilt of this would drive him capital i Insane!

as for the Marx "hurt like hell" comic, I am actually sorry to have to tell you that that scene is their first ever interaction in this au! 😂 in this alternate version of the story Marx is also aware of the timeline fuckery (due to his existence as an eldritch, temporal little creature) and he tracks Bandee down late in the game with a risky trade offer; which Bandee refuses. that's what's pictured in the comic!

it goes on for quite a long ways after that; though I don't know if it'll tickle your ship dynamic quite right because Marx is mildly antagonistic towards Bandee (and everyone) the whole time. so while they are cursed to be Stuck Together By The Narrative they are not really close or even particularly friendly.

they do indeed interact in it quite a lot, and I personally think Marx would gladly shoot his shot if he was offered it; but Bandee is neck-deep in a different ship for the entirety of awtdy and is especially miserable/pining as hell throughout clockwork heart.

but that's okay because Bandee is, uh-- totally fine!! he's normal. he's fine. he's very very fine and things will be very very okay.

[likeadevils]

Inspired by @youareinlove's blog today: timeline wise, which songs could be about Harry?

obligatory i don't know anything, i'm just a guy, most songs are inspired by emotions more than people, etc etc

red (and like all of these are controversial for one reason or another):

treacherous: written-- not just recorded, confirmed to be written, like. 12 days after they met and like the day after she got back from a trip to new york with him. so.

ikywt: okay so this one's complicated-- the first draft (which was just the chorus, iirc) was written around january 2012, months before she met harry, and probably about jake. then, in april, her and harry have a month long Thing that ends with him making out with another girl on tour. in june, taylor brings trouble to max martin and shellback and reworks it. then, in fall 2012-2013, taylor and harry both heavily imply it was about harry a few times. so i think it was either outright written about him, or the irony of writing a song called i knew you were trouble, then a couple months later writing "this slope is treacherous, this daydream is dangerous, this slope is treacherous, and i like it" was just so similar to the plot of ikywt that they both called it a wash

come back be here: again written-- or at least finished being written, we don't know the date she got the first idea-- right after she got back from a trip to new york with him, which left in him leaving for tour and her going back to LA. i also think that trip to new york was a last minute plan because he needed to be in new york for work and she just decided to go along with him-- to my knowledge she didnt need to be in new york for any reason aside from like, having a crush.

babe: this was either written at least a month before they met or a couple months after that first fling (that ended with him making out with another girl). i lean towards summer cause pat monaham (her cowriter) tweeted about being surprised she liked one of his songs the night before her and harry met, but that's like wishy washy

the very first night: no idea when this was written, but probably around the same time as babe.

honorably mention to message in a bottle that i assumed was about him on first listen, but then she makes a reference to it in this interview that was probably conducted before they met. and to everything has changed, which was written after they met but probably not about him, and run which was also written after they met but like a month after they broke up and probably not about him.

1989

style: ✅

ootw: ✅

ayhtdws: written like 10 days after they broke up

iwyw: ✅

wildest dreams: could be about harry, could be about some hookup in 2013, could be about matthew gray gubler of all people, almost definitely not about alexander skarsgard though-- selena said she was there when taylor wrote wildest dreams and selena and taylors schedules just didnt match up around that time.

hygtg: so they first got together in april 2012, and then they got back together in october 2012, which is 6 months. also it was recorded like two weeks after they broke up which makes the bridge just so funny. remind me how it used to be 🔪 pictures in frames of kisses on cheeks 🔪 and say you want me 🔪

this love: written like. 2-3 weeks after they got back together. maybe a month tops. we don't know exactly when they got back together but it seems like late september/early october-ish and this was written oct 17

i know places: so like. it was written a solid year after they first dated, taylor was very much seeing other people, she had just called things off with the founder of snapchat and his team was writing nasty articles about her being clingy or whatever. so like, it could very much be an imagined prince. but the prince does have green eyes. and she did wear that fox sweater on the central park date

clean: i mean harry thinks its about him but ten months before feb 2014 isn't really anything for any muse. i still lean towards harry but the jake thing isnt insane

wonderland: ✅

slut: i think this another daydreaming song, and it was written at least a year after they'd broken up because of public scrutiny. but one of the first times they hung out was at a pool party in LA (at justin bieber's house funny enough). and everyone wanted him, that was her crime. so like his ghost is definitely there

say don't go: ✅

now that we don't talk: ✅

suburban legends: i mean it could be about a high school love that kinda set her on the path to get into all these on and off again relationships. but its probably about harry.

is it over now: ✅

onwards:

idk man theres shades of him throughout folklore and evermore and midnights, but those have become a bit murkier with the matty of it all. but notable songs:

either harry thinks gold rush is about him or the location scout for his satellite mv is the funniest person on earth

question samples ootw so he is the most likely muse, but again theres the matty of it all.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 1

I know I'm probably giving it way more thought than I should but I wonder why the MangaGamer release of Higurashi calls them Higurashi Hou. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Kai means answers (maybe Umineko? I don't remember), so I just wonder why the Steam/GOG releases call them Hou. According to a quick googling Hou means way or method? Then there's Hou - Rei, Hou+, I don't really want to go deep diving into it at the moment because I've still got these two chapters at least to go.

This might sound sarcastic but I genuinely like that this is how this chapter opens. I'm certain it'll go back to the formula of the club doing their usual shenanigans, then eventually the terrors, but I like how this opens with a frank discussion about Rika and the time loop.

I wonder why the universe, or whatever you want to call it decided to use Shion as the murderer twice. I want to theorize that there's some sort of importance for the fact that of the five chapters set in 1983 it used the same killer twice, but I can't really come up with a way to explain it.

I don't know why I never really thought about the fact that Ooishi is near constantly the instigator of the murders and events. It's easy to try and posture that with the explanations being given that I totally and completely called and figured this out. But the truth of the matter is while I did sort of notice that Ooishi seems to start the plot towards its eventual conclusion I never really did anything with that information. I was about to argue that he wasn't really that big of a part of chapter three I remembered that a lot of the stuff involving Teppei and Satoko's abuse never really came to the fore until he showed up to question her about Rina's death in that chapter.

The thing about Takano is I don't really know how much of her own bullshit she buys. I know that in the scrapbooks she goes out of her way to paint the Sonozakis as the central pillar of the conspiracy of the day, but how much of that is genuine belief? I don't have much to base it on but I get the vague impression that her attempts to pin it all on the Sonozaki family/Three Families is all a red herring that she's trying to mislead people into believing for some reason. The why and the what eludes me, assuming of course that's right, and it's not just she's bonkers and just writing whatever. I do get the impression that her entire reason for explaining/mentioning the Onigafuchi Swamp, the curse, all of that is entirely just for her own personal amusement. She's trolling the cast for reasons.

This I find interesting, why doesn't Rika possess any knowledge about what happens during the curse killings of 1980-1982? Is whatever's ruling over the timeline of 1983 able to suppress her memory of it? Or does it tie in to the fact she doesn't remember anything around the time of her own personal killing? I can't explain to you why I'm so much easier going with the aspects of the Hinamizawa mystery here being potentially explained away with magic bullshit than I was with the shown to be blatantly untrue parasite/aliens explanation but I am. Maybe because the mystical aspect has been established a lot longer than the sudden appearance of parasites and aliens? Maybe I myself am slightly spoiled due to having read/played Umineko first so the idea that witches are behind the fantastical crimes doesn't bother me as much. That's not idle speculation on my part, there's a screen relatively soon that mentions the idea of Rika being a witch.

So with this I think it's safe to assume that shortly after the events of Onikakushi Rika did get killed. What entity is constantly killing Rika? I doubt that it's the same person getting Tomitake and Takano. At some point around their deaths in Tsumihoroboshi I started thinking that Takano is probably behind Tomitake's death. I have no real basis for this assumption, I just think it's highly likely she would be one the one to inject him with the drug that makes you kill yourself. It feels more plausible than a group of cultists ambush him, then inject him, and then just let him go. It also makes sense if you assume that Takano's belief about the parasite is based even slightly on reality because this way she could verify the effects of the infection with her own eyes. The fact she dies almost immediately afterwards is kind of irrelevant to this, because I don't think she ever expects to be gotten on the day of Watanagashi.

[sepublic]

What if we reimagined all of the other non-Teridax Makuta as eldritch horrors, just as Teridax was initially presented in the early years of Bionicle? What if we used each Makuta as a prompt of sorts; What if THEY were the big villain terrorizing an island, their individual name unknown so they’re just THE Makuta to the local Toa and Matoran? Make each one feel worthy of the title of Makuta, with their depictions in Karda Nui being akin to physical, humanoid avatars meant to interact with others, just as the scheming Teridax is like for the vortex from MNOG?

Like for example, Chirox! You have this swarm of spiders known as the Visorak, led by one massive spider, known as Makuta. The Visorak mutate their victims, before dragging them back to their master.

Makuta is a spider-like entity that emerges from a cave, using his spindly limbs to grapple with and analyze his victims... Potentially drawing upon them for inspiration, before tearing and prying them apart into their base pieces, adding them to his massive collection. From these recycled parts, Makuta creates more Visorak, or dreaded Rahi creatures that wreak havoc on the ecosystem. Like Makuta, they are poison, destruction incarnate; They always inherit his twisted spirit that destroys.

That’s all Makuta does, even when he does create; He inevitably just destroys. Instead of coming up with new things on his own, he relies on Fate to mutate the living into something random, hoping chance will eventually grant him a working design for Makuta to copy. You could say Makuta has no real ideas of his own, and is a gambler, a parasite, betting something will come along for him to take. 

But isn’t destruction the same as creation, isn’t destroying his victims necessary to make things? That’s where the imagery of the spider comes into play; Its long, spindly limbs? They’re fingers. Makuta is not just a spider, he is a hand; The same hand that reaches into the parts bin to make new creations, plays with MoCs before tearing them apart to make something new. Just as Teridax represents the parts bin, Chirox is the builder’s hand, like in the Lego Movie, or Super Smash Bros. 

Each Visorak is like a hand of its own, grabbing victims, reassembling them randomly with mutation. Dragging them back to Chirox, whose hand motif is also inspired from the fact that he is the only Makuta who can fully control his Shadow Hand. And Makuta’s spider-like form? It’s attached to something much, MUCH bigger... It is not just a hand metaphorically, it is a literal hand and when Makuta’s lair collapses around him, it reveals the massive figure he is attached to; His whole, true self, a titan more resembling the Chirox we are familiar with.

The others are different angles and facets to approach the myth, the legend of the Makuta; Different re-imaginings, just as people came up with their own G3 and their own take on Makuta. Just like the Makuta contest we had for G2. Vamprah can represent the animalistic side of Makuta; The raging, kicking, screaming beast he was once described as by Vakama. The apex predator, for if his minions are the Rahi beasts, he is the greatest of them all.

Or Bitil! A temporal entity, haunted by his past selves, constantly summoned by his future self. Always going through different iterations, just as a MoC is frequently edited, redone, rebuilt; You can track his transformation, his evolution across his many selves; Makuta represents the existential horror of the timeline, of the way things change. A ghost of the past, and also a vision of the future. If the Vahi is central to the tale of Bionicle as the Mask of Time, what about Makuta as someone who constantly exploits and distorts this force?

Those are some of my initial ideas. Makuta needn’t always be this faceless force of nature, they can be a humanized figure, like Krika, who can be a sympathetic, tragic villain doomed by the narrative, consigned to his role and aware of it as part of a meta discussion; Miserix is the mighty dragon our knights must slay; The Makuta of Stelt, a land of merchants and commerce, the all-consuming force of corporatism that stifles creativity, or a bargaining devil. Gorast is a fanatical priestess hoping to bring in a new age, Mutran the quintessential mad scientist who played god and flew too close to the sun in his obsession.

Spiriah is a corrupt lord seething over his failures, who transformed and resents his people the Skakdi and must be rebelled against; Tridax is a multiversal collector providing commentary on adaptations; The Vortixx hope to harness the ultimate weapon that is Antroz; Kojol is the arcane keeper of knowledge like Lucifer, who stole the Light of enlightenment from the land of thinkers and is burned for it; And Icarax? A completely straightforward dark lord to conquer, as he always intended to be. Each plays the role of Makuta, as the final villain, the ultimate evil who started this conflict, whom our protagonists must rise to eventually vanquish.

[andthekitchensinkao3]

Bits and Bobs, or the whole g-dabnit list of assorted fanfics by Yours Truly

Okay. Here goes.

A masterlist of all my fics? Here ya go!

Sorted by fandom, in alphabetical order. Whether it’s finished or a WiP will be pretty self-evident in the list, which will be updated as I go.

Baldur’s Gate (1)

A Promise Kept (13/13) also known as the BG3 fairytale mashup with Loki the TV series no one asked for.

A Lokius Fantasy Romance set in the BG3 universe, with all the fairytale tropes you can shake a stick at.

When Loki, youngest son of Odin Fraxinus of the Elder Tree, happens upon a charming former Paladin in Baldur’s Gate’s central market, his life is irrevocably changed. He hopes he’s finally found someone who’ll see him for who he truly is, and love him, body, mind and heart.

Unbeknownst to him, former Paladin Mobius not only has a troubled past, but an agenda of his own. Sent to spy on the Elder Trees’ host, Dyllard Portyr, for the tenday, Mobius is tasked to find out if he knows anything about Duke Ravengard’s disappearance. Or, if Odin does.

For, it is said, Odin once made a pact with a devil. A pact no one can discern the extent of, nor its ramifications in the present day.

But one thing is for certain: a promise kept is a promise fulfilled.

I’m posting this in a Series format on AO3, don’t ask me why.

Prologue (1/1)

Act 1: Love's Beginning (2/2)

Act 2: For Love or Duty (1/?)

Act 3: Love’s End (?/?)

Act 4: A Promise Fulfilled (?/?)

No, but literally. For every chapter I posted, it got fewer hits, likes and comments. It's now back as a multi-chaptered fic. Sigh.

Detroit: Become Human (26) (predominantly Hank/Connor RK800, but some Simon/Markus too)

Note: there’s 26 flippin’ fanfics in this category. I’m gonna add them over the weekend. In the meantime, click the fandom link to go to all of them. Below are a few of my own, personal favourites. If I can toot my own horn for a bit.

Metamorph (18/18) - my first ever DBH fic! HankCon, obviously. 137k, I kid you not. After a peaceful Android Revolution, Hank and Connor both try to navigate this new world they’re living in.

Silent Treatment (17/17) - in which the entire game plot is turned into a near-future sci-fi thriller. Go me!

The Knight and the Fool - fairytale mashup time! In which Hank is an old knight who goes to prove himself in a tourney, hoping to keep his farm running.

How to Create a Monster (10/10) - undercover high stakes, badass Connor, separate timelines and POVs.

Being Alive (19/19 ) - so I basically rewrote the whole HankCon third of the game, in a Reverse AU where Human!Cop Connor doesn’t smoke, is not a Gavin Reed knockoff, or “Hank” as played by Bryan Dechart instead of Clancy Brown.

Only You - A what-if spin and continuation on Being Alive, if that fic hadn’t had a happy ending.

Great Pretenders (1/1) - undercover shenanigans meet fake dating/fake relationship! Two of my fave tropes combined!

The Witch and the Werewolf - my prompt fill for a Halloween event. What it says on the tin, really. HankCon reimagined as a historical thriller with Sleepy Hollow vibes. And magic.

Spa Day (5/5) - Porn with Feels, in which Connor lovingly doms the heck outta Hank.

Loki (TV) (7-ish) (Loki/Mobius M. Mobius)

50 Years (1/1)

Between an ancient deity and an analyst with a heart of gold, 50 years isn’t nearly enough. It’s nothing. But it’s also more than long enough. And Loki has an idea for their fiftieth anniversary as lovers.

A Promise Kept - (a fairytale in four acts)  A Lokius Fantasy Romance set in the BG3 universe, with all the fairytale tropes you can shake a stick at.

When Loki, youngest son of Odin Fraxinus of the Elder Tree, happens upon a charming former Paladin in Baldur’s Gate’s central market, his life is irrevocably changed. He hopes he’s finally found someone who’ll see him for who he truly is, and love him, body, mind and heart.

Unbeknownst to him, former Paladin Mobius not only has a troubled past, but an agenda of his own. Sent to spy on the Elder Trees’ host, Dyllard Portyr, for the tenday, Mobius is tasked to find out if he knows anything about Duke Ravengard’s disappearance. Or, if Odin does.

For, it is said, Odin once made a pact with a devil. A pact no one can discern the extent of, nor its ramifications in the present day.

But one thing is for certain: a promise kept is a promise fulfilled.

Loose Ends (6/?)

After the events of Tapestry of Time, Loki has his mind set on going back to Asgard. On his timeline, his branch, to either face the consequences of his actions, or discern Odin's role in everything that led up to his encounter with the Chitauri, and the assault on Manhattan.

Sledgehammer (2/2)

When an anonymous user sends an amateur porn clip to Loki’s TemPad, he doesn’t know what to think. Who sent it to him? Why? But he’s charmed by the easy swagger of a young Don leading the way into his bedroom, drawn in by his confident, laidback sex appeal.

But the longer he watches, the more difficult it is to stop. And once he’s watched the contents of the sex tape, there’s no turning back.

Question is how to keep going forward without inadvertently ruining his friendship with Mobius.

Tapestry of Time (10/10)

After the season finale, the TVA gang is left in a state of shock. None moreso than Mobius, who finds a note tucked into his breast pocket.

It says "I love you. Forgive me."

It changes everything, and sends Mobius on a quest to get Loki back, without dishonoring his sacrifice.

Turns out that's easier said than done.

Variations on the Theme of Us (2/?) - set in the same ‘universe’ as Sledgehammer, but after the events of that fic.

When Loki wants to do something nice for Mobius whether or not they have an actual anniversary coming up, he sneaks off to the Sacred Timeline on a whim.

Unbeknownst to him, the adult toy store he walks into is manned by none other than the Don of his combined wet dreams and nightmares. And Don? Spells all kinds of trouble.

Void (1/1)

Post-S2 finale, Mobius hacks his TemPad to recreate one of his own memories, and uses the time loop chamber thingie to relive it. Over. And over. And over again.

Person of Interest (1) (Reese/Finch)

How Not to Say I Love You (1/1)

When Reese and Finch go undercover to help a Number at a couples therapy weekend retreat, not everything is as it seems, and John has to navigate his own emotions while posing as someone whose situation hits too close to home.

[gffa]

Putting aside the way it doesn't seem to actually work with the timeline:

How do you feel about the existence of a 2 year time when Din and Grogu were apart?

I think I dislike the idea in general, if the ultimate point is that Grogu is going to go back to Din because he can't let go of him. Even if you could get the timeline to make sense (which it does not in the show, thematically using elements from the early days of Luke's Jedi training automatically connects us to the idea that Grogu is still in those same early days/weeks/months, not longer than that), what's the point of it, if the story is heading in the direction of Grogu going back to Din? Dragging it out feels like it's handing the idiot ball to both characters, you're telling me Luke let Grogu stay there for two years, when it was becoming increasingly clear that his heart wasn't in it? Like, being a Jedi isn't just about learning skills, it's about the mindset, it's about the discipline you develop. It's not just learning to connect with the Force, it's learning to live without attachment, because Lucas is clear that attachment is a path to the dark side. (Again, as the Jedi define attachment, not Attachment Theory attachment.) It's about learning to be able to let go, to accept the transient nature of life. It's about learning rock solid mental/emotional discipline because the Force literally works based on your emotions! I loved what we got of Luke and Grogu when viewing it through the lens of a couple of months, it made perfect sense and worked with the established worldbuilding. But stretching it out to a couple of years undercuts that one of the most central things about Jedi training isn't learning to lift rocks, it's learning to master your own emotions. If that took place over two years, then Luke was absolute shit at teaching that to Grogu and I refuse to think that Luke Skywalker was absolute shit at teaching Jedi discipline. Even if, in a hypothetical world where they did focus on the emotional foundation stuff, maybe I might have loved it if it walked the line very carefully, but I still keep coming back to: If Grogu was always going to go back to Din, then it doesn't make sense for it to be two years, that just seems like an excuse to give Grogu magic powers and say fuck the worldbuilding about what the Jedi actually were, when Grogu had such emotional issues after all the trauma he'd endured.

[emotionally-charged-arson]

Character Spotlight: The Chemist (Ayreon's The Source)

Ask and ye shall receive.

In the grand scheme of countless intertwining Ayreon headcanons infesting my brain, I like to have a nice, compact theme to refer back to for each album. Arjen is borderline intentional about not putting themes in his work, but they creep in anyway and you can dig them up and work off of them with a little elbow grease.

For me, The Source is about loss of purpose, which is sort of an overarching theme of the Forever saga anyway, but it shows up on a more intimate level in this album. Especially when you pull traits for characters out of thin air when you're 14 and eventually find a red thread through the lot of them you didn't actually plan for.

I did a really general overview of most of my versions of the Source cast and their whole deal while they're on Alpha. Just a whole mess of science, religion and state all crammed into one, eventually leading to the 'Frame taking over. In some way or another, these people all know each other and support a cause of some sort. When they're forced to leave their home planet, they have to grapple with the fact that their lives there were altogether pointless and figure out how to embrace the sense of rebirth that's a part of the Forever package.

Almost all of their arcs follow the same overall timeline: they had some *thing* they had worked towards for the better part of their lives, it's all ripped away in an instant with Alpha's destruction, and during their time on Starblade, they work their way back up to a new sense of collective self-worth.

There are, however, a few notable outliers. The Captain, The Chemist and TH-1 still have that theme thing going for them at the end, but how they get there is a little different.

So. Chemist. Like I said, pretty much everyone in the cast has an idea of who everyone else is. Not this guy.

Thomas Giles Rogers is an organic chemist with zero personal affiliation with any other character pre-album story. He graduated from the same enormous central university most of them did, but had no interest in tying his research, much less his entire career, to the fate of the planet itself. Not that he was ever offered or cares about politics at all, but still.

His motivations lie on more personal grounds. Giles is prone to stress, nervous breakdowns in academic settings, all that fun stuff. He always has been. His doctoral dissertation and the ten years of his career following it were dedicated to the synthesization of safe alternatives to sensory deprivation drugs. Either supplemental to the process or replacing it entirely. His "big" project for most of that time was an injection meant to temporarily alter the human respiratory system, allowing someone to breathe underwater for therapeutic processes.

The endeavor was a total failure, for all the resources put into it. Giles is forced to abandon the project after years of constantly being denied grants to pursue its production. People not prioritizing what he wants to use it for, his ineffective presentation, him refusing to let people hire him for research to weaponize it, whatever. All that work was for nothing and it takes genuine a toll on him.

It's really just a career slump, but his self-worth is so firmly attached to his perceived academic success that he can't cope. Four years before TDTTWBD, he drops all his research, picks up some entry-level lab tech job and just goes through the motions. No grandiose motivation to save the world like the rest of these yahoos, just surviving.

But anyhow. Russell does his thing, the 'Frame takes over, and one way or another everyone except Giles is crowded in Nils' basement accepting their fate and hopelessly looking for livable planets with no power or digital resources.

Gross oversimplification of Chronicle I, by the way. Russell drags a broken android into the place, Floor shoots Simone's ear off, etc.

The only remotely plausible option is Y, pretty grim given that the surface is uninhabitable and colonization could only occur if everyone somehow grew gills. As Hansi laments when a switch goes off in his brain and he remembers some science expo he went to a few years back, where some guy was presenting prototypes for...pretty much exactly that.

By pure coincidence, Giles is one of Simone's clients, signed onto her private practice she started after quitting her job as the previous president's counselor. She knows where he lives and works, and she and Tommy manage to track him down amidst the literal apocalypse outside (on account of Tommy having no scientific background and pretty much no other use to the group than scavenging for essentials on the surface in this part. Bonus points that he knows how to use a gun and supposedly doesn't care about his own death).

Giles, like a lot of people has basically been hunkered down in his apartment since the 'Frame took power (about three weeks) and is all paranoid and starving when they find him but they find him, take him back and convince him to pick his work back up all the same.

So he's part of the group now, and alternative to everyone else on Starblade who has no point to their lives now, Giles has FAR too much of a point. Using years old notes and limited resources, he has to create the greatest scientific advancement in the history of mankind in the maybe....six months that people onboard are able to live outside of suspended animation. The total extinction of the human race to follow if he fails.

This...does not mix well with

1. his whole self-induced, major-accomplishment based pressure thing since it's a wildly amplified version of it

2. The fact that he killed a woman during Run! Apocalypse! Run! (defending another character but still) and his control to give life and take it away over so many people, existing and prospective, constantly rotating in his brain

3. The more upbeat, hopeful characters unwittingly holding their expectations for their brave new world over him and what Liquid Eternity needs to be to satisfy them

4. Pretty much everyone else involved in the political side of things deliberately ceased contact with friends or family outside the party's inner circle, to prevent distractions or the possibility of blackmail, while they were still on Alpha. That devaluing of personal relationships is what they're conditioned to and this is more the focal point of Tommy, Floor and Tobias' sort of...joint character development situation, but it has an effect on Giles. This much more openly sensitive, emotional guy is surrounded by these jaded assholes who have no sense of the pressure he's feeling in more ways than one. This effect also applies to James (Historian) in a way, and the two actually kind of have a rapport going about it at the end of Chronicle II (syncing up with their little Condemned To Live duet), but the only person who seems to fully get what's happening to Giles is Simone, someone who deliberately separated herself from said jaded political asshole clique and who has prior knowledge of his experiences on account of literally being his therapist.

All in all just. Not having a good time, insisting that he has to do this alone and eventually external assistance from one or more characters being the only thing that solves it.

The other part of this compact theme thing is that our purpose, our humanity, is defined by our relationships and reliance on other people. We need something to strive for in order to feel like a person, and ultimately that 'something' comes down to either the preservation of the self, the other, or of the collective.

Once you resolve that, there is one other thing that defines the human experience and that is death.

Death and a point, a person, to avoid it in the name of. And Liquid Eternity took both of those things away. From there arises stagnation and a lack of purpose with no means of escape, the hallmark of the Forever Race.

-

-

-

(gosh, I wonder if that ties into members of the party forcing away loved ones in the name of their progress even though it was pointless in the end. Or TH-1's self-preservation being their downfall after all the talk of cooperation and acceptance of emotional openness. Who's to say.)

[saikolikes]

I Played Persona 5 Tactica, Here Is What I Think About It

I have long awaited Tactica since the first announcement trailer (yes, the one that got "accidentally" published by Atlus). After playing through the main story + DLC I needed to sort my thoughts & have decided to subject every other person on the internet to it.

First of all a few disclaimers: Did someone ask me to write this? No Do I care? No Do I need to sort out my thoughts out loud? Yes :D There will be spoilers for the entire game + DLC so read this post knowing that! Lastly, this post is highly critical but it comes from a place of enjoyment of the game and love for the series. If that hadn't been the case, I would've never spent literal days collecting all these words in one place.

So.

Let's start by: have I enjoyed my experience? Yes, most of the time. Would I recommend the game to someone else? Now that is a good question. Let's start from the theory.

What does Tactica want to achieve?

According to this interview by Business Producer Nomura, Director Maeda, and Composer Konishi, P5T had -- extremely summarized -- three main goals:

Maintaining the Persona 5 allure and imagery despite having a different gameplay and visual style

Making a strategy rpg accessible even to non-fans of the genre and non-navigated trpg players

Capturing "the straightforward and highly passionate feelings of the high school students, along with a slightly precarious, fleeting danger inherent in their straightforwardness" (Maeda, quoting from the Persona Central article previously cited)

If we hold what it said into this interview as our sole criteria for judging the game, Persona 5 Tactica aces most of it. I will go into each section deeper as this post goes on, but this game was clearly made with passion by people who have very clear in their minds what Persona 5 means, sounds, and feels like.

There is only one problem: it's not as clear who this game was made for.

Who's Tactica targeted at?

At its core, despite being a game that most likely only the more passionate P5 fans will buy, especially so far from P5's original release and so close to both P3:RE and the (plausible?) announcement of P6, Tactica's main story is so clearly made with the intent of being enjoyed by every possible P5 fan that the hardcore fanbase would probably be the last segment of players I would suggest that should play this game. Right from the start, it supplies you with practical notes about who is who, what key places you need to know, and other recap information from the previous game -- a nice feature, and very helpful... but clearly targeted at people who haven't touched P5 since 2017, or at least haven't been participating in some form of fandom in the past 6 years.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad with wanting to appeal to every possible player -- Strikers, too, was purposefully designed to be enjoyed no matter your starting point for the series, the game, the anime, or the manga (or none of these things, actually). I find some form of contradiction, however, in the fact that not only the DLC, which acts as a prequel to Tactica's main story, technically has light spoilers for Royal, but also... of all the people I know -- irl, on the internet, among gaming creators -- who played P5 the majority of them still has only played P5. They haven't been interested in the slightest in all these spinoffs that have come out in the meantime, not even in Royal. (more about this on Reddit)

My point is: at this point in time, with the infamous cow-milking reputation Atlus has especially regarding P5, the people who have bought and are going to buy the spinoffs no matter what are the hardcore fans. But this game isn't made for them for the most part -- and that is something that can sour the whole experience.

I won't get into the debate about the canonicity of the P5 timeline, but Tactica seems to have a few ideas and well-confused about the whole thing. Because the DLC is Royal compliant, even touches upon "Kasumi"'s bond with her sister, and is technically set parallel to Sae's Palace. Which sort of makes sense since Royal and Tactica share their producer (Wada). But then there is no mention of Royal canon whatsoever in the main story (01.29.24 EDIT: I stand slightly corrected, as Maruki does get hinted at... but I also stand by the fact he's not mentioned in a way that truly matters, and my point about the Third Kingdom I talk about later on is still valid). Sure, much like Strikers, Tactica does not contradict Royal. But between not contradicting and actively enforcing there is a world of difference.

During the game, specific events of P5 are referenced, much more heavily than what happens in Strikers, with Shido and the political scandal being addressed more than once -- to the point where the December calling card is what prompted Toshiro out of his subservient attitude towards his father. Even Yaldabaoth is mentioned and compared to Salmael, the Big Baddie of Tactica, something that in Strikers was left much vaguer ("it's been x months since we fought a god"). And this does not happen for any of the Royal content. Despite the DLC, the Royal-compliant DLC, very clearly linking its story with the main one. Even more, the Third Kingdom and Salmael have an unmissable resemblance with the themes of the Third Semester and what Maruki was planning, parallels so apparent that you would expect someone to at least hint at what happened between January and February at some point.

Instead, there is silence. The themes are loudly there (and I don't know if it's just me, but the Hideout -VT- ost has interesting similarities to Ideal and the Real - End Version -) yet not once, not in the slightest does Maruki ever get mentioned or referenced or hinted at. (01.29.24 EDIT: as I added before, Maruki does get hinted during a conversation that takes place in the Thrid Kingdom... but it's no where near how deeply interwowen Tactica's story is with the ending of vanilla P5. This is what I meant in the following sentence where I say there is a disparity of treatment because there absolutely is.) It's clear to me, given the disparity of treatment, that Tactica's main story doesn't want to contradict Royal in the same way that Strikers didn't, but Persona 5 vanilla is clearly the game you're supposed to have played before starting this one. Which, of course, is also reinforced by Akechi and "Kasumi" being locked behind the DLC. And I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that, if you're a hardcore fan (= most likely to buy Tactica), this probably isn't what you would have wanted from this game.

What Tactica does best

Tactica is a good game for the most part. As I was saying in my introduction, 2 out of the 3 main goals for this game have been not only achieved but aced.

Gameplay-wise, the loop can become quite addicting, especially between the last portion of the First Kingdom and the first half of the Second Kingdom, where imho the story peaks. The development team has done a damn well good job in reducing the structure of a trpg to its core and mixing it with what makes Persona 5... Persona 5. Much like the base game, for example, getting the upper hand through chains of One Mores and All-Out Attacks is basically how you progress through maps. Each Thief has his own Persona + 1 equippable sub-Persona -- even Joker can only use Arsène -- but they made sure to translate each different element into a different mechanic. I adored that, exactly like it happens in the first game, despite the combat being turn-based the characters seem to dance on the battlefield, with each action flowing into the next one as the hype builds up and either Lyn's voice or catchy drums accompany you turn after turn. Don't expect something too complex, as the game is designed to be accessible even to non-strategy players -- and surely I was disappointed by having to play with only 3 characters at a time -- but the fun is there, and to an extent, you can build each character how you most like them through a minimal but very efficient skill tree.

The music is another thing Tactica does very well. By now (Strikers, Royal, and Tactica) it's clear that Konishi favors aggressive guitars over groovy basslines and I didn't mind it one bit, as this became kind of his personal signature. The first portion of the game especially is full of banger hits that get later reprised and remixed as you progress through the Kingdoms. Some of my favorites:

Maxim, like many tracks, has an excellent use of percussions that resemble war drums

Tension, with clear Life Will Change influences

Infiltrate, back at it with the Life Will Change vibes and an exceptional use of strings that resemble horse hooves running on the cobblestones of a medieval city

Master of the Castle, which plays during the Marie bossfight, is an excellent mixture of the Tension theme with the addition of a more aggressive guitar and... bells! Because she's about to get married!

Amusement Park of Trauma, a strong detachment from the general mood of the Second Kingdom that perfectly serves its purpose

Recollection, a melancholic theme that through its notes perfectly sets the mood for what the player is about to go through as soon as they set foot in the Third Kingdom, much like Gentle Madman before it

01.29.24 EDIT: as the beta version of Last Surprise was discovered, I was able to catch a bunch of notes between 0.18 and 0.30 that I am fairly sure are present, rearranged/with guitars only, inside one of Tactica's OSTs too. I just can't seem to find it so I will add the specific one as soon as I spot it lol

Along the new tracks, some very neat rearrangements like Beneath the Mask (which somehow they managed to make it sound even more lo-fi than it already was) and Disquiet make their apperance, as well as a version of Prison Labor.

Also, contrary to what happens in the hellscape of info dumping that is the first hours of Strikers, tutorials are actually paced wonderfully here, and you get to be introduced to each bit of gameplay with little steps, and nothing gets shoved down your throat leaving you with so many information you actually have no idea how to play.

Additionally, the story is quite captivating, especially if you pay attention to what can seem to be minor details. Right from the start, the sheer need to understand what the hell is going on is what drives you forward, and by the end of the First Kingdom and Marie's reveal as Toshiro's fiance, you start to understand that the scope of the entire thing is much more limited and personal -- which is something I appreciated a lot. Toshiro is a good character, his cowardice at the start isn't just a funny trait for the laugh, but a flaw that is deeply connected with his personal history and, much like with Zenkichi and Sophia, the team did a good job in tracing parallels with the other Phantom Thieves in order to quickly build empathy towards him -- with Haru and Futaba being the absolute best matches. The same thing happens with Erina, who shares the rebellious fire of the Phantom Thieves and leads the rebellion against Marie. What I loved about her is her goofiness, I was afraid she would be the nth Strong Female Character -- seeing as Kasumi was very much your Manic Pixie Dream Girl -- instead I found a lady with a sharp tongue and a strong heart, who's deeply loyal but doesn't hesitate to fool around. She's really valid, I admit I wouldn't have bet on her character to be like this but I'm happy they took this direction with her.

So... all is good, right? Why do I say that the game "is good... for the most part"?

Tactica's recycling problem

Fundamentally, and believe me it pains me very much to say this... Tactica doesn't have a lot to say, despite what its developers declared.

The game's themes, characters, morals, and climax are all heavily derivative of themes, characters, morals, and climaxes that have already been more than explored within the various iterations of P5. Past the final portion of the Third Kingdom, the repetitiveness of it all became seriously unbearable. No thing, big or small, gets spared: this is how you find yourself with Toshiro mathematically relating to all the Phantom Thieves, even when it feels forced; how you have the battle against Shadow Toshiro and then Eri that is 1:1 what we saw in Futaba's Palace with the fight against Wakaba; how you have the nth Deity Wished By Mankind that wants to rule over Free Will; how the "Fourth" Kingdom is nothing more than a recycling, reskinning, recoloring of what you already played through the previous Kingdoms -- mobs and bossfights included.

It really does a disservice to the game, the fact that so many of its final portions are stretched out to the point of exhaustion, I imagine only for the sake of justifying the cost of the game with more playtime, something that is deeply wrong, especially if we take into consideration that the game is actually sold at (less) than the current average market price (60€/$, compared to PS4/Switch games being 60-70 and next-gen games being 70-80). It kills the climax that Tactica so painfully had built up to that point, and it made me feel like completing the story was more of a chore I had to do in order to get to the final cutscene (which... is fine, I guess) than something I did with heartfelt conviction.

Moreover, the deeply derivative nature of this game causes more than some issues, character-wise. Because this is a game with the Phantom Thieves... but narratively speaking, they aren't the protagonists: Toshiro and Erina are. This leads to a weird situation where the group, who has by now 2 god killings under their belt, remains stagnant throughout the whole game, as they have nothing to learn or improve about them, and too often they become nothing more than the mask (ah-ah) of themselves, with characters acting just like their archetype -- Yusuke, the starving artist; Morgana, who gets angry when he's called a cat; Ryuji, the dumb guy who's the butt of the joke. Incredibly speaking, the one who feels less like herself is Makoto: in P5 she can be tough and confrontational, sure, but you have to provoke her, first -- she's usually kind and collected, with a sort of mom-friend attitude. Strikers played a bit more into her punk side, and Royal gave us her wonderful Showtimes with Haru and Ryuji... but in Tactica, she's straight-up aggressive and quick to violence, often excessively, often for no reason. I have no idea what happened with her honestly, the day of the wedding in the imaginary vignette she even accuses you, unprompted, of cheating on her. Are the writers Makoto haters?

Anyway. My point is, as much as Toshiro and Erina hit home and do their job as characters, and as much as it's heartwarming to have the whole gang together again... sometimes, especially near the end, it sure feels like everything is just an excuse to have more Phantom Thieves content. Which would not be bad! But it is the moment Royal gets ignored and all the progress and maturity they gained is erased.

Overall, I think Tactica has a great cast and great premises, but the final portion of the story has really been dragged for too long, and the amount of recycling between ideas, assets, plot points, and maps is... not great.

Tactica's mysterious mysteries

There is a whole lot that is never given clarification in this game, and well beyond the realm of plausible fan speculations.

So many things went unexplained or even unaddressed. The Metaverse should by all means be gone at this point -- yet it's still working, and the only comment you get on the matter is "I guess it can't be erased completely" which is fine seeing how it's so tied to the human subconscious but an element so important to the worldbuilding really is treated like Just A Thing That Is Said and never given more consideration. Additionally, it is said that Kingdoms aren't Palaces... but functionally speaking, we explore Toshiro's Palace. There are cognitive versions of his family and acquaintances, there are memories locked inside the maps, there is his Shadow... there is no formal reason for it not to be Toshiro's Palace! Except that they needed to market it like an Entirely Different Thing somehow! On this front, Strikers did a really better job in connecting to the canon worldbuilding of P5.

Another thing that goes entirely unaddressed is how exactly the Phantom Thieves have been summoned inside Toshiro's cognition. The game explains that Shido's calling card was what roused Toshiro from his complacency, and what generated Erina as the spark of his rebellion... but it's never explained how the Thieves got in, especially given that it's explicitly stated that they entered in a different manner than Toshiro, who was kidnapped by Salmael, Persona 4 style. All the weirdness of this new world, Personas not working as usual, the Velvet Room changing form... everything is addressed merely in passing, diverted back to Salmael's doing, or even straight up commented by Lavenza with "I have no explanations for this behavior."

Again, lastly, some things are brought up and never addressed again, like the fact Erina can plant the Flag of Freedom but the Flag itself, as a mechanic, only has relevance in the First Kingdom; or the fact that doors with a projectile on it are used to traverse Kingdoms and are what evoked the Phantom Thieves, but no one will ever explain to you what those are or why the Phantom Thieves don't traverse one back to return to the real world, instead they simply... *fades to white*

But what about the DLC?

The DLC is enjoyable but has, on a smaller scale, the exact same problems the rest of the game has.

Some bits of dialogue and character interactions sent me flying, like the way Joker can tease Akechi in a way he doesn't do with any other character or the fact that whether or not Akechi is a Phantom Thief is treated as a complicated matter, and you can trigger some interesting remarks about the whole situation going on outside of Tactica.

Aside from this, the DLC most than anything else suffers from being set in a pocket of time that needs to be wiped from memory, firstly because these three characters aren't exactly a trio yet and only had one interaction together before this moment yet they act like they're closer than that... and secondly because the whole Guernica situation is a parallel to Kasumi and Sumire's story. So it really hits the wrong way, and it even verges on horror if you have the hindsight, that Akechi, Joker and Violet have to save a girl that lost her sister and is being brainwashed to forget her... while Sumire is still "Kasumi."

I liked the setting and I liked the paint mechanic and I liked how frankly brutal and visceral some scenes are. That is exactly my jam! But I couldn't enjoy them to the fullest because I knew they would have amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things. The memory wipe solution was in store, of course, I saw that coming, nonetheless I found it deeply unelegant, seeing as they didn't even try to offer an explanation as to why or how the trio had their memory erased.

Also, it makes no sense for Guernica to be active in the real world at that scale if only because there would be no reason for her to never be mentioned anywhere after, and I quote, "pulling a stunt like the ones from the Phantom Thieves."

On a final note, since I mentioned the base game's price... contrary to that, Tactica's DLC isn't worth the 20€/$ you pay it. Not only because it's very short (4-5 hours if you rush, 6-8 if you take some more time to maybe restart some maps or replay some dialogues and gush like I did) but because the experience is overall nothing memorable, and the additional maps aren't enough to cover that. I stand by the fact you shouldn't judge a game's price by its length, but length isn't Repaint Your Heart's sole problem, sadly.

My final thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed playing Tactica (save for the final part) and it gave me some really stellar content, like the fake wedding scenes, Ann's best characterization across the entire series, Erina as a character, and overall a new occasion to spend time with my favorite band of outlaws teens.

I'm glad I had more P5 content... but I still feel I could've gone by with no problems without Tactica. Which is a sad thing to say, but it's true. Because I loved Strikers and I would never want to live without having played that game. Tactica, well... despite me being hyped for it a ton, it made me come to the conclusion that I am done with P5 content, especially if it has to be like this. If I feel nostalgic, I'll just boot my PS5 and replay Royal for the second time. And for everything else, there is fandom.

Thank you for reading this far if you have. You can find me on Twitter, Ao3 and BlueSky!

[ganymedesclock]

Curious what do you think of a Veteran Link ( in late 30s or early 40s) going up againast a Teenage/Young Ganondorf ( Late Teens or early 20s) ?

My knee-jerk answer, which may seem a little weird to you, is that you've successfully uncovered one of the central conceits of my original project, Chiaroscuro, which is in no small part inspired by Legend of Zelda itself, though certainly its own beast.

The longer answer which is more in the spirit of your direct question is, that would get... interesting. Because switching Link and Ganondorf's age brackets around does not merely suggest to me a 40-year-old Link, but a Link who has done this song and dance before- who has faced a previous Ganondorf- vs. a Ganondorf to whom this is all new.

And once you get there... it becomes very difficult to view Link's actions as those of an unambiguous hero.

Because in every game, Link's starting aspirations are more or less the same- he is worried about his loved ones. Be that his family, or friends, or community- he is basically always motivated by that someone else is in danger or has already been hurt and he wants to stop it from happening. Motives that are imminently understandable and that we have easy compassion for.

But like... ok. Either we have sixteen year old Ganondorf burning villages down enough that a whole adult man who surfs hinoxes downriver for fun is clenching himself about the idea- which verges into the silly and absurd- or... Link starts to look like a bad guy here, if an understandable one. A tragic, sympathetic figure who was traumatized by a previous conflict but cannot avoid seeing this past conflict in a new, uninvolved person who never hurt him and may never have intended to be his enemy.

We've seen Ganondorf as a child all of once, in a spinoff game (Cadence of Hyrule) where he is surly and introverted but also does not appear to have any particular ill will towards anyone, just lurking inside tinkering with a homemade instrument. Every depiction of him being violent or aggressive towards others suggests this behavior started when he was at least a grown man, if a young one (he certainly doesn't seem particularly wizened in the young timeline segments of Ocarina of Time) so it's fair to say a young Ganondorf would be living a fairly ordinary life, albeit one presumably being groomed by his culture to eventually take the mantle of king.

At that point, it would imply Link himself would become the inciting incident, so to speak.