#lore trivia/speculation

[mail-forwarding]

The Role of Memories

(Valentine Extravangaza — Surtr's internal monologue)

My sweet child, and my irreplaceable seed of the future... If you truly wish to leave nothing and no-one by the wayside... Then you must tread innumerable paths of tragedy, again, and again, and again. In the end, the day will come when you remember it all, and on that day will you truly be tested. On that day, you will turn your back on Paradise, with the weight of this world borne on your shoulders. I pray that when it comes, your memories of this sweet paradise will steady your hands and guide your feet.

I find this prediction of Surtr's rather haunting. We know from the main quest what the cost of bearing memories is. We even know what the cost was to MC—not simply the forgetting of their own prior to their summoning, but Lil Salomon too, that feeling of loneliness and incompleteness that follows them even in events, where there should only be happiness.

What will it cost them to take in all of the memories they've lived? And would this include the memories of the Exiles too, the lives they've never lived, but that nonetheless belong to them?

But I also find this hopeful too. This remembrance will put them directly on par with WR and Pillars. And though that last sentence in this prediction is merely a hope, I think it will come true: though the burden will be heavy, it will also ultimately steady their hands and guide their feet. Despite the personal cost, MC will ultimately achieve their goal—save every single person in Tokyo and break through the loops. And I think "every single person" will include MC themself.

[kinnoth]

If I see ONE MORE FUCKING PERSON be like "well I played and finished the dlc, but I'll wait to draw my conclusions about the lore until after the vaati video comes out"

FUCKING WHAT. It's not vaati's fucking lore! That man is just another fan, just like you! He is not your authority!!! Fucking dig up your own lore! All the information you need is there! Walk around the fucking game, open your eyeballs, and draw your own fucking conclusions!!!!!

I swear to fucking God you are all such cowards about "getting it wrong" that you are denying yourself half the fucking experience of the game by refusing to engage with the lore until someone tells you what to think about it.

Get your heads out of your asses!!!!!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

oh i've been trying to find this interview again, which i remembered mainly for the parts about [interviewing the parents which is so Interviewing The Parents] but has many fun details

The first time Will Roland auditioned for “Be More Chill,” he didn’t get the part. “It’s the reality of our business,” says the actor, whose family moved from Manhattan to Locust Valley when he was 8. “On any given day . . . you may be the person who is going to get the job and you may not be.” But let’s not feel too bad for Roland, whose theatrical trajectory is the stuff most people only dream of. At the same time he was auditioning for “Chill,” the sci-fi musical that made it to Broadway after its cast album went viral (more on that later), he was also involved with a workshop for, as he puts it, “another little show called ‘Dear Evan Hansen’.” He got cast in that show, playing Evan’s friend, Jared, a character who brings comic relief to a work that has its devastating moments. Roland looks back on his four years with the show as “an absolutely incredible experience.” The writers worked “my sense of humor, and the sardonic way I observe things” into this classic theater role of the clown, “the one who comes out and observes the ridiculousness of the situation,” says Roland, sitting in the balcony of the Lyceum Theatre where he’s rehearsing his next big Broadway gig — the lead in “Be More Chill,” which opens March 10. Obviously, everything turned out just fine for Roland, and for “Be More Chill,” a pop-rock musical based on a 2004 young adult sci-fi novel by Ned Vizzini that appeared to be dead in the water until the cast album went viral on social media. After the show played at a small theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 2015, “I thought it was going to be the next big thing,” says Joe Iconis, the Garden City native who wrote the music and lyrics. “There was so much momentum.” But after a review in The New York Times that “was not particularly helpful,” interest dwindled and Iconis and his partners moved on. Happily, some things are meant to be. The Red Bank theater had enough faith in the musical to order a cast album, and suddenly the fan base exploded, videos were all over YouTube and fan art appeared on Tumblr. That led to an Off-Broadway production last summer that sold out before performances started, and eventually to the Broadway run, with Roland, who is part of Iconis’ extended theatrical family, very much back in the picture.

Real people, real issues The young star was decidedly upbeat on Valentine’s Day, the afternoon following the first preview when he says those extremely vocal fans “brought some hard-core joy into this building.” Like everyone involved, he’s intrigued by the way the show took off, but really, he points out, it’s nothing more than word-of-mouth, which “just happens to be the internet right now.” On the other hand, he says, “I don’t know that word-of-mouth has ever put so much wind into the sails of a production.” When asked why the show resonates so strongly with fans, Roland says what they love about the show “is the same thing that I love about the show . . . that it is an honest depiction of real people dealing with real issues.” Roland plays Jeremy, a nerdy high schooler who never fits in until he swallows a SQUIP (a quantum computer in pill form) that has the power to turn him into one of the cool kids. There’s significant fantasy at play, says Roland, but “there is truth to every one of these characters . . . it doesn’t speak in broad, heart-rending poetry, it speaks in really human language.” Does he see himself in the character? “I think he sees himself in me a little bit,” jokes Roland, who talks about first getting involved with theater at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, which he attended from sixth grade through high school. “What they created for me, first and foremost, was a space where I found community and acceptance and belonging,” he says, which he notes, is why a lot of people start doing theater. Roland was serious about his goals “from the moment I met him,” says Tracey Foster, director of arts at Friends. “He knew what he wanted to do in life.” As the title character in “Oliver!” one of his first major roles at the school, Foster says that beyond his “big, booming, beautiful voice,” he was “touching, tender and scrappy.” (Roland’s recollection differs: “My voice was changing so it sounded really bad,” though he acknowledges that he’s “channeling a lot of those days in this performance.”) From the beginning, Foster says, Roland displayed “a wonderful combination of confidence and humility that . . . let him make mistakes and keep moving forward, pick himself up when he needed to.” Those qualities, she notes, suggest that “he’ll be able to survive the bumps in the industry.” Foster was in the audience for the first preview and naturally thought Roland was “spectacular.” But she also has raves for the production, which she first saw Off-Broadway. “They grew it up for Broadway,” she says, “in a way that was beautiful and fulfilling.”

Acting in his soul Roland’s family, of course, saw his raw talent early on. “Will sang before he spoke,” says his mom, Beth Roland, explaining that since she was a fan of “putting my child in front of a TV,” the first words out of his mouth were Big Bird’s alphabet song. Now, she says, “acting is just in him . . . it’s in his soul. I think he acts in his real life.” His dad, Bill Roland, who gets endearingly emotional when talking about watching his son onstage, has a simple response when asked about Will’s success. “Passion,” he says. For now, Roland, who turns 30 on Tuesday, is thinking less about the past than about opening night, managing the inevitable changes that Iconis and book writer Joe Tracz are throwing at the cast. He is getting married next year (check out Instagram for photos of his proposal at the ritzy but rustic Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown). After that, who knows? “Be More Chill” could run for years, and there’s a movie in the works. No one’s called yet, but Roland says, “I would very much like to be involved.” Wisely, Roland is not thinking too far ahead. “I love doing TV and film, new plays, new movies,” he says, “really getting to put my stink into a character.” He looks forward to the day he can call his own shots and thinks at some point directing might be an option. “My dream role,” he says, admitting that he’s borrowing the thought from others, “hasn’t been written yet.”

Behind the music and lyrics “When I wrote ‘Michael in the Bathroom,’ I was writing about myself,” says Joe Iconis, the Garden City native who wrote the music and lyrics for “Be More Chill.” If you don’t have a teenager in the house, note that the runaway hit from the show has all but broken the internet (it has its own Instagram account with, at last look, more than 12,000 posts). Iconis says when he wrote the song, about a guy who locks himself in a bathroom rather than face the other kids at a Halloween party run amok, he was writing about his adult self. But, he adds, “I hoped that young people would relate to it because it is a universal thing . . . someone else is going through this, not just the character in the show.” The success of the song and the show is part of a growing Iconis moment in New York theater right now. His musical “Broadway Bounty Hunter” will get its New York City debut this summer starring Annie Golden, and the cabaret group known as Joe Iconis & Family is set for a run in April and May at Feinstein’s / 54 Below. Sitting in a balcony lobby at the Lyceum Theatre, where “Be More Chill” is in previews, Iconis talks about getting the theater bug at 6, when his dad took him to see “Little Shop of Horrors” for his birthday. “I was immediately hooked,” he says, but as he grew older he realized performing was not for him. “I was terribly scared to be on stage.” With the support of his nontheatrical family (his dad is in information technology, his mom is superintendent of the Massapequa School District), the self-described “theater nerd” focused on music and says he knew by sixth grade that he wanted to be a Broadway composer. “I was definitely the only child who could say that. Ever.” As he works toward opening night on March 10, Iconis is focusing on fine-tuning the piece (“musical changes, script changes, things we want to tighten, numbers we want to reorder and rearrange”). It’s a huge enterprise, he says, but his faith in the show grows by the minute. He calls it “the little show that could.”

[malsheep]

End of Secrets, Rise of Speakers

“See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil”

Martyn IntheLittleWood made it clear that this proverb was closely tied to the beings that control the multiverse.

Well, we have out Watchers and our Listeners, but who are our Speakers?

I believe we have found them.

The First Speaker

Jimmy Solidarity’s Discord Server recently had an interesting discussion about the lore implications of Wild Life in which we determined the Identity of the first Speaker:

Oli, aka: TheOrionSound

While he is not a member of the series, his presence can still be felt in the voices of the snails and trivia bots. The one part of him in the series is his voice [1], and that voice is coming out of the wild cards’ creations. The things mean to affect the players in a similar fashion to how the Watchers and Listeners do. In the past, every interaction between Being and Player has been silent, but now they Speak and they speak with Oli’s voice.

TheOrionSound is in the Life Series, but only as a Voice.

But If Oli is just the first Speaker, who are the others?

A New Voice has Spoken

Well, who could it possibly be other than Trader Scar?

GoodTimesWithScar is known for two things: Good Times[2] and Talking his way into and out of situations[3]. In Third Life, Scar talked all of the other players into giving him what he wanted and betraying each other. He nearly won the first of the death games by simply talking. His actions from the beginning caused him to become of interest to these otherly beings we call Watchers and to be dubbed by many as “The Watchers’ favorite.” It wasn’t long before his fate was tied to theirs[4]. But this hardly seems like enough to assume he is a Speaker, right? Surely, he’s nothing more than a chatty player. Well, he was. Then, Secret Life came to be.

Secret Life spelled the beginning of the end for the Watchers. Using the watcher to prematurely release Villain Scar as well as chaos from the other members, they were certain they could harvest all the negative emotion they could ever need much faster than in previous iterations of the game. They got greedy, cocky and in their misplaced confidence, their hold over the players started to slip. Jimmy didn’t die first; he escaped his curse. Grian managed to take enough power to free one player (Scar) just long enough to escape the Wither. Scar was never supposed to win Secret life. He was their plaything, their instrument of Chaos, their executioner. He was merely supposed to speed things up, not be the last one standing. The Watchers had to fix things, had to kill Jimmy, to get back what power Grian took, to end the game, but in their panic, they forgot one thing: the newest champion, left alone in a dying world.

How could Scar bare it? All he has ever wanted is to be loved, to be with his friends! And sure, every season he’s had that ripped from his hands, but it was always temporary, always just a moment before they were reunited. Now, he just had an eternity of loneliness. To escape his solitude, he was a player no more.

Isn’t it amazing what humans will do to save themselves?

Secret life deprived him of the love[5] and good times he craves, so he took his fate into his own hands. IT was after his victory that he ascended into being a Speaker.

Regardless if the speculation of Speakers is true, one thing is clear. The Watchers have lost control of the death games. Secret life showed their weakening powers through the breaking of the Canary Curse along with Grian gaining some control during the wither battle. While it was entirely possible for the Watchers to regain control in between seasons, it’s fairly obvious that they have not. Jimmy once again didn’t die first. Grian is very obviously controlling the gimmicks (technically he always does, but this is the most they’ve acknowledged it in game).

A Canary’s Cry

Jimmy broke his curse. Whether it was through skill, luck, or …questionable ethical decisions (elaborated on later) the Canary is free from his cage. And what will he do with his newfound freedom?

Well, some believe he is the next to become more than human.

Now, this will probably be my least coherent part of this discussion because I’ve just typed a research paper about Minecraft instead of studying for my finals and I’m tired. It’s also going to be the least poetic like and flowy because I need to finish this before cram time. Jimmy is a) free from his curse b) talks an awful lot and c) likes to have fun almost as much as the previous two guys. He’s got the qualifications of the Speakers; he could be the next.

He is also well liked by the other potential Speakers. It is possible that they are trying to turn him into one of them like the Watchers did with Grain. We all know that Oli is about obsessed with Jimmy as Etho and Joel are obsessed with each other. Scar has also spent the whole season with Jim trying to causse chaos. Both Scar and Oli are naturally drawn to Jimmy in every universe that they meet. It would make sense for them to induct him into their other worldly shenanigans.

And thus conclude my theory before I completely lose track of where I’m going.

Unsorted notes:

The Watchers seemingly are just mischievous at worst once again. The one making the cruel twists of fate now is Grian. Jimmy made a deal with the Watchers and it seems to have taken an interesting effect on the world (ritual can be found on his Instagram and TikTok)

The people who helped me come up with this are HunterChi and loz!! I have no idea if they have an account here or not.

If Scar and Oli are Speakers like I believe, then it seem they are not intentionally a threat to the well-being of the players like the Watchers are. They appear to just want to have fun and that any tragedy they may cause is genuinely an accident

The Watchers feed on negative emotions. The Listeners want to undo the pain caused by their sighted counterparts. The Speakers want to party.

Most of the team that work on the gimmicks for Grian in wildlife are Artimators and now I kinda feel like they are honorary Watchers, just not the malevolent kind.

This is my first tumblr post and I copy pasted from a word document. formatting may have gotten messed up

Foot notes/references:

[1] Wild Life Episodes 3 and 5

[2] Its literally his name. I don’t know what you want from me

[3] Any SMP that he has ever been in ever

[4] Double life soul bond to Grian

[5] Scar has stated in multiple series and SMPs that all he wants is to be loved. When asked what was    more important to him, love or respect, he chose love without hesitation (Limited Life)

[6] I’m tired now and have no idea why I put citations. Just watch the Life series and it should be obvious where I’m getting most of this from. If it’s not stated in the series, it either in IntheLittleWood’s lore streams or in Oli’s YouTube channel because he keeps posting all of his contributions to the server.

[spectofdirt]

So I don't actually know. How. To make this post in like a way that makes sense because hoo boy I'm running on like pure pain and spite and I have no actual knowledge of things BEYOND of what I'm reading so half of this is me glueing clues together with bullshitted facts anyways

This is the lore I got from Poltergeist's info, and some other extra things (do note that this is based off my own speculations and theories so uh have a spoonful of salt with this):

Poltergeist (name still unknown (or maybe I missed it I don't trust myself)) is a 15yo spirit who died in the 1960s and haunts her hometown, which is Broward County, Florida

Lowkey estimate her actual birthyear to be around the 1940s or 1950s but idk I never did good in math anyways

In regards to how she actually died, this is how I think shit went down:

There was beach party that was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida during spring in some year around the 1960s.

Now Polt here isn't very fond of going outside because of how sensitive she is to the sun

But despite her condition, she always wanted to go out and enjoy life like how she sees other people do in tv.

So after hearing news about the beach party, she decided that she's going to attend it, just so that she could be like the "popular girls" (judging by her behavior and voicelines, Polt seems to have low self-esteem and always compares herself to other, mostly to actresses on tv and etc)

Now, it's pretty apparent that Poltergeist died because of drowning, it's even mentioned in her voiceline where she describes what she last saw before passing

But a part of me wants to say that Poltergeist probably died without anyone noticing, or like yknow, people didn't realized Poltergeist was drowning before it was too late.

The reason why I feel like this is the case is because a majority of Polt's voicelines hints to her wanting to be noticed/not be left behind by (Vertin)

(I have more picture references but Tumblr is mean to me so imma just type out the rest of the references)

Poltergeist Idle voiceline, continuing from the image above: "Oh my God ... Where are you? Don't leave me alone! Please..."

Poltergeist Night voiceline: "Listen! Did you hear that? The ticking sound of a clock. This... This is too quite. Nobody noticed me. Nobody looked over. I... I..."

But also I'm not that certain about it since it could be just me looking too deep into her timidly behavior

Anyways, after her death, she became the talk of her hometown for a short while, at best a couple of years if not only for a few months

A section of her 03 story interview:

Pandora Wilson: Could you tell me about tour hometown? I mean, Broward County?

Poltergeist: ...Everyone forgot about me...

Poltergeist: It was such a shocking tragedy, but no one remembers it now. They all forgot about me, like I never existed...

Pandora Wilson: Is that why you repeatedly returned to your hometown?

After seeing how she's forgotten by everyone, she returned to her hometown as a poltergeist and started to haunt people at random (there's no actual reference or mention of who she haunts so I'm just assuming it's just the county in general)

A paragraph from her 02 story:

According to the investigation record of the police in Broward County, Florida, theblocal poltergeist incidents which took place from 1960-1965 had the following similarities:

Aaaaand I guess that's it? I don't know if I missed anything important but lemme just throw in trivia facts about Poltergeist in here:

- she mentions that she has a mom but never mentions about her dad at all so I assume that her mom is a single mother? No hints whether her dad is dead, alive or a secret third option so this is the safest assumption.

- apparently??? The octopus in her hair and around her leg is also a ghost???? It was mentioned as her second item. either it points to Poltergeist being dead for a long while before returning as a spirit or something else, I have no real clue

- it's mentioned that Poltergeist picked up a third leg somewhere, specifically she "dig it". I'm just gonna guess that she picked up someone else's leg that was on the ocean floor (apparently there were a lot of drowning cases at Fort Lauderdare so it's not that surprising to find more bodies down there. I'm just curious as to why Poltergeist even took someone's leg while also forgetting that people only have 2 legs.)

And I think that's all that I have. Again, this is just my own speculations and theories, and uh yeah I guess that's all that I can find about Poltergeist from the hit game Reverse 1999. Hey Bluepoch you better give more Poltergeist content soon you better-

[mediaevalmusereads]

Sex Lives of Superheroes. By Diana McCallum. Smart Pop, 2024.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: comic book studies, pop science

Series: N/A

Summary: Explore these questions and more with this collection of speculative, comedic essays on how superpowers might affect the sex lives of famous superheroes. Based on genuine scientific research and both Marvel and DC comic book and movie canon (and more!), Sex Lives of Superheroes is a refreshingly frank and fun deep dive into the pros, cons, and plot twists of superpowered sex.

Drawing from biology, physics, psychology, and more to play out (wild, fictional) scenarios about superheroes' sex lives, this in-depth analysis will definitively answer your burning questions:

How does sex ed from the 1930s and 1940s stack up to today’s (and what does that mean for Captain America’s love life)?

Can Spider-Man do whatever a spider can . . . in bed?

Do factors like radiation, psychological stress, and tight spandex affect Batman’s sperm count?

Does Green Lantern prove that sex is better in space?

Would Wolverine’s healing factor make his sperm immortal?

What would sex be like with Daredevil’s enhanced senses?

Why did Dr. Strange's girlfriend cheat on him with Benjamin Franklin?

Wait, Superman made a porno?!

With interludes detailing some of the strangest sexcapades in superhero history, and the closest sexual equivalents we have in the real world, Sex Lives of Superheroes is a testament that sometimes life is even stranger than fiction (though not by much—comics are weird!). Stimulating in more ways than one, this provocative supplement to your favorite heroes’ lore is a hilarious and thought-provoking glimpse under the covers revealing everything you ever wanted to know about the Sex Lives of Superheroes.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: discussion of sex including anatomy, incest, fluids, etc.

I found this book at a used bookstore and thought it would be a good companion to Supersex (Ed. Anna Peppard). My expectations were low as it didn't seem to be a rigorous academic study of superhero sex.

Overall, this book pretty much does what it says. It's part humor, part comic book trivia, and part pop science. Whether or not you like this book will probably depend on if you enjoy learning about the science behind certain comic book phenomena. Personally, I don't much care for it - not because I don't like science (I do), but because I much prefer thinking about why superhero sex is written the way it is as opposed to what real-world analogies we can pull. There is some of that, amd granted, some of the science is fascinating. But I'm biased, so if you're looking for a bit of fun, you might enjoy this book more than I did.

TL;DR: Sex Lives of Superheroes is fun and fairly educational; I'm just biased in that I'm more interested in the whys of comic book writing and looking at the history from a literary angle.

[yuurivoice]

Alot of big creators having deep lore in thier stories is making your fans over analyze everything and you're just like "nah thats not important" "not that deep" "anything outside of the story isn't important its just for fun" lol

A little bit, I think. There's plenty of things that are fairly deep and lore relevant, and theorizing on that front is good and fun. There's just a clear distinction in what is and is not like that in my work, and some folks who like the more loosely tied together things like Lucien for example, would love it if it was deeper.

But I'm not gonna squeak out a fart if I ain't ready to toot, because that's how you end up shitting your britches, ya feel me?

(Jackie Commentary: "The real Tortured Poets Department...")

I think it's partly a symptom of the long wait between big narrative installments like BitterSweet and Auron's stuff, because people want to dig and that's a good thing, but there hasn't been a ton of new stuff to dig into for a while. Or they want to dig elsewhere and then when they come to me with questions I'm just like...idk man I don't even remember what you're referencing because I wrote it at 3am during a manic episode and forced myself to record it when I could hardly function. lol

I'm not that clever or deep, I don't present myself like some super talented writer who has a whole conspiracy board of lore mapped out in my office. I'm a fucking mess of a man who has failed upwards and thankfully people enjoy what I create, when I'm able to create it, and the rest is smut.

We also have a bit of an issue with people who only halfway know what they're talking about speaking like they 100% know what's going on and they're only half right and don't even know why. Like referring to all listeners as "Dreamers" only somewhat right, or thinking that only some characters are "Dreamers" is also not right.

And it's actually spelled out pretty clearly what Dreamers are if you know where to look, but I'm not just going to state it plainly in a random Tumblr post because I have plans on how it'll be addressed in the content itself.

So basically, with a lot of what I'm working on I'm also trying to make shit as clear as I can, tidying up the knowledge and lore for people while also creating some new questions to ponder that at least put people back on the right track.

There are also a lot of folks who have things pretty figured out, but they're...just chilling, I think. LOL

Ultimately, having people really curious and creative about things to the point of theory crafting and going deep is a good thing. I just...don't always have satisfying explanations or answers to some things because I'm not so deeply involved with my characters or some of their less intricate stories that I can just...unload a bunch of random trivia about them.

The speculative part of being a fan of character or story is the fun part, and I worry that having such direct access to me actually fucks that up to an extent. And because of the intimate nature of the content, people get really really really invested in these characters on levels that I don't typically go to. Seth and Alphonse, maybe Auron, are exceptions because they're very personal to me. But otherwise? That doesn't happen very often.

Anywho, we're probably at another juncture where I have to decide if it's healthier for me to take a few steps back and be less involved on this side of things for a while. It can get really exhausting and it doesn't have to be, but for me and for the fandom, probably.

[evolutionsvoid]

I find your Fall of Ichor setting interesting.

You have a solid theme for it.

The body humors from medeival texts (blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlem), several other fluids that are based off myth (alkahest, ichor, eitr, etc)

Everything references classical myths, or more obscure bits of ancient concepts. (Like tbose bees). The more obscure things you reference are real,  but obscure and thus provide novelty. Clear passion for history and trivia.

Furthermore your monsters (somewhat) fill ecological niches recognizable to us. Its speculative evolution too.

On a whole it is a very strange setting.

But-whay you wrote is heavy on lore, but light on story. I get it. You’re writing this by yourself. I’ve done a little writing, and it’s tough. But I think if you got a few other artists on board, you could make something truly amazing out of it.

Thank you so much for your kind words! It always warms my heart to hear people enjoy my stuff! A good eye on ya for seeing all the things I get inspiration from, even the more obscure ones! It is a setting that is quite bizarre but a whole lot of fun to work on, which I hope shows in the stuff I post!

As for the lore vs story thing, I very much admit that that is a major problem of mine. Honestly, like 99% of my work is worldbuilding and the 1% is maybe kind story but written terribly. My obsession is in details, with fleshing things out. It is a thing in my mind where I have to lay the groundwork first before I make a story, but then I find no end to the groundwork itself. My mind is always stewing and thinking, trying to find new inspirations and things to expand. And since I find no shortage of things to make lore, I spend all my time on that. I do wish to make stories one day, but I will always fall back on my need for explanations and details.

I do see how teaming up with others could help with such things, but there in lies another problem of mine: I am a very particular person when it comes to what I make. Honestly, you could probably call me controlling or selfish. It's just that I am so eager to work on my projects and feel that I would be very reluctant to relinquish anything to others. I probably would be very difficult to work with, and I wouldn't want anyone to suffer for my issues. I certainly see my weaknesses and the areas where I lack, but I am kind of bad at actually doing anything about it.

I hope that I do not come across offended or angry of your suggestion, as I am not. I appreciate your advice and kindness in offering it!

Thanks again for your kind words and wonderful ask!

[fishysplayhouse]

I should probably explain my theory on how Headspace Resets connect to artificial selection!

According to google, artificial selection is "the identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals, and the steps taken to enhance and perpetuate those traits in future generations." While thinking about the game's canon lore from a simpler point of view, this might be harder to understand or think about. If you look at Sunny's Headspace through a biological point of view you might see the connections clearer. Traveling through Deeper Well, you'll encounter many unfamiliar creatures each with different direct callouts to the Dreamer and his repressive tendencies. One of these creatures, Blank, says "Your memories are not free. To gain a

memory, another must be shrouded." When humans artificially select a plant, animal, or some kind of organism, it's to perfect it and bury it's former self into the past. Although this is a bit of a stretch, it's only one interpretation.

A second observation made is the many resets of Headspace and/or Dreamworld. Deeper Well was a place mostly pushed back and forgotten by Sunny, but other locations like the Abyss, the Dungeon in Sweetheart's castle, and many Blackspace Areas/Rooms have evidence of how Resets affect the current Headspace we know now.

In the Abyss and the Dungeon, four skeletons resembling the party can be found. One skeleton wears Aubrey's bow so it can only be assumed that that is her. These skeletons are likely the friends who have perished in previous adventures, and every time they died they were left forgotten and replaced by better and stronger versions of themselves.

(I could go ON AND ON about Blackspace for days but for simplicity purposes I'll choose two areas for this) Blackspace Areas like Disco Area and Reef Area both places with qualities of resets/loops. Disco Area is similar in apperance to Neighbor's Room; both having large and colorful yet mysterious cats and bright colors. Most memories regarding the truth, or simply just things not good enough, or too ridiculous are thrown into Blackspace which is the deepest part of Sunny's mind. Disco Area is likely Sunny's first attempt after the incident at creating a place of peace like Neighbor's Room. Though, it clearly failed. (This part of the theory was inspired by something else someone had said about Disco Area and Loquacious Cat being an earlier generation of Neighbor's Room. I wish I could credit that person but I forgot the account >_<)

According to the Omori Fandom Wiki for Reef Area, it is said that "In the game's files, the faceless characters are referred as MANNEQUINS, implying that these versions are a product of BLACK SPACE or remnants from OMORI's previous adventures before resetting HEADSPACE multiple times." Another thing mentioned in the trivia section is "As the heads that are stuck in the walls are the only version of the HEADSPACE friends in the area to have eyes and appear to be asleep, it can be inferred that the REEF AREA is the place where new bodies for the HEADSPACE friends are mass produced in case of an event in which they all die." Through speculation it can be inferred that every version of the Dreamworld friendgroup are "produced" in some kind of unnatural way.

In conclusion, the way Sunny's Headspace works is very fantastic in a strange sense. Omori, or Sunny's consious/imagination is so strong that it can repurpose, enhance, and saturate people, places, and objects to even better and more useful versions of themselves. His will to erase anything relating to Mari's death and the truth is so strong that all of these events have taken place, and Omori selects things for their most perfect traits.

This is just a silly little theory though, and i'd like to here your thoughts, opinions, or additions to this! I hope this helps you when you learn about artificial and natural selection in biology class :D

[This is from 2023 and I posted it on my instagram originally! I know this analysis may have flaws but its nice to compare my biggest hyperfixation and my favorite childhood interest together.]

[splatoonpolls]

Hey guys I’m going to give you a first hand experience on why you shouldn’t trust fandom wikis (especially those on fandom) without a massive grain of salt

They are REALLY easy to edit. As someone who has worked on the That’s Not My Neighbor wikia. I’ve had the article I’ve mainly worked on vandalized (by instead of linking to the itch.io page, to some scummy website with pirated content) by this one person several times until I threaten with locking the article.

Secondly. Several theories have just been agreed to be put there. Not even in like a theory section.

One had a really serious topic just added in to a characters trivia page without any mentions in the game. Like no telling, the character has ZERO lore and there is not that much known about her personality either. The reason it was added was due to her nightmare form being a certain creature from Greek mythology. I know they didn’t mean badly but oh god. Unless it is told or hinted at in the media in several ways, don’t try to add really serious things in a wiki. Just don’t. Especially in the trivia section without like a “hey, some fans speculate x” or “people theorize”. Using words like theorize and imply means two different things.

I can’t rant for much longer. Druv out

[kerubimcrepin]

NAVIGATION

My name is Ro, though you may know me from my main blog (@jorisjurgen) and art blog (@atchamcrepin). On this blog I had posted random dissections of Dofus Aux Tresors episodes in a rewatch liveblog format, and now post about other Jurgen-Crepin related things.

My goal is to solve Crepin-Jurgen related lore.

Things to know:

This was my uhhh. 6th-11th rewatch of this show. Who even knows anymore.

I welcome any lore related asks, even if I may not know something.

I only tag posts with character names if I think I analysed them at least a little, or if the post is quite informative (has trivia that isn't available in any of the shows).

I hope not to spam the tags too much & that it will be entertaining in some way.

※ Chronological tag links have been fixed on by Tumblr in the mobile app! Feel free to click them and read in your app, instead of your mobile browser or PC!

[read the entire blog from the start] or read any of the following:

Character Analysis + trivia:

※ Both the separate analysis posts, and the analysis included within some of the liveblogs.

Atcham Crepin

Joris Jurgen

Kerubim Crepin

※※Non-Liveblog Parts of this blog:※※

MMO dialogue and lore archive

Translations of Official Books

Official art collection

Dofus: Aux Trésors de Kérubim:

1. Kerubim

2. Luis' Blues

3. Stirch Hunt

4. The Infernal Hourglass

5. Welcome to YeCh'Tich's

6. Dance against the Boowolves

7. Bashi the Shark

8. Pandala's Chichala

9. The Legendary Unikron

10. Vax's Living Art

11. The Hairy Archelmet

12. The Great Glucid

13. A Diamond for Ruby

14. Koalak Quack

15. Teeny Keke

16. West of Astrub

17. Toothache

18. The Pyrofuego

19. The Judgement of the Twelve

20. My Friend Bashi

Mid-Show Break:

The Wheel of Destiny #8 - Kerubim Crepin

Dofus Heroes: Kerubim

Dofus Aux Tresors de Kerubim: Official Novels

Dofus: Aux Trésors de Kérubim:

21. A Bow Meow on the Moon

22. The Giant Ploomers

23. Like a Snapper in the Water

24. Scams, Crimes, and Tentacles

25. SOS Adventures

26. A Hairy Mystery

27-29. Ecaflip City

30. Bonta Folie's

31. The Break

32. Pupuce's Life

33. Noffoub's Foutnain

34. Heads for no Tails

35. The Gobbal Set

36. The Ding-Dong Belt

37. The Charming Justicars

38. Dragokart Race

39. The Love Killer

40. The Beginning

41. The Sword of Nine Tails

42. The Trial

43. The Dream Mixer

44. My Papycha, the Secondhand Dealer

45. The Charming Justicars 2

46. The Hacienda's Fever

47. Indie

48. Role Plays

49. The Jellivision

50. Deadly Charm

51. High-Temperature Trap

52. Goodbye

Pre-Movie Off-Topic Break:

What do we know about Joris le Sans-Pouvoir? (Aka, addressing the “cancelled Nintendo DS game”-shaped elephant in the room.)

The Floor Plan of The House + Reference Pics

Random Joris Lore that won't fit into any other post

Documenting the "20th Anniversary of Ankama" map with commentary by Joris and Kerubim

Card Game Lore overview

Exploring dofus-la-serie.com

Pre-Movie Comic Break:

Lance Dur Comic #5 - The Third Death

The Wheel of Destiny #1 - Atcham

Julith et Jahash

Les Dessous de Dofus

Dofus Manga (But only the bits with Atcham, Kerubim, or Joris)

Dofus, Livre 1 : Julith

The Movie (there are... a lot of posts in this tag.

The Novel Adaptation of The Movie (coming not soon)

Post-Movie Break:

An Afterword: talking about Welsh and Shedar

Exploring dofus-le-film.com (and other events surrounding the movie)

Dofus: The Production (speculation & artbook discussion)

Reviewing merch (Without buying the merch in question)

Pre-Wakfu Break:

Remington (But only the bits with Joris)

Other games (a lot less lore)

Dofus choose-your-own-adventure novels/gamebooks

Dofus and Wakfu MMO (A LOT MORE LORE)

Wakfu (the bits that have Jojo Jurgen's Bizarre Adventure):

Wakfu (Season 1)

Wakfu (Season 2)

Wakfu (Manga)

Wakfu (OVA + a few Season 3 posts)

Wakfu (Season 4)

Wakfu - The Great Wave (Manga)

The Post-Wakfu media:

Waven MMO

[mail-forwarding]

Finally read Mystic Christmas and.... wow, that sure is a lot of narrative foils going on... Tomte for MC, Ded for Mononobe, the unfair naughty/nice dichotomy for the Game/loops, the imposition of Eden's belief system for the superimpositions of the Exiles......

Heck, you can even make the argument that Tomte's struggle to repress his naughty side parallels the fact that MC is never given the opportunity to actually voice their grievances. They always have to be nice and forgiving, and if not entirely understanding, then at least sympathetic, and definitely compassionate. They always have to rush to help, because if they're not good, if they're not needed, then why would anyone want them around? What meaning would there be to their existence(s)?

(And the whole, "I hate the symbol, but I want the man behind it back. My life went to hell because of what he represents, but I want him back. He gave me an impossible choice, then made the choice for me, without saying anything, before I could even make it, because he knew that either choice would hurt me, but the choosing most of all. Still, I want him back.")

[boinin]

I apologise in advance for how feral I'll be when Vol 3 of the LNs comes out and gets translated. kunigami lore aaaaaaaaaaa

Hoshi shared translations of the titles yesterday! So to fuel some hype, here's some speculation about what each part of the light novel will focus on.

Here's an index of existing fan translations of the two published light novels. I'd recommend reading them: they're short and enjoyable. Although a lot of the content has been covered or referenced by the mangas and Egoist Bible, there's some new trivia about your faves in there too like baby Isagi being able to predict the weather 🌦️

1. Niko Ikki: "Immersion"

I'm not a Niko stan (I don't dislike him! I just have other faves), so this is the hardest entry for me to conceptualise in terms of theme or story. If anyone with a better grasp on his character would like to chip in, be my guest!

Niko has the following key character traits:

➡️ he's the youngest of the characters introduced so far;

➡️he's something of an underdog;

➡️ he enjoy a particular rivalry with Isagi, as (in Isagi's words) they have the same eyes and brain;

➡️ Niko appears to be fairly introverted, enjoying games and anime/manga; and

➡️ A defining trait is his insecurity about his forehead.

Some further thoughts on what Niko's entry might feature:

🔵 "Immersion" may refer to how Niko loses himself in football: both in terms of how he goes unnoticed by his opponents and how involved he gets in the sport. That's my best guess! I'm stumped otherwise.

🔵 I anticipate there will be some rival or potential bully Niko has to overcome, using his wits and intelligence. Maybe he has to prove himself to a dismissive school football club?

🔵 His tactic early in Blue Lock is to use more physical players (such as Oikawa and Zantetsu) to score goals for his team, acting as the playmaker. The LN may elaborate on how he developed this strategy.

🔵 The forehead thing just has to be a teenage complex around acne or something, right? I don't think it's more serious than that, given how much the writer and mangaka joke about it (see: forehead kanji on the Vol 25 manga cover).

🔵 I don't think we'll be seeing Niko spotting mosquitos across the room... but the LN will likely comment on his good vision/spacial awareness also.

2. Kunigami Rensuke: "Rule"

Kunigami's light novel will be a prequel, same as all the others. While we won't get any hints about Wild Card (🥹) it's likely we'll learn about:

🟠 How his desire to become a football superhero came to be. The main manga suggests this came from him watching footballers on TV while young.

🟠 His family. Kunigami is a middle child, with two sisters. What's their family dynamic like? Does he get on with his sisters and parents?

▶️ A theory: being the middle child and only boy is one reason Kunigami goes by the saying, "fair and square". His parents enforced that message so their three children would get along!

🟠 Explanation for his personality traits. The LN might explore the rationale for his protective nature. Perhaps Kunigami was raised with the notion of looking out for his sisters, which extends to his friends and teammates in Blue Lock.

🟠 The LN will likely show how Kunigami fared as a striker in high school. Given how good he is starting out in Blue Lock, dude must have been a beast on his school team.

Overall, I'm praying Kunigami's entry is light-hearted. Our grumpy orange goes through enough angst in canon - he deserves some happiness before coming to Blue Lock 😭 I think the odds of this are actually pretty good, because if there's an angsty entry in this volume, then that's gonna be...

🟠 Lastly, the title (Rule) likely refers to his "fair and square" motto. Kunigami lives a very regimented life in Blue Lock (eat, train, play football, train some more, shower and sleep). Perhaps the focus of the LN will be how he developed that willpower and dedication.

3. Hiori Yo: "NEW GAME"

Hiori's LN entry is the easiest one to anticipate, since chapter 206 gave a fairly detailed account of his upbringing and family life.

"NEW GAME" is likely in reference to his enjoyment of video games (how these acted as a means of escape for him) as well as how Blue Lock represented a new life away from his overbearing parents.

Here are some of my expectations (sorry Hiori 💔) for his entry:

🔵 a retelling of the events of chapter 206, focussing on Hiori's injury and his discovery of his parents' discontent.

🔵 an exploration of the impact his pushy parents had on his personality and enjoyment of sports.

🔵 backstory about Hiori and Karasu's friendship/rivalry! For example, did Karasu ever target Hiori as the "weakest link" of a team? I'd be surprised if he doesn't show up - the Wanima twins appeared in Chigiri's novel, as did Sae in Rin's.

⚽⚽⚽

I'd love to hear people's thoughts about this! I'm looking forward to these getting a release, even if it'll be some time before I can actually read them. The illustrations alone are a treat - in the first two volumes, these were completed by Sannomiya-sensei, the mangaka for Episode Nagi.

[winterxgardener]

I just wanna share this because idk anyone in real life to share this with 🤣

Lemme start off by saying that I wasn’t a huge fan or regular viewer of Smosh growing up. I’ve encountered and watched their skits, I knew who Ian and Anthony were, I knew that the channel was comedy-focused, but I wasn’t deep into the lore. I wasn’t aware of fans shipping Shayne and Courtney.

Fast forward to April Fool’s and I see the hard launch. Being aware of what Smosh is capable of despite not being an active viewer, I initially brushed off the wedding announcement as a joke. But because the news was all over my Twitter, what the heck, I decided to look into it. AND BOY DID I FALL INTO A HOLE.

I love love. I especially love friends-to-lovers stories. From the wormhole I fell in, I actually got to know the Shourtney lore. And let me tell you, I totally see where you guys were coming from. Even before they started dating and they were in different relationships, there’s something about their bond. Yes, a lot of times the shippers were definitely reaching, but there was something. I know y’all don’t need my validation, but from this outsider’s perspective, I could pretty much say that there was attraction between them throughout the years. It definitely was more platonic at first but it started changing the moment they were both single.

Also an unsolicited opinion: I’m sensing a “she fell first but he fell harder” situation. I don’t want to speculate on their relationship but that is how I feel about their interactions, especially in the years where they were both in their own relationships and when they were single.

Anyway, I’m gonna stop right here because I don’t want to seem too invasive. For what it’s worth, because of the Shourtney hard launch I began gaining interest over Smosh content now. I didn’t know Smosh was beyond the skits they posted. As of now, I specifically enjoy Reddit Stories content the most, SmoshCast and Trivia Games second, and hope to dive into their other content sometime soon!

I can totally relate to "I can't share it with anyone in real life." 😅

I think some people noticed them after the hard-launch post, but I'm happy you're enjoying Smosh Pit and Games content.

[bapple117]

Some RadioCotton Trivia 📻🐰❤️

Now that my first fic "If You Can't Say Somethin' Nice, Don't Say Nothin' At All" is finished, I thought I would share some behind-the-scenes trivia!

Some of this will contain minor spoilers for the plot, so read with caution if you've not finished the story - there will be no spoilers for part two (All That Grace). Okay let's go! This list is LONG so hold on y'all

The Bambi Thing

The name is a direct quote from Bambi; there's actually a LOT of Bambi references in the whole fic. The quote was actually the entire inspiration for the whole premise. Bambi is one of my favourite Disney movies and I couldn't help but notice a lot of shared themes between it and Alastor - and then I thought, what if a cute, wholesome rabbit demon came to Hell and taught him to be sweeter?

There's another direct script lift from Bambi later in the fic - when Alastor has the dream about his mother. 'Mother? MOTHER? Mother where are you?' Oh the pain.

Adam also calls Alastor "Bambi" and Verity "Thumper" at points, AND one of the chapters is called "Drip Drip Drop Little April Showers". The themes of them being a deer and a rabbit also crop up a lot, obviously.

The Music Thing

There are a LOT of references to songs, both when I put lyrics at the start of chapters and within the story itself. I am aggressively inspired by music and song lyrics, and have immensely eclectic taste, and can't help myself. Some songs would be the thematic influence for a chapter and I would literally listen to the song on repeat as I either planned or wrote the chapter. Something I'm still doing now while I write Bluest Monday!

At one point I spent about an hour trying to find the name of a music scale just so I could accurately describe it when Alastor and Verity play the piano. I am very meticulous with my research, I was determined to find it 😂

The Alastor Thing

The way I chose to write Alastor was influenced by a number of things. One, that "What just happened? Ffffffuck" line from the finale of Season 1 did a LOT of heavy lifting for me. It showed that he has a version of himself that's less guarded and raw - and I don't care what anyone says, it's NOT because his staff broke. He goes right back to the filter and accent immediately afterwards and the staff is still broken, so.

Two, I just really wanted to write him as someone that uses violence and a covered-up personalty as a coping mechanism for grief, which I don't think is too far from the canon. His eventual softening and ability to love was influenced by things like Mr Darcy, Kylo Ren (LOL), Astarion from BG3, etc etc. Traumatised bad boy is healed by the sunshine girl - we love to see it.

I also did a LOT of research on the canonical information thus far known about Alastor, including things Viv has said in streams. The only thing I got dead wrong was a chapter where he drinks tea - apparently he hates it. Everything else is either based on canon or a speculation based on lore that's been teased.

Other Random Facts

I chose to include Adam as a fleshed out character for a few reasons. One, he's hella fun to write. Two, I had the Vox-jealous-kidnap-and-rescue planned since the start, and I knew I needed a character who could help them. Adam is unknown to the Vees as a hotel resident at that point, and so he became a great choice. I needed to lay the ground work so it would be convincing that he'd help them, so he's there from the start. I ended up loving him so much that he's now one of the main characters in the sequel and is getting his own development arc. Go Adam!

Adam also breaks the fourth wall in the show (Ugly people? *looks at camera*) and so I felt inspired to make him quippy with pop culture references a la Deadpool. It was great fun and very helpful when I wanted to squeeze in a fitting reference.

There is a LOT of foreshadowing and wordplay in the fic. A LOT, so much I don't have time to list it all. For example, Verity drunkenly talks (in Chap 4) about how deer are territorial momma's boys - if that ain't Alastor idk what is. That info becomes very important in Chap 21.

There are references to stuff from Helluva Boss; Fizzerolli Cola, a Verosika music video plays, etc. A sign of more to come in P2 👀

Dramatic irony (where the audience knows something the character doesn't and it's either funny or tragic) is my absolute FAVOURITE Shakespearian trope, and I use it all the time.

I made myself laugh a lot coming up with the names for fake booze LOL

Husk was one of my favourite characters to write, as well as Alastor (ofc), Rosie and Adam.

My personal favourite chapters are 13 (Al drunk with Rosie) 19 (dream scene, fluff & first smut) and 23 (final chapter). I loved the image of Alastor laughing into his drink like a normal young man being silly and chapter 19 has a bit of everything - angst, fluff, smut, comedy. I loved writing that one so much.

The scene where Verity uses Alastor's power to manifest them away from the group cheekily and then Alastor likes it a lot and goes crazy kissing her is very inspired by this scene in Titanic (one of my all time fave movies) - especially where Rose swears and laughs as the lift is going up.

I myself have lost a parent, so I understand that loss very well. I poured a lot of that feeling into this fic, it was something I could actually inject into the story from my own experience.

I'm pretty sure we got the comments turned off on a video on youtube LOL. I linked this song at the end of Chap 19 (I listened to it on repeat while writing the love scene) and the next day the comments were disabled LMAO. That track will ALWAYS remind me of this fic now, arugh my heart

Verity

As much as Verity started as just a way for me to avoid using (Y/N) in a reader-insert fic (something I personally don't like) and a way for me to do the rabbit and deer theme, she became her own character over the course of the story. I made it reader-insert cause I figured no one would read it otherwise, but now the sequel is third person bc she's her own person.

Her name was also a deliberate choice - a V name meaning truth. She makes Alastor face his truth, yadda yadda blah blah blah you get it you get it 😂 Plus it just sounds like a rabbit name doesn't it?

Verity has a lot of traits from myself, but she is NOT self-insert for me, I'd hasten to add. I'm not completely delulu guys okay? ....Not entirely But she does have a lot of overlap with myself. You gotta write what you know, after all. I won't go into detail about the similarities between us - some of them are obvious, I think. But I'll leave that all ambiguous, more fun that way :)

Final Thoughts

There are honestly so many more things I could say but this is already veering into narcissistic self-indulgence land LOL so I feel compelled to stop here, but if anyone has any questions or things they'd like to know, pop them in my inbox!

That's all, folks!

[yazzydream]

Gonna be here for a while so, right off the bat for any Jujutsu Kaisen viewers:

I tag #jjk spoilers for the sake of anime-onlys. That tag refers to content that could spoil things that have only happened in the manga so far.

I tag #jjk season 2 for official stuff related to season 2 of the anime.

I also tag #jjk manga for just general jjk manga edits, manga caps, etc. Lots of overlap with #jjk spoilers, obviously, but not only.

That's the important stuff for now. Will update if I think of anything else.

Oh right, there's the general #my jjk for anything about jjk I post about, including thoughts, gifs, caps, news, whatever.

I also try to tag ships in general. That goes for all my fandom reblogs/stuff so people can avoid them. Though, I don't always remember, feel free to dm me if you want me to tag something.

JJK Meta/rambling thoughts/theories

Gojo is a pretty boy, and I'm ok with that

Summarizing Domains

The Six Eyes (I have a better understanding of JJK now, so forgive any inaccuracies from baby Yazzy. 🐣)

Questions I'd like answered in JJK

Season 2 Episode Predictions

JJK Character Popularity Polls (thoughts)

Yuji as a protagonist

Women in JJK (I go off a little in the tags)

Prison Realm thoughts

How JJK will end *SPOILERS FOR ALL*

Character playlists

Mamaguro was a Zen'in

Jujutsu Kaisen Timeline (thoughts)

Three Great Families sigals/mon

Tankobon vol. 24-26 | 27 | 28-29

Speculating What the 16-Registered Special Grade Curses Are

Gojo's Past arc I'm excited to seeing animated

Shibuya Incident arc I'm excited to seeing animated: Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

Popularity of the Culling Game arc characters

Toji Fushiguro is the key to saving the human race

Phantom Parade extra lore + trivia | Nanami

Snow camellias on the cover of vol. 26

Season 3 adaptation guess

Culling Game arc I'm excited to see animated

JJK Translations

2021 Valentine's Results Announcement

Yuichi Nakamura (Satoru Gojo) interview

Aya Endo (Shoko Ieiri) interview

My students are watching

Geto's Massacre Incident Report

LINE stickers (manga ver.)

LINE stickers Demaecan collab

LINE stickers [animated] Irasutoya collab

"SPECIALZ" OP4 lyrics translation

See #my translations to see all my translations, including the dialogue I've gif-ed.

Extra information/lists

Season 1 References

All the times characters in JJK have lost a hand or arm

Identifying everything on the "SPECIALZ" album cover

Similar names

Characters with siblings

Identifying the Higher-ups

Gege's style of casually dropping terms, phrases, info that becomes important/prominent later: A small collection

JJK comic extras not reprinted in tankobon

Gojo movie 0, season 1, season 2 character designs

"more than words" ED4 real-life Shibuya locations

Gojo appearances post-sealing

Phantom Parade extra trivia