#my GOD what hidden lore did they give this character

[sezja]

Tonight's Jeryk post is. I was today years old when I realized he's got a scar over one eye

What happened to you

[prismalmelonman]

Touching on Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas being a bit undermined in parts of the fandom

So one thing I notice on Twitter is how some people act about the bg3 characters whose abuses were perpetuated by women.

Gale specifically for this reason (but I will touch on others)bbecause I see him dismissed super often as "can't get over his ex".

But Gale's case obviously be has the line of Mystra being like "she was my muse, my teacher, and then my lover" and sure to some that's a red flag in itself (when it comes to adults I don't really give a fuck about teacher/student) but if you view it from not only Gale's own words "ive been connected with the weave for as long as i can remember"

And that doesn't distract from his genuine love of magic of course. And it also doesn't mean that he's actually been in connection with mystra for an amount of time.

However, if you ascend Gale, and he becomes a god, you get a bunch of new little things. Tara reminiscing of course, but you get a letter from Elminster, detailing that Mystra had Elminster scope out Gale when he was eight!

And sure is that pretty cool that he's a prodigy that got the attention of the goddess of magic at that age? Yes. Mystra is, however, known in forgotten Realms lore to seek young young boys who are in tune with magic to make into her chosen. And from context clues, her chosen can be anything from Elminster and Volo, dedicated wizards who try to keep things in check, etc etc. or they're somewhat of playthings to her.

Minsc also has a conversation where me mentions that weave-touched boys in his homeland were hidden away to hone their craft, then suspecting that it was because of Mystra, given Gale's case.

Gale always seems so proud that he got to bed a goddess, and on the surface, hell yeah, that's cool.

Gale continued to have her attention even as he went to Blackstaff Academy, and Mystra eventually did take him on as an apprentice directly to her, later making him her chosen, and sleeping with him.

The reason it bothers me that people dismiss all of Gale's stuff to just "he can't get over his ex" is because that's is like almost textbook grooming? She was in his life from a young age, shaping and moulding him up as he grew up to be her perfect chosen, rewarding him by sleeping with him, and so on. And then of course casting him away when he has his folly with the netherese orb (and to be fair, it very well could have looked like to her that he was trying to seize the power himself and yes the orb does siphon off weave. That is a problem for the mistress of the weave yes).

But she also tells gale to KILL HIMSELF for her forgiveness.

Gale is much more than "unable to be over his ex" this woman was in his life since he was a kid. She's almost all he has ever known. If course it's going to be difficult for him to 1. Say no to her. 2. Get over the fact that he's lost someone that he spent his literal entire life dedicated to. Honestly if asked, I don't even think Gale would acknowledge or really see that what he went through was, in fact, abuse until it was spelled out in front of him. (Which does happen somewhat with the player character pleading to him that killing himself for mystra's forgiveness is actually horrific and that he should in fact be angry for how he was treated)

Similarly, and this one has been discussed a lot, Wyll and Mizora. Wyll was 17 and actively trying to help his people. 17, in a vulnerable state, willing to do anything to help and prove himself. Mizora very clearly took advantage of him, and regards him as a "pet", refers to him being "leashed", and so on. Personally, I do dislike the sexualization of their relationship, because it very much is also grooming (although a different type. Rather than manipulating and shaping his life from the ground up, she takes advantage of a vulnerable and desperate state to manipulate and contract Wyll into doing her bidding. I won't go too deep I to this one because it has been discussed to hell and back. But I did wanna touch on Wyll's situation as well.

Also, Halsin as well, though that has also been discussed in many retrospectives by a very good friend of mine. Halsin's trauma often get dismissed due to his polyamory, open sexual nature, and his own somewhat diminishing/dismissal of it, which honestly I love the representation of, cause for a while I did that with my own trauma. Halsin was a sex slave to a house of Lolth-Sworn drow, a matriarchal society, where the men are generally used as fodder or for breeding, though male Lolth-Sworn drow can be wizards and rise in the ranks if wizardry, but are limited everywhere else. (Minthara mentions that the third male, and every subsequent male child after third are killed for being"useless"). Halsin often referred to them as "hosts" rather than being captors, (though he does touch on that if the Player Character threatens to sell him back into slavery). Again, everything I'd have to say here for Halsin has entirely been discussed top to bottom by a friend, their link is below!!

Anyway, long story short, I dislike it a lot when Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas and abuses get diminished, even if/when the character themself doesn't see or acknowledge the abuse in the same lens that we, the players, do.

[doubleddenden]

So the stories leaked from gen 4 development are certainly interesting, eh? I'm sure everyone has their own feelings about it- some of you are apparently ECSTATIC about fucking your Machokes. Good for you, my guy. Some are horrified, thinking something's been defiled (it is fiction and most importantly non canon, you're fine, get a grip).

Me? I think the lady (yes, it was a lady) that wrote all of these is REALLY PASSIONATE about her craft, and was also referencing real world mythos and how they portray similar instances- I think we all know that Zeus has probably done worse on all giving and receiving ends of these stories, as well as Poseidon, Loki, and probably some other myths from Europe, China, and definitely JAPAN- key word there. In fact, the Typhlosion story is probably a reference to a similar story about a badger yokai that can alter its face to appear human, and the Octillery story is definitely a reference to- well, tentacle porn is a thing for a reason that goes pretty far back as a way to get around censorship in hand painted porn. The contents of the story aren't really much different or more terrifying than mythos we'd see in the real world (or if you're in the bible belt like me, probably EXPOSED to with morning bible studies before class growing up), and it's mainly just shocking to see it in the context of Pokemon.

And I think that's kind of the point. Sinnoh is already a pretty dark region in terms of lore and myth, and has surprisingly religious undertones considering the family friendly nature of Pokemon and its general target audience. Obviously none of the horse, badger, sloth monkey, octopus, god, or... Lapras fucking made it to the final cut, although in Japan they still reference People and Pokemon being so equal at some point that they could marry- that's even kind of referenced in Legends Arceus with I think a diary written by a man kidnapped by a Froslass? its been a minute, but you probably know what I'm referencing.

I think an interesting question would be "How did we get to these terrifying stories?" Especially Typhlosion and Slakoth.

Its important to remember this: None of this was meant to see the light of day outside that office circa 2003 to 2004ish. Yeah, surprisingly you weren't supposed to see the story of a man fucking an Octillery BEFORE throwing it back out to sea in a rated E for everyone game, and you didn't! You saw it via twitter, reddit, 4chan, tumblr, discord, or your local weed guy who all spread it from someone who got it from confidential office logs we wouldn't see unless someone took that info from Game Freak's darkest depths of other secrets they'd prefer to keep hidden. Every game and media company has this, good and bad, to various degrees of sfw and not. Did you know Disney has an entire vault of actual PORN that animators would make of their own anthropomorphized characters? Locked nice and safely, too... with uh, some exceptions breaking containment, I think?

So with that being said, we understand this is meant to be privileged info only a handful of people were supposed to see. That means they can use words and stuff you normally wouldn't see- Adventure time for instance had Finn and Jake saying "fuck" in story boarding, kinda funny- because its meant to be workshopped and tinkered with, refined until you get something desirable.

In fact, creators will often propose darker ideas than what they actually want so that they can more easily talk censors into an outcome they ACTUALLY desire. Alex Hirsch did this a few times in Gravity Falls' production, and you know Disney was a bitch to deal with (although he probably didn't propose stuff like this, but you get the idea). So this being said- Obviously nobody wants a story about a Typhlosion engaging in a non-con relationship with a minor it kidnaps. Nobody wants to read a story about humans MUTILATING Slakoths for fun and then getting revenge impregnated by a Slaking, only to give birth to a Slakoth and have it killed and thus kill yourself out of grief for your lost child (people reading this without context- ho boy you guys have missed out on some crazy shit that's popped up). So what is okay from here?

Maybe a little Pokemon death after going a while without it and accruing a reputation of being safe for kids? Mention of Pokemon bones being picked clean of meat and put back into a river so it can come back reborn? Some darker undertones of Pokemon being tormented by Team Galactic? How about a story of a boy slaying Pokemon with a sword, but less detail of mutilation of Ursaring and Slakoth? All of this made it into Diamond and Pearl, didn't it? Add in a little Human and Pokemon "Marriage" that is easily scrubbed out and replaced with "eating at the same table" for the more sensitive Western audience, and you have some pretty believable, dark, somewhat uncomfortable but child friendly lore for Pokemon.

Not to mention, a lot of this was probably pitched just to get a feel of the vibe they were going for in the game. If you read back through the stories, bits and pieces end up being used in other, non Poke-fucking stories, or recontextualized. See the above.

While its certainly a relief that they're non canon, it is a rather interesting look at the development of gen 4 lore and actually makes it feel more... realistic, in a way- again, comparing it to real world mythos and religious tales. That, and honestly? The religious backstory is actually, unironically amazing- HEAVILY based on real world religion, but plenty of real world religions steal from other religions and mythos anyway (coughchristianitycough).

Its actually a bit sad, because in any other JRPG, Arceus becoming a wounded woman that an ordinary man cares for, Arceus falling in love with this man because he treated her so tenderly, bearing human twins, the twins becoming Dialga and Palkia to fight some Titan that would become Mt Coronet, and Arceus loving this man so much that she took his soul to create Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit to spread love and joy throughout the world? That would literally be INSANELY GOOD world building. Plus! Arceus was a human woman when she did this! It was also consensual! Can you imagine what the world would have been like if we had gotten not only FEMALE Arceus- god of all Pokemon universes- but also a HUMAN INCARNATION of her? And this was BEFORE Giratina came into the picture, apparently. If anything, we got robbed a bit of some deep lore and potential story telling from this being cut, imo.

But one more thing to consider is this: All the stories, even if they did make it to the final cut, would still be stories within a story. Fictional folktales within a fictional setting. If we judge the above by how relevant the ACTUAL content that made it into the games were to the actual overarching plot... It'd be overall kinda useless beyond some flavor text. That's kind of the sad fact of it. Pokemon Players especially, grown adults too, are not exactly known to be well read and some play the game by rapidly A pressing every ounce of dialog they come across, even in brand new playthroughs. I'm sure some remember that one idiot on twitter that thought he made the discovery of the century when he found Snowpoint Temple in Legends Arceus, right? So understandably, especially when you're working on a clock, on limited space, on new and unfamiliar hardware, and trying to be as broad and reachable to audiences as you can- things get cut. Even... Some of the coolest lore building of all time SERIOUSLY A FUCKING PANTHEON WHAT THE HELL.

And I lied, there is one more thing to consider, especially for anyone actually morally offended by some of the content mentioned- Keep in mind that this is in 2003 to 2005ish Japan, with Game Freak (who we know are pretty out of touch in some regards, even by today's standards), before twitter, before tumblr, during a more edgy time for... well, everyone alive at the time, and especially adults. That's 20 years ago. Some of you may not have been alive at that point (did you finish your snacks and juice, lil guy?), some of you probably had a lot of your formative education influenced by the more puritanical side of tumblr or twitter, but it was simply a different time and place. That's it. The people involved in this have moved on and have probably grown into better people, and probably haven't made more fics like this. Maybe. Who knows. It's fiction anyway, and nobody real got hurt from it, and that's what's most important at the end of the day.

So that's my thoughts on it. I think I'm more annoyed by the fact that one of my favorites got a worse Vaporeon treatment than anything, and there's possibly the risk of Nintendo/TPC/Game Freak overreacting and gatekeeping Typhlosion out of the games for a bit. Sigh. My first pokemon, man. Well, anyway, try not to take it too seriously if you see the jokes and memes about it. It'll pass.

But hey, sexy Latina Skyla is canon! Shadow the Hedgehog wins!

[demaparbat-hp]

Hi Dema!! Your art is fantastic and even the lineart is awesome! Solid and confident in where it's thick and where thin. I really like how your style has characters look more realistic and they have specific consistent features. Your blog has a pleasant atmosphere, and you're skilled in weaving AUs! There's a lot of details and structure, and I'd like to ask if any of them have a full story arc? Could you do a list of all of the AUs? Is there a motif that you especially like that repeats in any of the AUs? And whenever you add comments to my stuff in the tags I literally smile, it makes me want to keep at my plan to create everything I have in mind. So I'd like to spread this joy! I hope you have a nice day! (from late-draft ^^)

Hello, Late-Draft! I wasn't expecting this ask at all but I'm so glad to have received it!

First of all—I'll try to hold myself back from giggling like a schoolgirl. I'm having a sempai noticed me moment over here and that's just embarrassing. So give me a second to compose myself, if that's alright?

Okay, I'm back.

Now, on to business.

Character design, especially when it comes to facial features and how they're unique to each person, has always been a passion of mine. I always try to have a solid design for each character. I choose which features feel like the character in question, which face feels natural to draw, and go along with it. I love drawing Katara as much as I love drawing Zuko. Meanwhile, I seem to be on a never-ending battle against Sokka's features. Woes of an artist, I suppose.

Character design is actually one of the reasons I love your work so much, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm currently experimenting a bit with a different style... Hopefully it won't be long before the artwork is done and I can share it over here. I'm so excited for everyone to see it!

Now it's time for the reason we're all here.

I have said it before and shall say it once more: AUs are my lifeblood.

I love them so much! Building them, daydreaming the scenes, thinking of the characters and how they differ from their canon versions. The arcs and the themes and the worldbuilding. Building AUs is my passion, and I have so many of them!

There are a lot of motifs and themes that tend to repeat themselves in several of my AUs, I believe.

You'll notice that most of my stories are Zuko-centric, with a heavy emphasis on grief and humanity. There's the question of what makes us human and how to move forward when the whole world seems to push you back. I put a lot of stock in metaphors and symbolism within the narrative itself. I'm especially interested in the nuance of war and how it affects people emotionally, physically, and psychologically

I also tend to reutilize some elements of the lore and/or worldbuilding! Such as the Painted Lady's backstory, or the existence of War Children within the ATLA universe.

Now, the list!

I think I'll start with my current project, if that's okay :)

For the Spirits (New Gods AU)

Zuko was a child when he met Agni. Then, the spirits started coming to him. Eyes hidden in the hallways, voices pleading for help, for recognition, for remembrance.

Zuko could see Agni. He could see the broken remains of a Great Spirit and the empty smiles of amnesiac ghosts.

And they could see him in return.

I've been working on this AU for a long time, but only now did I get the chance to start writing the fic (linked up there!). I'm extremely excited about FTS and where the story will lead us in the future, but I'll try not to spoil too much.

It's a Zuko-centric story, with a heavy emphasis on Spirits and humanity. I'd like to add a warning for depression/mental health issues.

To Hesitate (Lee & Kya AU)

As she watches Lee and Kya avoid each other's eyes from across the room, the phrase comes back to her, swift and silent:

"To hesitate is to lose."

.

As Song treats the victim of an unfortunate interaction with a rare poisonous flower, her day takes an unexpected turn when it becomes apparent that the old man's nephew and her assistant have history.

A vivid history.

The Lee & Kya AU is a vibe, a feeling. It's probably one of my oldest AUs out there as well as one of my dearest.

A classical Lee and Kya From The Tea Shop AU, full with wholesome fandom tropes such as: fake (but not really) dating, fake identities, Ba Sing Se shenanigans, vigilante stuff, White Lotus missions, Iroh is a great Uncle, Zuko is an awkward turtleduck, and, of course, the fluffiest fluff you'll ever see.

Other than that, Lee & Kya is probably one of the less plot-focused AUs I have. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't scenes I can't wait to write or a canon divergence or two where Zuko is concerned.

(I have another fic posted but I'll leave that one to the end. You asked for a full story arc and, oh boy, does Soundless deliver.)

Kintsugi AU

Closer to being canon-adjacent than canon-divergent, Kintsugi is yet another Zuko-centric AU (and are we not noticing a pattern over here?).

I'd love to explain it in depth, but I believe the caption of the artwork linked above does a better job at explaining than I ever will.

Kintsugi is the art of decorating your scars with pieces of Agni.

In the Fire Nation, the amount of golden marks are a sign of status. Only the Royal Family can afford to seal every single wound with Kintsugi. Such is the weight of this tradition that, among the ones with Agni's blood, it is the highest mark of dishonor to have a natural scar, for it proves you aren't worthy of the privilege.

After the Agni Kai, Ozai forbid Zuko's scar to be sealed with Kintsugi. The boy wasn't worth his title, his traditions or his pride. Zuko would be broken, but he wouldn't be beautiful. Not anymore.

(And sometimes it's easier to pretend he never was)

Kyoshi Warriors AU

One of my absolute favorites!

In this AU, Ursa took Zuko and Azula with her when she was banished, so they could start anew. With help from Iroh and the White Lotus, she managed to relocate her freshly burned eight-year-old child and her crying daughter to Kyoshi Island.

Years later, when Avatar Aang and his companions first arrive at Kyoshi Island, they're met by the Kyoshi Warriors and their leader, Noriko of pale skin and warm brown eyes.

The Gaang leave Kyoshi Island many weeks later with a new companion. And if Jian Li, with his war paint and his scar and his dual dao, gives the island that he has called home for so long one final, longing glance as they fly away on Appa, they pretend not to notice.

Hunters AU

We're starting to dwelve deep into dangerous waters!

This is a Katara Joins Zuko In His Quest To Find The Avatar AU, with a twist!

This AU was born as a writing experiment. What if we take Katara's character, and change one of her core characteristics? Katara, who looked up to the Avatar as a saviour figure, now blames him for leaving and allowing the Fire Nation to wage war on the world.

Then comes Zuko, a banished Prince with a crew full of traitors and his own agenda. Zuko wishes for nothing more than to dethrone his father and end the war. He is a White Lotus member, an honorable, driven young man, and he has a plan.

The catch? He needs to take the Avatar to his father if he wishes to regain his title and be able to rightfully take the throne. Oh, and he will deliver the Avatar to the Fire Lord—but nobody said it had to be in chains.

Halfblood AU

I watched Blue Eye Samurai a few months ago and it destroyed me. The idea of a half-blooded child dead set on getting revenge for their very existence stuck with me, and this AU was born.

Kanna made a life for herself in the Earth Kingdom after leaving the North. Katara was raised by her grandmother in a small village, being taught to hide her bending if she wanted to live peacefully in a place she was only half of. Her mother had died in childbirth. Her father, a nameless warrior from the Southern Water Tribe who had loved Kya and left her behind, didn't know of Katara's existence.

Katara took over Kanna's clinic after she passed away. Always taking care of others. Always suppressing her need to bend. Always wishing for more.

One day, he arrived. A half-child, just like her. But while she was of Water, he was a son of Agni. He was searching for the man who brought him to this world. The man who scarred him. The man whose face he couldn't recall, whose name he did not know. The man whose specter had chased his mother to her grave. The man who would die at his hand.

The answers were hidden in a small teashop deep within Ba Sing Se. Lee offered her a way out, and Katara took it.

Soundless (Uiscefhuaraithe)

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe has hands scarred by fire and great talent, though no teacher.

Zuko is a mute War Child, a herbalist and healer, and the Blue Spirit. He bears the mark of fire, and the scar of the blade that took away his voice.

The first time they met, the Blue Spirit had just saved her, tough not before her hands got burned. The second time they met, his name was Lee, and he was healing her.

They live in war and they will fight, if not for the world, then for themselves.

You asked for a full storyline, and I shall deliver!

Soundless is probably the only AU I have fully planned. Three-books, Azula redemption arc, role-reversals and all.

This AU has everything. From travelling through the Earth Kingdom together, to odd character team-ups that somehow manage to work, and a major goal/conflict to resolve.

Zuko and Katara must find their way to Omashu in an Earth Kingdom ravaged by war as they also grow to understand each other, themselves, and the world around them. They meet with new and old alliances, keep their ears open for rumors of the Avatar (They say he is an airbender, Lee. Do you truly belive that?), and do their best to always be two steps ahead of their pasts.

Meanwhile, both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes are searching for the runaway heiress, Aang must find his way alone on this new, hostile world, and Azula must face the revelation that, despite what her father has stated for the last two years (liar, he lied at her! Her! He lied he liedliedliedlied), her brother might just be alive.

I'm sorry for making this such a long answer! I just get very excited about these subjects and don't know when to stop. If you made it all the way down here: thank you again.

I hope you have a good day ❤️

[oh-koenig-my-koenig]

Fit for a King - WIP - "You are tiny"

Fit for a King - Masterlist

König fanfiction scenes and chapters that do not yet have a coherent plot

planned content/TW: rivals to lovers, König x fem!character (not too descriptive to make it accessible for more readers), social anxiety killing machine König, badass friendly FMC, dual POV, secret relationship, switch energy, NSFW, adult themes, strong language, violence (more details are still unclear, gonna update as I go), authentic austrian german

a/n: well, my brain isn't letting go of this newest obsession of mine, so I will appease it and write some scenes/chapters that come to mind. i have written more original work and less fanfictions and our boy (and KorTac) is hard to research, but I'll try my best to stay some-what cannon to the lore. it'll also probably get darker down the road.

if your character doesn't have a tragic backstory, why not give him one?

A not so meetcute

(CW: some mature language)

I strut along the hallway, I'm already late to report for duty and turn the corner abruptly. I collide with somebody else at full walking force and almost get pushed to the floor, if the big figure blocking the light shining from above wouldn't have caught me. "Ouch.", I yelp, more surprised than hurt, even though I feel like ran over by a truck.

I steady myself to look at the "truck". I look up and I keep looking up and up. At first there's just this chest, a huge chest, in a simple compression shirt, but oh boy. The weapon holster is what I see next, sitting snug at the side of his torso. Shoulders, big broad shoulders, and normally you would expect to have a head sitting on top of them and a face looking back at you. I guess, he has one as well, even though I don't see one bit of it. I strain my neck to finally meet his eyes.

But all I see is the dark black of a… sniperhood? A T-shirt? I mean, it looks like a t-shirt, that somebody cut holes in to fashion themselves a kind of mask. The front is stained with bleach, two streaks coming down from the eyeholes... My eyes widen as it sinks in who this is. König. KorTac operator, field combatant and one of my superiors. Shit. I've heard some rumors about him. And it seems like at least some of them ring true.

"You are tiny.", he states matter-of-factly, his Austrian accents shining through the uttered words. It's the first thing he says to me. "And you are... not.", I retort. I can't make out his expression as it so obviously is hidden by his mask. He nods, turns around and heads down the hallway where he came from. I shake my head. What the hell was that?

I stretch myself, feeling the impact of the collision already. My god, that was like being hit by a battering ram. I heard that his specialty is breaking down doors with brute force. I thought this to be ridiculous, but now as I watch the gigantic muscled man strut down the hallway, quickly disappearing, I do believe it. 6'10" killing machine. Ridiculous.

I shake my head again and make my way to the meeting room. Ridgeback is already waiting for me.

______________________________________________________________

Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Verdammt. Ah, des hast du ganz super g'macht.* I tell myself sarcastically in my head as I basically run down the hallway. She must be one of the new hires. Must be. And you almost turned her to mush. Mus. Brei. Human remains splattered against the wall. I curse myself again. I didn't even apologize. "You are tiny." No shit, Sherlock, everybody is tiny compared to you. I continue to mock myself. Fuck, Shit, Fuck.

"Ridge, since when do we hire children?", I ask him as soon as I enter the room. He doesn't even look up. "We don't." He keeps reading. "Then why did I just almost run over a recruit that didn't even reach my waist?" – “Because compared to you, everybody seems tiny.” He sighs and looks up at me. “None of our personnel are under 6’, not even the women.”

“Even the new recruits?”, I ask him again. He furrows his brow. “What did you do, König?”, he wants to now. “I may or may not have almost trampled one of them.”, I say, kleinlaut***. He sighs again. “I think that was Müller, she’s actually on her way here.”, Ridgeback says. “Müller? Is she german?”, I ask in surprise. I didn’t hear such an accent on her, but to be fair, she only said like three words… and I wasn’t really paying attention to her words anyway.

On cue, the door opens and I fall silent. “Permission to enter, Sir?”, she says with a clear voice. Not at all seeming like I almost turned her into pulp. I take two steps back to stand in the back, trying to blend into the wall behind me – which I already know from experience is not going to work. “Come in.”, Ridge says. “Müller, right?” She nods and approaches. My focus is fully on her, all the small bits I noticed about her before are still there. She’s not wearing a mask because it’s not necessary off mission. You know, like you normally would. She has laugh lines. Around her eyes and mouth. Fucking laugh lines. She doesn’t look like she belongs here.

The two of them are talking, but I catch every single time when her gaze lands on me, even if it’s just from the corner of her eyes. I fight against the urge to turn away every time she looks at me, when I hear Ridgeback drop the old s-word. Sniper.

My ears perk up and I finally pay attention to what they’re saying again. “Your track record is almost immaculate, Müller. You’re gonna be an asset to the team on the next missions.”, he says to her. I can see that she tries to hold back a proud expression or smile on her face, but she doesn't really succeed at that. God damn it, a sniper. I groan and make my way to the door which doesn’t go unnoticed. “König.”, Ridgeback pipes up. “You wanna show Müller the way to the dorms?” as I already have my hand on the doorknob.

I still for just a moment and the roaring sensation of anxiety seeps at my feet and crawls up my body until it’s nested at the back of my head. I can’t talk to her. Not after embarrassing myself before. “Nein.”, is all I say before I’m out the door.

*God damnit. You did a really bang up job. ** two different words for pulp/mash *** meekly (word for word: 'smallloud')

[translucio]

more veilguard thoughts! minor spoilers below cut

stuff im liking:

still having fun with combat

level design has been good, tons to explore, solid puzzles. beautiful environments. im liking how distinct and lived in the big cities are feeling.

i am liking lucanis more than i expected.....i know Everyone is simping over him but.. i might have to as well and romance him instead of bellara 🙈

im liking how bite sized the codex entries are. makes it easy to read them all on pickup whereas in inquisition sometimes it was like godddd i want the lore but i dont wanna read five pages right now

petting cats and dogs! i love the haptic purring, that's a really good way to do it (i would honestly love to see that polished even further with variations + meowing/whining/sniffing/licking sounds thru the controller but hey, it's a tiny part of the game and what they have is fine)

the resource economy is feeling pretty decent to me, im motivated to seek out collectables, i buy stuff from vendors often, i understand the upgrade system enough to inform my decisions. it feels very god of war or ghost of tsushima. so my only worry is that i might just get bored of it after many hours as i did in those games (which, i think the solution to that is for the level design to keep things interesting and satisfying enough that theyre rewarding even without the collectibles. so we'll see)

stuff im not really liking

overall plot so far feels Just Okay. but i felt that way about 2 and inquisition too lol

it is actually starting to really bum me out that you can't talk to people at will. like, the lack of dialogue choices in it, for a bioware game, is troubling to me. these settings and characters are interesting and filling me with many questions! i want to be able to dive deeper into them, but i just cant. you just get barks for all the world npcs. and the lack of choices really makes rook feel more like a prewritten/predestined character rather than one that's really yours to characterize. i realize it's a lot of writing and voice acting $$ to have that many dialogues, but that's one of the main selling points for bioware games for me... and it feels weird that other games are now doing it better than dragon age.

similarly the lack of continuity of choices from previous games makes me sad.

i still haven't gotten all that far, but i am several hours in at this point, and i gotta say i am kinda missing side quests a bit... related to the point about lacking world dialogue, but the world is feeling a little bit underwhelming in terms of the character and lore context/depth that i find myself wanting. which was a big problem for me in inquisition as well. like sure, there are collectables and hidden paths and puzzles to navigate through, and those are absolutely a huge improvement over inquisition's. but those don't give life and flavor and narrative depth to the environment the way that having meaningful interactions with npcs does. the barks are nice, but they leave me wanting significantly more in terms of interaction and depth.

im gonna keep comparing it to god of war (2018 - haven't played ragnarok yet) since that's really the closest thing its reminding me of. and while i loved god of war, i did feel like its world was very lonely. it made up for it with its extremely honed in narrative focus on the journey of the two established characters, and the quality of its writing and voice acting both for their dialogues and the few quests with other characters. it's not a game about the setting or how it shapes the characters that live there, it's about a grieving father and son who happen to be gods.

whereas dragon age IS about its world almost as much as it is about its characters. and with such a rich setting with three prior entries to build on, it seems kind of a shame to let players explore all these places we've heard about but not meaningfully interact with the characters there outside of Big Epic Story Moments or companion-focused quests, especially when you could in the previous games.

anyway.... much to think about... still enjoying it, still have more thoughts as i keep playing

[maulfvckers]

OK SO HEADCANNON TIME

Maul was re-alived by the Son. Just like Ahsoka was re-alived by the Daughter.

So we know this for Ahsoka because it's done right in front of you and we have the bird and all that jazz. "In plain light," so to speak.

BUT what happened to the Son at the fall of Mortis? Well if you look at it carefully they're immortal beings that aren't exactly bound by space and time. So the Son being pretty damn powerful but probably not as much as the Father. He decides to live on in a dark sider. So... Who's desperate enough, emo enough, and stupid enough to accept the literal embodiment of evil?

Our boy Maul.

It explains a lot about him. It gives a pretty neat Watsonian explanation for his change in voice, it explains why Sidious literally never thinks of him again and is kinda surprised that Maul's alive, and it even explains his weird behavior in Rebels (again a Watsonian explaination). His voice changes because it's literally the Son's voice. Sidious genuinely thinks he died because, well... He did. And his seemingly erratic behavior and split motivations would fit pretty neatly with two different souls fighting for dominance in one body. It even gives a little insight into how Maul was able to "see" more than the average force user even more so than just having the context of his abuser taking over the galaxy.

But we don't see this right? Well... In line with the "light/dark" dichotomy that star wars loves. The reveal of Maul's possession isn't as straight forward or "hidden in the dark." (Yeah it's simple but *sighs* Star Wars) But we DO see it. We see it with the repetition of "the chains are the easy part. It's what goes on in here is hard," by the Son on Mortis as he talks to Ahsoka and by Mauk when he see him on Lotho Minor. We also hear it in his voice. These choices made by the animators were not mistakes in this sense.

We also can see how this plays out in Maul's general inability to draw from the light side even while not being a Sith just like Ahsoka has a general inability to draw from the dark side even while not being a Jedi. For the both of them, they're more or less fixed in their alignments. It explains how no matter how hard Maul tries to do the ultimately right thing by seeking to destroy Sidious, he's never going to experience the connection that comes from being in the light. It's just like no matter how much she despairs that she'll fall to the dark side, Ahsoka never really does (okay I gotta say Warsonian a third time cos I will lose my shit if I say what I really think).

So what does this mean for the narrative? For those two specifically, I think they're a little less in line with the idea "you can choose to be good or bad" and little more "wouldn't it be fucked up if you were possessed by the literal embodiment of evil/good and didn't even HAVE a choice no matter how hard you tried?" And you get some deep thing about free will and moralizing about how great it is. Cos if there's anything Star Wars loves to do it's moralize about things!

So that's just my take on them and I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks this, bit I'd love to hear from your frens. Take care!

-♥️-

granmaul

I love this, and I'm going to throw in a devil's advocate "Doylist" thought for the hell of it: Witwer voices both the Son and Maul and has a really good grasp on the lore. I think we can feel his influence in both characters' acting, and those similarities may be deliberate choices in their design so those echoes become apparent when looking closely at the execution:

The Son of Dathomir and the Son of Mortis.

I'm particularly fond of your headcanon because I think there are mirrors between the architects (the Celestials, assuming the Mortis Gods were part of that ancient race -- I like to think so but unconfirmed in canon afaik) and the fruits of their efforts, no matter how far they've fallen from the tree.

Thoughts, frens?

Darth Maul is alive truthers, speak up or forever hold your peace.

[cienie-isengardu]

Is it just me or since MK9 somehow everyone knows Sub-Zero's name is Bi-Han??? In MK11 he is never called by his alias Noob Saibot. Instead, they call him by his real name WHICH WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW AS HE IS AN ASSASSIN OF A HIDDEN LEGENDARY CLAN

Oh, definitely it is true and I can’t blame the authors for using it so much, as MK9 (2011) to my knowledge is the first source establishing Bi-Han’s name. Ironic, as Hanzo Hasashi has been part of lore at least since Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997), so it was about time for Sub-Zero brothers to get their own identity outside the iconic mantle.

And you know what? I ABSOLUTELY LOVE when characters refer to Noob Saibot as Bi-Han because this little detail humanizes him way more than story mode ever paid attention to his personhood and adds complex layers and nuances to the relationship between characters. Above everything else, I adore the implication Noob Saibot is reclaiming his own humanity that was stolen from him, both by Lin Kuei and Netherrealm, as he literally introduces himself in MK11 by referring to his past both to Kuai Liang by acknowledging their brotherhood (and he does that pretty often in the latest source material) and by giving his name to Jacqui and young!Jax

Sure, it would not work well within the MK9’s story mode for everyone calling Sub-Zero by name and it not always makes sense in MK11 for people like Kotal Kahn, Mileena, Sheeva, Kano or Skarlet to know the name or care to use it (although Kano, Mileena and Sheeva at least had contact with Noob since MK9 and could learn his name at some point in the past) but for Lin Kuei, Earthrealm’s original cast, Revenants, Sareena and even supernatural beings (Raiden & Fujin) there is a logical reason for that familiarity or for characters like Cetrion & Geras to know the name and it deepen the interpersonal connections that games not always properly focus on screen. And it may change the interpretation of events and characters’ reasoning a lot! 

For example, during Tournament (MK9) Raiden’s talk with Scorpion about sparing Sub-Zero’s life

can easily be seen as the god’s manipulations to get the desired result (a similar talk happened with Cyrax to spare Johnny’s life), as everyone involved were pawns in the ruthless game between Raiden and Shao Kahn/Shang Tsung for Earthrealm’s final fate.

But Raiden in MK11, accusing past!Scorpion for breaking his promise and using Sub-Zero’s name?

It changes the tone of their interaction and I dare to say, it presents Raiden as more caring for the person under the mantle, not just trying to prevent a bad outcome that would work against his plans.

Or Kuai Liang’s relationship with Frost and Jacqui. Since MKX, the source material imply that Kuai Liang and Briggs family are not only on good terms, but also that Sub-Zero has most likely a soft spot for Jacqui. She can come to him to test her new gear (“I've got new gear to test”, MK11 intro) and Sub-Zero will encourage her despite Jax’s objection (“Told you not to encourage Jacqui.”, MKX intro) even though he respects the man and considers a friend with whom he shares a “dark past”. Jacqui, the same as Cassie and Takeda heard a lot about Sub-Zero from their family and she may as well be aware that Kuai Liang’s brother died because of Scorpion, but as MK11’s story mode showed, she did not know enough to recognize Bi-Han’s name

even though her father in fact knew it, as it is the young!Jax provides an explanation.

 

Meanwhile in MK11 intro dialogues, Frost knows Noob Saibot’s name and admits she revered Bi-Han at some point (“In the past, I revered you”). No matter how her current relationship with Lin Kuei Grandmaster is stained, her familiarity with Bi-Han suggests that Kuai Liang trusted her a lot, as he revealed personal details about his family. And mind you, Kuai Liang does not always uses Bi-Han's name in intro dialogues, quite often refers to him simply as his sibling.

Similarly, the use of Bi-Han name gives an interesting contrast between the interaction of Shang Tsung with ice brothers. When sorcerer and Kuai Liang talk, they both refer to Bi-Han just as the "brother"

Sub-Zero: My brother paid a high price serving you. Shang Tsung: He knew the rules of Mortal Kombat. Sub-Zero: But then you rigged the tournament.

or

Shang Tsung: You lack your brother's efficacy. Sub-Zero: Because I maintain my integrity. Shang Tsung: Integrity is no weapon, Kuai Liang.

yet when Shang Tsung interacts directly with Noob Saibot, he calls him by name 

Shang Tsung: It's astounding you survived a Soulnado. Noob Saibot: My darkness is immutable and unkillable. Shang Tsung: But is it transferable, Bi-Han?

and in recent years this is a common thing in their interaction, suggesting that Shang Tsung and Bi-Han were on good terms in the past that their familiarity could go beyond the strictly professional nature of a man hiring an assassin to do the job.

Coming back to Jax, and all original Kombatans, I know the sources don't acknowledge it but I can’t stress enough that for the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero match to happen, Bi-Han needed to change sides during the Tournament. Otherwise this fight MAKES NO SENSE as there is no sane reason for Shang Tsung to allow two representatives of Outworld to fight (and one being eliminated) before his victory was secured and final. And so going with that thought, young Jax knowing Sub-Zero’s name, the same as Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Nightwolf did, may suggest that Sub-Zero revealed to Earthrealm Champions his name, as a sign of good will, the proof that there is a man under the mask and he too has something worth to protect. The knowledge could also come from Raiden, in similar fashion to how he told Cyrax that Bi-Han in fact saved Earthrealm once. Or in case of further events, Kuai Liang or Tomas could explain their quest to avenge fallen brother and comrade. Even in MK9, a game that presented to us only the most important parts of Tournament focused on the main cast, at the sight of unconscious Noob Saibot, Kung Lao noted the enemy seems familiar to him, so he could at some point offscreen interact with Bi-Han.

The fact that past!Jax knows to some degree Bi-Han makes old Jax guarding the Kronika’s Crown together with Noob in MK11: Aftermatch much better. For one, they apparently did not sit in their own corner and ignored each other the whole time as they walked up to Shang Tsung and Fujin from the same direction.

Furthermore, original Kombatants that were killed by Sindel and resurrected as Revenants either already knew elder Sub-Zero’s name or learned it in Netherrealm - between MK9 and MKX twenty years has passed alone with is plenty of time to become familiar with each other, as they all served Quan Chi and Shinnok. Noob Saibot may or may not be already freed from Quan Chi’s dark magic, however at some point Revenant Kitana and demon Sareena both became aware of his name, as was seen in MKX's story mode:   

Sareena: It is possible to escape Quan Chi, Kitana. I can aid you as Bi-Han aided me. Kitana: You became too familiar with Bi-Han. Allowed emotion to corrupt you. Sareena: Emotion freed me!

And interestingly, it is not specified if Sareena talks about Bi-Han from Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (when he spared her life and she helped him in fight against Quan Chi but he did not reveal his birth name) or does she mean Bi-Han / Noob Saibot. If it is the letter, it could imply Noob Saibot on purpose introduces himself not by Lin Kuei’s code name nor the Netherrealm’s mantle that was forced upon him.

On other hand, characters like Cetrion or Geras may know elder Sub-Zero’s name due to their godly powers or connection to Kronika/Hourglass while Fujin could easily learn that from Raiden, after the stolen amulet was brought back from Netherrealm by the Lin Kuei assassin.

Like I said, it doesn’t makes sense for every character to use Bi-Han’s name but majority of the cast could be familiar with him when he was alive (either by Sub-Zero sharing his name or because of Raiden) or when as a Wraith he started reclaiming his personhood - as his official MK11’s theme RECOGNITION suggested. 

I love how a simple use of name changes the perspective of past events and relationships between characters but above everything else I love the implication that Noob Saibot is reclaiming his identity stolen by Lin Kuei and Netherrealm and in result has connection to other characters outside the Lin Kuei-Shirai Ryu conflict and servitude to Quan Chi.

[beesmygod]

old hunters DLC also highlights some themes of colonial violence and exploitation too, imo. what’s been done to the fishing village and kos ties the beast thing up with this idea that like, the impulse to Conquer and Dominate another leads directly to the Curse. It’s not enough to understand the old ones and the blood and all that, they needed to control it, to take it for themselves, and exploit it however they can. And now there’s wolfmans everywhere.

And this is in the core gameplay loop itself, we extract all the vials and blood echos and blood gems that we can in order to become strong enough to conquer more and more powerful prey. When we’re hit, we hit back harder and take back the life that was taken for us. Sure it’s ostensibly to Break the Curse and seek Paleblood and all that, but we know why we’re really doing it. Because it’s sick as hell, and feels awesome to best these monsters. The old hunters knew that too, and it turns them into giant horse creatures unable to do anything besides violence. That thirst for violence and power makes hunters turn into beasts, now only functioning as a cog in a perpetual violence machine. They lose their humanity not through repeated death like in Dark Souls, but through taking life. It turns the characters into monsters, and the players into wiki editors and lore theorists (aka monsters) bc we also can’t let go of the feeling Bloodborne gives us.

Tl;dr: Bloodborne is like if Spec Ops had any subtlety or desire to leave itself up to interpretation (probably helped by the fact that very little of what I’m talking about is likely intentional and I’m just insane)

OKAY im back from my appointment and finished my little treat. anon ("anon" @chicknparm who should get credit for these good thoughts) i could not agree more. i mentioned this in a previous post but finding a strand of commentary about the evils of colonialism made me worried i was becoming dangerously online, but it's a relief to see someone else mention this idea. i think you are absolutely right that one of the overt messages in bloodborne is that spilling blood for your own benefit leads to ruin. its actually kind of shocking how, in spite of the combat being the draw to these games, the message of most fromsoft games is a message of anti-violence. like, how many times do we end up fighting something that, in hindsight, needed to be put out of its misery. oh. shit. thinking about it, our player character is explicitly an outsider. the role of hunter of hunter is filled by outsiders...

also lol you are so right about the wiki based insanity but i think that's the consequences of insight poisoning. literally every once in a while while trying to edit this stupid bloodborne doc i think to myself "oooeergg too many eyes" and take a break for a few days

anyway, turning this back around to the colonialism theme, hear us out ok: watching/reading the sekiro lore videos/posts by shetani of shetani's lair helped introduce a lot of esoteric buddhist and shinto concepts that were totally novel and unknown to be as a baka gaijin. now these ideas are impossible not to see in all of from's other works.

i did a few days of research on "shinshi" (mostly a lot of stuff that turned out to not be relevant, but interesting) after becoming aware of them and found they shared a lot of qualities with the augurs (or "phantasms", invertebrates that act as intermediaries to the great ones) of bloodborne. realizing this, i thought about the great ones not in the context of a christian god, as the MODERN yharnam does, but as kami. kami are numerous, everywhere, hidden, and are thought of as actively controlling or influencing the terrestrial world. the re-translation reveals that the "great pthumeru chalice" had some nuance lost in translation: "祀る - Means to enshrine or worship, but has connotations of doing it to appease spirits so they may reach nirvana or Buddhahood and avoid becoming evil"; this is simply translated to "deify" which is technically correct but the original feels like it's much more pointed about finally revealing to the player that the "gods" as we've been lead to believe them to be are not what they seem.

the healing church, a product of georgian to victorian era western beliefs, razed pthumeru, loran, isz, and the fishing village (and probably yahar'gul too) in the quest to become like their newly discovered gods. the framework by which they related to pthumerian culture was completely wrong and misunderstood the nature of "gods" as all knowing or all powerful and, thus, something aspirational. the reality was more that they are just another type of creature in the world with different limitations than a human. and they're still mortal.

[zaynes-nieve]

Zayne Nieve's LADS opinions of the men

I wanna try something new, so first we're gonna get into how i feel about all of them, men, and they're pluses. But eventually, someone is gonna have to be pushed to last. it doesn't mean that they aren't great! Just means that they don't speak to me personally. Starting off first, I'm going to talk about Xavier

💜💫 Xavier 💜💫

Xavier fans, I get his appeal! Recently, I've been seeing more content for him outside of the game, and he is very soft, sleepy , who is also very possessive, lol. He is very cute, and he has cracked me up with some of the few 5-star memories I do have of him! Also learned recently, he is a hidden freak XD. He as so far been placed last on my LADS Men list, one because of my low content for him but two just because I liked the other men over him but he had managed to win me over so let's see where I'll place him after his birthday event is complete. Also, happy early birthday, Xavier 🎂 🥳

❤️🐦‍⬛Sylus ❤️🐦‍⬛

Sylus is the newest of the bunch, so it's understandable why there isn't much content, especially cause I'm not farming for him. I went out of my way to get all his original content, but after that, I hadn't tried to get any of his new content. But I've enjoyed what I have seen. He is a little to blase for me but I definitely enjoy the security in his money lol. Also No Defense Zone was a crazy watch XD. He reminds me of all of those rich male leads only softer. I am also highly curious about his lore especially because his myth story was in the modern day compared to the other leads

🧡🐡 Rafayel 🧡🐡

Rafayel is the one I have the most content for purely by chance. IDK how the pulls work for the limited if IT IS affected by affinity that is one very cool and two would explain why I typically now get Zayne cards first and Rafayel second. I have been exposed to most of his content besides Zayne, and as such, I know the most about him, his character, and his interactions with MC. He, at least to me, is very funny. I enjoy him being bratty and pouty, though I'm like 70% sure half of it is a front. Or it could he a Luo Binghesque character. I am slightly off put by the master aspect of their story, but overall, as long as it wasn't actual slavery , I also I have all of his free memories, so expect him to be placed decently well

💙❄️ Zayne 💙❄️

I saved him for last. It it wasn't clear by 1. My username, 2. My PFP, 3. My Master List of my dedication to collecting his cards. The fact I spent probably 60$ to attempt and pull for a second Zayne to own ONE of his color changes for once. I'm a Zayne main. This section, in particular, is completely biased. Being even more real, this ranking shouldn't even include him. Because my bias behind is making him first place regardless, this is a competition between the other three men. Zayne is originally a little stand offish, but he is just socially awkward. He is very sweet and loving, and he cares about all his patients (we are just his favorite lol) he has some of the funniest side characters, and he treats us very well. Our relationship also physically hurts me because FUCK ASTRA. MY GOD that bitch as his coming as soon as I find his location. He can't even tell us he loves us 😭. The moon allegories are crazy because apparently one. It's a way to express your love apparently in China? Don't quote me on that I saw it like three times, it's like a specific phrase but it also reminds me on one the story of Chang'e and her multiple myths with her husband and the immortality pill. I personally prefer the one where she doesn't rob her husband. Like Over the Moon did. But it hits me in the feels. So much. It isn't the only time the moon is used for something the long for either. I feel like most of us didn't feel like we got that we wanted from the Dawn Breaker card, or at least I personally would have like to be less confused about the Dawnbreaker/Our Zayne situation. Maybe hopefully, they will give Dawn Breaker a myth story. But I still enjoyed a lot of aspects of it, and it goes deeper into the connection between our Zayne and Dawnbreaker

But for now I wanna see a popularity poll so

If it is a background character I want to see names!

[astralartefact]

NieR Reincarnation The People and the World Amber Spoiler Post & Theory Hour

Mama on Mama on Mama on Mama in this one. And I'm going to look a little bit too deep into that. Far too deep actually.

What can I say. They did a good job with the shitty gacha game. I'm so sorry, but I am once again validated in my opinion that this is the best NieR writing right behind YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse. It's just. Chef's Kiss.

And sure, I still prefer Sun/Moon over People/World as a story since that one just managed to weave the themes so well with the stories and everything whereas this one has certain moments where it doesn't really line up with stuff it has already established (some/many of the stories kind of seem to disregard parts of their hidden/ex stories which feels weird, also where are hina and yuzuki in all of this as rogue cage wanderers, i have a feeling they're not going to address them at all (which imo would be fine but kind of disappointing)), but we're finally getting the lore payoff we know to expect from Drakenier and it feels so good.

And you know, I did notice that all the seasons so far were in two distinct parts that lined up with their name - and as this was obviously the The People part I was wondering before playing this morning what the The World part would be about. But it didn't even occur to me that we could be going to the "Real World"... (Put a Pin in that)

But let's get into it.

Mama meets Accord (who I'm sure somebody has called mommy before)

I mean at this point we know she's coming - we just don't know when and how. I do wonder if these more and more overt mentions of her might be setup for the next NieR/DoD4 because I feel like Accord as a character would be prime real estate for the new big game, but of course it would also make perfect sense for her to show up here, she already has an established presence in the Cage - and I mean she could just do both!

It's interesting to note btw that the coffer that Yudil's story explicitly points out has recently appeared in the most recent Bakuken stage play (the one that's called Finale even though it's not the final one) where a portuguese merchant (The Cathedral City is on the Iberian Peninsula) called Michael (you know, like the Dragon) had it. Of course, they might also just have reused the prop since they made one for the YoRHa stage play Accord appeared in...

Mama meets Mother

She's giving Mother and she's back with a vengeance rhythm game. Amazing. Tens across the board. I love her fascinator head piece.

As the Mother Expert that I call myself I have to point out some things here:

a) What exactly is Mother Mourning? The Watchers have up until now only been described as motivated by a fervent hate of Humanity and anger - the Gods want to claw themselves free of their humanity-imposed seals and devour the world - so why is this version explicitly shown as sad? Her battle dialogue also kind of sounds... betrayed in a way? "Why Protect People? Destroy" and "Our objective. Why?" seem to hint that maybe Mama (points right at the name) was in with Mother this whole time but has now turned against her. And it makes me wonder if the Cage is a way for humanity to enslave the gods they sealed for profit...

But also, given recent Developments in SinoAlice JP's Ending Arc, there's likely something else in the Cage that the Mourning Mother could be talking to. Maybe the thing we saw in that one cutscene is actually protecting humanity?

b) With some of that already in mind I was thinking about her pose and was trying to find some connection to the dance of her Intoner version in the DoD3 Final Boss when it occured to me in a one-two punch: She's shackled. The Cage is for Her. She's what is Caged. And doesn't that sound like a seal that keeps a certain Round Egg at bay that I have an exciting theory for-

Tangent: Mama meets my Round Egg Theory

okay so strap in because it's time to bring up the thing I bring up every chance I get!

We know there's a connection between the Memory Tree and the Moon Server Data through two things:

a) In the Replicant Remaster's new Ending Kainé goes into the Memory Tree's Data to bring Nier back - which of course means that the Memory Tree contains Nier's data. This is important because

b) In YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse (My Love <3) the Red Girls have a Seed (we'll get back to that in a second) - and out of that Seed grows a Tower that contains "Ego Collectives" of People, which is basically the collection of memories that makes up one person.

Now I know that everyone just handwaved that away as a way to have cheap Replicant references as the first two bosses with the Remaster coming up but lol wouldn't that be easy, did you forget who you're dealing with? Because the exact two bosses used (Knave of Hearts and Hänsel and Gretel) means there's only one person this Ego Collective could belong to: Nier, because only he fought Hänsel and Gretel. (let's ignore that Weiss was there too bc that would be a dumb!!! this is much more fun bc of the implications!!!)

And I'm positive that this was intentional because in the remaster ending - in a scene that's eerily similar to the fight in Tower at Paradigm's Breach - Kainé only fights her memory of Gretel without Hänsel, so they knew.

Why does that matter? It doesn't really, I just wanted to bring it up as a little fun fact, but what does matter is that Y:DA establishes that whatever that Seed the Red Girls have recreated is, it also contains all the memories from the Memory Tree, because that's where those memories were recorded. And they were recreating it, which implies there was a basis to recreate. And that was always the big future overarching NieR plot thread that Y:DA left me with - sure, we know this is where it all ends, the Watchers are over now and this time forever through collaboration and power of friendship - but how did we even get here? How did the Red Girls get a Seed to recreate?

And now it fits right in with what's happening, especially now that we know what exactly the Moon Server can do:

The Moon Server/The Cage can peer into different universes - we know that since at least Hina and Yuzuki (Yuzuki knows Reinkane exists as a game but also their EX stories) - but as far as we know the Seeds only exist in Drakengard's Universe. So why do the Red Girls/The Watchers/The Mourning Mother want to get into the Moon Server/Cage so Bad? (It was even sort of highlighted in the Automata Anime where Adam transformed into a giant Reincarnation Mob - implying really hard that the Red Girls/Logic Virus is indeed behind the attacks on the Cage) Well, maybe it's because they want the Round Egg, because they have been separated ever since DoD1's Final Boss and they need it to Dark Apocalypse.

Before this chapter I thought that the entire Memory Tree might have been built from Seeds in the first place and that's why the Red Girls want into the Moon Server to get a basis to copy - I thought it would make sense that humanity somehow got that dimension-crossing technology needed for it out of a Seed - but that would require the NieR world to have Seeds to use for that and we know next to nothing about them so I just kept it in the back of my mind until something else comes along to strengthen it. I also didn't want to base too much on the cross-over one, even if I personally really don't understand why people are so hesitant to call it canon, it's definitely canon, it's one of the few things Yoko Taro is directly credited to have written the past few years and he literally always writes stuff that right away retcons things, so even if it changes details with Automata he has done the exact same thing multiple times now. ("It's not DoD3's Ending A that leads to DoD1, it's the version of Ending A in this specific novella that's basically the same except for one small thing.")

But you know what other tangentially related thing I can bring up that you won't believe I will stuff into this theory? Why yes, It's Yuki Wada's Breakout Hit Voice of Cards: Forsaken Maiden. And fair warning, this is where it gets entirely unfounded. And also spoilers for that game's ending.

I have the long and well-documented theory that the Spirits from VoC:FM might be the Watchers. In that game Maidens need to sacrifice themselves to the Gods so they 'keep humanity save' in return - but it ends with Laty (the female MC) going into an eternal slumber to sort of 'trap' the gods in her everlasting dream so humanity is save without them. And because I always found that very reminiscent of Drakengard 1's Goddesses I theorized that VoC:FM might have been the folkloric 'inception story' of that system, humanity just reiterated on the mechanics of it so it's spread over multiple people instead of one so nobody has to go to sleep forever.

So with that as an foundational thought, what if humanity did that again? What if they extended it again on more people so fewer people have the sort of responsibility Laty or Furiae had? What if they didn't only extend it to a finite number of people - what if they extended it to every human in every dimension that ever experienced any form of prolonged misery (or whatever else the requirements are to end up in the cage lol)

So what if the Cage is the Seal? What if keeping the Seeds locked up is the purpose of the Cage? What if the Cage is a Cage?

And if the Cage is just NieR's Goddess Seals then the Watchers have a really good reason to get in there: The exact same reason as in Drakengard 1.

But I'm not done. Because what if Mama didn't know that. What if Mama just knew there's a server on the moon and basically every single person ever is trapped in it, eternally doomed to relive the most horrible pain and suffering imaginable for some reason - and some figure, a mother figure if you will, told her she could fix their suffering. That she could change the system for the better by giving them hope and respite by giving them an afterlife. But that was a lie. The figure just wanted her to weaken the system built on sin and suffering so she could break through it and reach the Seeds.

What if Mama (points at the name) realised she was tricked by Mother and is now trying to fix her mistakes? And that's why Mother is Mourning, because she betrayed her?

Don't think so. Mama didn't seem all that "remorseful". But maybe something along those lines though.

Depending on SinoAlice JP's ending whatever other being the Library turns out to be might also be involved - maybe the Library is a god that turned away from the Watchers to help humanity and the Cage is instead a way to protect the being that is the Library which in turn protects humanity... That would be a full circle moment to VoC:FM too...

Either way I'm so stoked to find out what's really happening!!!

Mama meets Mama in the Real World

Already talked alot about Mama, but let's just all applaud ourselves for reading the room! We did it! We knew!

Just as theorized she was 10H all along! Probably should go reread her story to see if it still lines up with what I theorized above... And she's pretty. And has almost the same haircut as Hina and Marie. Hmm. Maybe they should have chosen one of the other Marie designs.

(Small correction: I read that last scene wrong, seems like Mama isn't 10H but Pod 006 - but since the character we're getting is 10H I'll still say we were right :3 ...and yeah, we do control the pod in that scene, makes sense, don't know why I went straight to Mama has to be 10H)

What I'm actually more interested in though is where we're going with this. Like what can she even do in the "Real World", doesn't 10H die constantly in her story for disobedience? So she can't be allowed to do all of this, right? I do think a "We rebuild the Cage on Hopes and Dreams" is in order, but the way to get there... ah! Look, it's the Pin I made you keep in mind!

What if they don't go to that Real World. What if they go to our Real World? Hina & Yuzuki - who came from our or at least another Real World - are notably absent from this arc. And that could just be because the true ending being optional makes things harder for the devs to write around and they want the spotlight off of them bc they were the main characters, but still: I would love a chapter or even just a scene of their perspective of what happens to the Cage. I mean what happens to them now that the Cage falls apart? Could Dark Mama and Papa save them just like Mama did with the others? Do we maybe even meet Dark Mama's and Papa's real forms?

But there's another character that immediately comes to my mind when we talk about "the Real World". And it's because of a throwaway line that I never see anybody bring up... mainly because nobody likes Y:DA.

In her final letter to Konogg, Anogg explains that at some point she visited another world (likely when she fell into the Pseudo-Seed) and in doing so she learned that both her and the world are constructs - which implies she knows that a Real World exists from which this world was created. And sure, that could have been a meta-joke about haha video game. But her constructed self also displays several similarities to moments in Noelle's Chapter - which came out vaguely around the same time - and now all of this lines up with what's happening in the Cage. So yeah. What if the ending scene is her emerging from the Cage to save Konogg just like these characters have done this entire arc? All I have to say is #AnoggForReincarnation. She would be perfect. Do it.

[sachan33]

Dainsleif and The Ring of the Nibelung

Since I'm very fixated on finding out more about the mysteries of Khaenri'ah, this line has been brewing in the backburner of my mind since this world quest came out:

 Zurvan was talking about Dain emerging from the cataclysm 500 years ago. Before then, he had never mentioned a ring, which got me curious as to what it could possibly be referring to?

I did a quick search and came across 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', or The Ring of the Nibelung; a very famous epically long 4 part opera by Wagner. It is indeed, about an actual ring.

The opera is inspired by Nordic mythology, using various characters whose names we have encountered that are connected to Khaenri'ah.

In the story, the ring is stolen and ends up cursed by its forger, Alberich, who in Norse mythology is typically a dwarf. What's interesting is that the gold to forge the ring was ALSO stolen from...the RHINEGOLD. (Rhinedottir, AKA, GOLD)

The Rhinegold, when forged into a ring, gives the owner the power to rule over the world, but only if love is renounced. Thus this ring is heavily sought after during the epic opera for a number of reasons.

Given that this ring holds significant power in the opera, I don't see why the ring clutched in Dain's hand wouldn't also hold power as well. Likely...some kind of power from beyond this world? The kind of power that Rhinedottir loved to mess with?

If that's the case, what the heck is Dain doing with it? And where is it now? He seems to have mystery hiding places (Like wherever he put the OG Field Tiller eye), and given that the ring is nowhere to be seen on his person, it may be hidden as well.

Before, I mentioned that the ring Alberich forged was stolen from him. It was taken by Wotan to be used as a bargaining chip to a pair of giants he owed a debt to. If the ring in Genshin lore contains the power of forbidden knowledge, Rhinedottir may have not forged the ring, but created it through alchemy. It's possible that Dain may have stolen the ring from Rhinedottir, knowing it contained the forbidden knowledge that led to the demise of Khaenri'ah. Given that the ring was clutched in his hand instead of worn on his hand, this implies he may have grabbed it in haste.

Without more information, however, I can only speculate the significance of the ring being in Dain's possession, or what power it may possess.

Another interesting little tidbit I read was that at the end of Act I of The Ring, the Rhinemaidens were pretty upset at their stolen gold, and (at least according to wiki) "condemn the gods as false and cowardly." Given that the Rhinemaidens dwelled at the bottom of the Rhine river, (and Khaenri'ah was an underground kingdom) there's a definite correlation to the relationship of Khaenri'ahns versus the gods and Celestia.

These parallels to "The Ring" and Khaenri'ah also opens the possibility of a connection to the Dragon King, ALSO named "Nibelung." But that's a whole other post for another day.

[blazehedgehog]

How DID FNAF get so popular in 2014? (God, that was 9 years ago.) Was it just a right place, right time thing?

A bit, yeah.

I think it's pretty clear from the popularity of Halloween that kids like to be scared (and to scare each other). There was a whole market that a lot of studios either forgot about or never tapped into.

Because, like, when you think about "horror for kids," you think about, like... Grabbed by the Ghoulies, or Luigi's Mansion, or even that one Haunted Mansion game Disney put out.

Games that are absolutely more silly than scary.

But we were in the era of the "creepypasta," which was undoubtedly dominated by kids between the ages of 13 and 18 writing about how their Sega Genesis was oozing blood or they had summoned Jeff the Killer by calling his number at 3am or whatever.

And this was after years of top Youtube Let's Players cutting their teeth on games like Amnesia and Cry of Fear. Kids were now intimately familiar with actual horror. They were hungry for sterner stuff than the typical idea of what kids could tolerate. Googly-eyed skeletons and technicolor sheet ghosts weren't cutting it anymore.

Five Nights at Freddy's was laser focused at this demographic: characters and a premise even adults find scary (uncanny animatronics turned killers) married with extremely simple gameplay that's all about building up to what is effectively somebody going "Boo!"

I currently live with my brother and his family, and he has twin sons. They're six years old. When it's time for bed, they give hugs to everyone. And when it comes time for my hug, every night for the last year, they try to sneak into my bedroom so they can jump out and shout "Boo!"

And when they do manage to surprise me (either because I play along or because they genuinely come in so quiet and secretly that I do not notice), it is one of the greatest things for them. They'll go bouncing out of my room and one will proclaim to the other "I GOT UNCLE RYAN!"

Even six year olds like the "Boo!" It's universal. The ultimate, most primal form of prank.

And despite trading in dark themes (dead children and a conspiracy to hide their deaths), there's no blood in FNAF. The violence is, at most, implied. And since the lore was deliberately obfuscated, its darker themes are gated by how deep you're willing to dive. Younger kids who might not be keen enough to figure out the easter eggs and hidden story elements are spared, whereas older kids can devour theory crafting videos until their eyes cross.

I don't necessarily think Scott Cawthon did everything deliberately. He's on the record saying FNAF was kind of a last ditch effort for him to be successful at game development, after all his other (Christian/Educational) projects were non-starters. I think certain parts of FNAF were probably more a happy accident. But he did land in the right place, at the right time, with the right game for what an audience of 13-18 year olds was most likely to connect with at the time.

And in the bigger picture, it was like the popularity of characters like The Crypt Keeper, Jason Vorhees and Freddy Kreuger finally came home to roost. Those were characters of the late 80's and early 90's that found surprising popularity with kids of the era. Growing up I was both amused and terrified of the myriad of Freddy Kreuger merchandise, and they straight up made a Tales from the Crypt saturday morning cartoon. From something that aired on HBO at 10pm and routinely had nudity and quite a bit of gore.

Even if their parents never liked it, kids have been getting scared by adult horror for decades.

Now, with FNAF, it was literally Good Christian Fun™ with enough of an edge to it that kids didn't feel like they were being talked down to.

[zalia]

The Continuing Adventures of a D2 Player in D1

I am partway through the Taken King expansion now! I have comitted Regicide, explored the Dreadnaught, and even bribed Shaxx to make me a sword. And I have more thoughts about it!

The Bad

Killing Oryx was... kind of anticlimactic tbh? I know the real death is in the raid, but it genuinely felt like just one more mission. There's no real feeling of completion like there is in D2's DLCs, at least partly because D1 is very sparse on cut scenes and character interactions. It feels like you kill Oryx and no-one gives a damn because there's so few character moments to round it off. 'Oh, killed a Hive god? Must be Tuesday.'

The trend of not explaining anything continues. Several of TTK missions leading up to killing Oryx involve Eris shouting at us repeatedly that 'you must become ascendant to follow Oryx!'. No, she will not be explaining what it means to be Ascendant or why it is so important (I mean, I know because it's been nearly 10 years and I have read the lore, but if I hadn't it would be utterly baffling)

There are these patrols you can randomly get where you pick up a mysterious signal. They have several steps and require you to do random things to progress them - the patrol text is (deliberately) glitched and resolves as you get closer. For example, I had one where one of the steps was to do an emote, another step was to kill hobgoblins etc. I love this idea, do not get me wrong! I like the idea of picking up this random signal. But as far as I can tell, these patrols don't lead anywhere. At the end, Ghost says 'At least we know what the message says, even if we don't know who its from'. AND THEN NEVER TELLS YOU WHAT THE MESSAGE SAYS. I have to wonder if this was something that was meant to lead to content that got cut, or was a hook left that could be used for something in future. Possibly something to do with the Nine would have worked, given the random nature of the messages.

*sob* Getting good armour is such a pain. And confusing.

The jump down to the area with the first secret chest in VoG is *horrendous* especially since you can't mantle. There's no ledge to jump from opposie the entrance. (I have not run the whole D1 VoG, but you can break in by doing certain things without having to do the plates).

Who the hell decided that the destination material for Mars, a planet which is predominantly a red-brown colour, should be a RED-BROWN ROCK?!

The Good

One of the missions in the lead up to killing Oryx involves you having to stealth through Crota's End raid area to steal a piece of his soul. The enemies have a red ring around them you need to avoid or you'll be seen. It's actually pretty cool! very atmospheric too, and nice to have a mission which isn't about brute forcing your way through enemies. I think the stealth system would need some tweaking to make it genuinely fun for more than a one-off thing, but it was a nice change of pace!

The Dreadnaught is a really awesome patrol area. It feels huge, there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore, hidden bridges you need Ghost to see, tunnels to crawl through. Plenty of secrets. Gloriously creepy. I am not even close to finishing exploring (at least partly because I keep getting lost - my sense of direction is garbage in games)

There are different Vanguard Strike playlists available: Legacy, Taken King, and SIVA crisis. Vanguard strikes are different depending on where you are in the story!!! I did not know this going in. There's one strike I've done a few times on the Legacy playlist, where a Fallen Archon escapes from the Prison of Elders. I got it yesterday on the Taken King playlist. Starts out the same, then partway through you go into a cave system. Previously, those caves have involved fighting Vex. Went in last night and it's full of Taken! That was a shock. And progressing, the rest of the strike is full of blights and when you reach the Archon fight, the Archon has been taken! It was a really cool thing to experience, especially going in without knowing beforehand. Doing something I thought I was familiar with and having it change up on me was great. Similarly, the Omnigul strike (the one the Disgraced strike is based off). The dialogue has changed up to kind of move the timeline and have it set after Oryx's fall, and the first room, which has previously contained only Eliksni... now you get ambushed by Hive too! I really love the idea of Vanguard strikes evolving with the storyline - it makes them feel more connected to the world state. I know we've had updates for Lake of Shadows and Arms Dealer in a similar way, but god i would love more!

The vault is split into sections so you can see just your armour, just your weapons, just your other assorted junk, instead of one 600 space mess.

I am getting so much practice using Golden Gun. In D2 I have used Blade Barrage almost exclusively, but since starting D1, where Blade Barrage does not exist, I've started using Deadshot in D2 as well and I'm having fun with it! I even got into a crucible match in D2 and got several golden gun kills which was nice!

I'm more willing now to use supers in D2 instead of always saving them for the boss XD It is a space magic game and I should use the space magic more.

Other Thoughts

I cannot decide how I feel about the currencies+destination materials On the one hand, I am constantly running out of glimmer. It's much more scarce and hard to get and the amount you can carry is much much lower (25K I believe) and you need it for levelling up weapons and armour just to get the perks. Collecting destination materials is necessary and can be kind of a slog (also you need different Ghost Shells to get the trackers for different materials). I know getting the exotic swords later is gonna be painful because you need to get a material that has a low drop rate. Legendary Marks are random drops from doing activities too, and you need them to buy any legendary gear. You can hold 200 of them at a time, and some of the stuff costs 175 Marks. On the other hand, it makes acquiring weapons and armour something a bit more special and valuable. In D2 I can just go to Banshee and buy whatever I want, and make that glimmer back in approximately ten seconds on any destination. I currently have max engrams with all the seasonal vendors, and a whole lot with the ritual vendors and I decode them just to junk whatever comes up a lot of the time. Destination materials... exist. And have no real use. I feel like the ease of acquiring weapons in D2 means I don't appreciate them. And I don't branch out and try new weapons much. I junk the majority of the random drops I get without even bothering to look. In D1 I end up trying out pretty much any purple weapon that comes my way because I don't have that many to choose from. Needing to acquire destination materials means that I spend more time exploring and poking into places I wouldn't normally bother to in D2. Will that side room on the dreadnaught have Hadium flakes for me? IDK, better check it out because I need them! So my rate of play feels more leisurely - wandering a patrol zone without any real purpose feels more rewarding, even when I'm returning to places like the Cosmodrome. So yeah, conflicted about this. We'll see how I feel later on when I have played many more hours of D1

y'know, I would love it if they brought the Dreadnaught back as a destination, maybe for Episode Heresy (the Hive one) after Final Shape. But not the Dreadnaught as it is in D1 - the Dreadnaught after 10 years of being derelict, picked over by scavengers, fought over by different Hive factions, slowly rotting after the death of its master. I think there's a lot that could be done with it - new Hive cults forming in the depths? Taken monstrosities? Some of the descriptions of areas on the Dreadnaught also talk about how Oryx kept specimens from conquered/destroyed species there, and tortured and experimented on them. Ghost at one point comments that there are things even the Hive fear and have yet to be able to weaponise. So... what else is still trapped on the Dreadnaught?

Shaxx has a line when you bring him Oryx's sword Shaxx: That sword shard you carry... is that the dreaded Willbreaker, Sword of Oryx? I have not seen such a blade in many years, Guardians.' I know it doubtless means 'hey, I was on the moon during the Great Disaster. I saw some shit', but the way it's phrased is so specific that it's a great jumping off point for fic ideas XD

[lappeldudive]

(Note: Because something stops me from sending my 2599 word worth rant in this site I need to do it in parts. This is the part where I will be talking about Jade and Stalker/Sorren)

I really cannot belive that this is my first post on this blog. Like, sure I was thinking about starting a blog where I talked about my interests and made some lame jokes but. Oh god and above... This will be very long.

First things first, this is not an second account. This is my first and probably will be only account. I really didn't think that I would start using tumblr like that but this whole debate about Jade Shadows update was starting to get tiring for me. I had a lot of opinions I wished to voice and hogling peoples comments is and was not a great way to do this. This is not me explaning things about Jade shadow or blaming people this is rather than a rant about how people approach this quest and also some things I think needs to be mentioned. If my words "sounds" upsetting or annoyed to the people who might seems like I set my target on their face no. This is NOT that kind of rant. I will only use sentences that I see online people arguing about all of this. HERE, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY PEOPLE BE TARGETEN BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY DEFEND.

TW: Mentions of pregnancy, difficulties about pregnancy, some personal stuff that could be triggering for people, some upsetting view about Jade shadow for some people,mentions of trauma related topics about pregnancy and birth.

!!!!! Beware !!!!!

So here we go.

[JADE SHADOW SPOİLERS]

Welp. As for most of the community this was some unexpected event to play in my eyes. A Pregnant Warframe, Operator literally helping giving birth and such. Lots of people made lots of points about the whole quest. And I think most of them were right. Especially the ones about quest being too short so I won't get into these in here. But if you guys wanna know more about I will tell my opinions only about the Jade Shadows quest later. If we get something maybe like The Silver Groove most of the community would be much happy with the results.

But people, let me tell you something. In my and I know for a fact that in everyones eye most of the quest that only focuses of warframes are kind of... Weird? Not enough? Yeah we have some examples like Silver Groove or Octavia's anthem or Sand of Inaros Deadlock Protocol and others. But those quest wasn't only about warframes. They had stories that include a very specific Warframe that had somewhat important role in storyline. I'm talking about the quests like Hidden Message or Limbo's Theorem. This two is somewhat more closer Jade Shadow then the other examples and I think people who read this knows what to say about this. When something that Involves only Warframe and Warframe themselves mostly do not reach the expectation. And I think DE needs to take this as a lesson and try to get better about quest like these. Maybe after that things wouldn't be this chaotic after every warframe related quests. Also squeezing two warframes in a one little quest did make everything much weirder. Because while people trying to understand what Jade was we suddenly had Stalker/Sorren in our hands with a very complicated motives. Also because of how things changed in some newer quest I think people forget how Warframe explain it lore to us. Warframe as a game does not say things in straight forward you need to fetch information about lore from various places. In early game people learn about Valkry this way and until The New War there was a lot of mechanics that you need to use in order to get some info about characters (Like Cephalon Segments or Kuria). And some new added things also follows this thing (Like Citrine and Dante missions.). But there was a lot of change in quest wise. So seeing that kind of explation might cause some huge misundertanding. And even if it was the people who made these changes, it can be thought that the majority owes an apology on this issue. Since they played with their own fanbase.

Before going any deeper lets start to discuss my main problems with this quest. First thing first. Jade

For me Jade was a different aprroach to things. We see a mother who is down to do everything even though she does not have a blood related bond with her many child. Lotus has her flaws but as an caring mother figure she is very good. If this quest was a bit longer it would be very interesting to see Hunhow and Lotus guiding us would be amazing. But again, as for Jade. People tend to say her characterization is only about being a caring mother. Which I don't really agree on but because how quest portrayed her it is very easy to fall in that assumption. They did not do justice to her. She was lacking personality and screentime (a screentime not laying like a lifeless puppet but being in action) but was this sexist or a move just to make all of the Stalker's "redemption arc" better? No. Jade was suppose to be her own person. You can see this in flashbacks but somehow they decided to hide her reasonings behind giving birth to their kid. What important role did she played? That part was just a mess. But there's still a hope if DE notices this big loophole and decides making a actual quest about Jade herself. I think she is an interesting character. A mother, a person who creates life while being the embodiment of death. They could play with her personality and her own motives to create justified version of this quest. For her I don't have anything that I remember that I wished to say right now. If you have any questions or thought that I did not said about Jade you could write them in comments. I will try to say my opinion as good as possible about that.

And now as for Sorren/Stalker. I really don't have to say a lot about. Even though we got more information about him than Jade, he is still a character that will continue to be a mystery. It seemed a bit ridiculous to me that the newly added information added more questions to our previous ones instead of enlightening us, and that Stalker was more expressionless than in Second Dream, despite the "sad spouse trope" that was constantly tried to be introduced throughout the quest. Also why him and Hunhow somewhat seemed distant in this quest? It's not like they were all hughy wuggy before but they way Hunhow talked with him and how less we Heard from Hunhow who did all the speaking for Stalker in other quests seemed... kind of weird. Also I've noticed some people saying "Stalker Betrayed his Lords". Orokin is just a messed up empire of bastards. You've seen how Ballas not only played with us but also Erra and Natah. Or predicted but not fully canon Alad V who literally notorious for constantly changing sides. Orokin would do aynthing to gain their profit. Even though Stalker is a low class Orokin soldier it could be expected that he only wanted help from us. Quest may make it seem like he's given up on attacking us or something like that, but Stalker is still the same Stalker. But even though I've said that I do not get any parental vibe from Stalker. Just like Jade, I'm not sure if we can get any other information unless there is another quest or maybe a mission.

[lucere-aeresta]

Headcanon: the angel who became Crowley.

Crowley, this guy is kind of...well, VERY important. Like, he had a hand in the creation of the world, which is supposed to be God's own feat, and when he became a demon he tempted Eve as a serpent, which is mostly attributed to Satan himself.

What a guy.

I know, a show needs to be dramatic about the characters, but Azi didn't get all the glorious deeds. Crowley did.

It was widely believed that Crowley used to be Raphael, but Neil Gaiman made it clear that was not true in an FAQ. Also, Raphael never fell from heaven. Doesn't make sense he becomes a demon. I know GO is creative about what the characters do or who/what they are, but at least until now, it sticks tightly with the real-world canon (whatever that is) about who is an angel and who is a demon. I personally think either archangel Raphael will show up later in S3, or simply because Azi's name is derived from this one so they avoided it.

Another theory is that he is Gadreel, who, as described in The Book of Enoch, "led Eve astray". Considering Gadreel is also one of the five satans or five lesser satans (satan being a title rather than a specific entity), it sounds promising. The only problem I have with this theory is that he is not that important as an angel. Like, he was not mentioned being an archangel but merely one of the Watchers, and the reason he fell was having sex with human women, which, of course, can be ignored for the purpose of creativity; but still, not a very famous angel.

Essentially, nobody has heard of him. From the perspective of a scriptwriter: if the identity of Angel Crowly is to be revealed, it's better to give him a name more known to the audience than just make him a random dude buried in the mountain of apocalyptic literature.

(If you want to be all nerdy about it, the "led Eve astray" doesn't even make sense, since it was sandwiched between all the other things Gadreel did: teaching humans "all the blows of death" and showing humans all kinds of weapons and war stuff, etc. By its contextual logic, if "led Eve astray" shows up as the first deed/crime of his, then it is likely to refer to the temptation in Eden; but in its current context, it sounds to me like he taught Eve something about killing or death or something to that nature.)

Anyway, I don't think Gadreel is the answer. Of course, I am not against this interpretation--I'm not against any headcanon and/or ideas about his identity; I just personally don't find it satisfying.

For me, the question is as simple as "Who has appeared in various texts and lore as both an archangel and has fallen to become an archdemon?" (Other than Lucifer/Satan himself.)

The first one that came to my mind? Samael.

And yes, in some lore he assumed the form of the snake and tempted Adam and Even--it was also he planted the Tree of Knowledge before his fall, which sounds close enough to say he participated in the creation of the world itself.

Sometimes Samael is identified as Satan, or at least largely functions as Satan, the accuser, the adversary. He leads the fallen angels, goes about to attempt humans, and creates demon children with Lilith.

On the other hand, in a lot of ancient literature, he is depicted as an archangel who rules over a significant portion of God's realms, sometimes even one of the Seven Archangels of God. Even nowadays you can still find Archangel Samiel (a variation of his name) shown in a few churches.

The significant role Samael plays as both a demon and an angel, as well as his duality presented in various traditions and literature, convinces me that he could be a good candidate for Crowley's hidden identity. Of course, Samael's fame as the "angel of death" doesn't fit Crowley, but, well, it's GO we are talking about. Gotta take some liberty.

I wish there was a fallen angel with a proper angel name--all the fallen angels have names that appear to be against God, indicating that their names might have been changed after the fall. It's really hard to find one. But I think Samael can pass this one: his name means "venom of God", kind of indicating he is not really a bad guy but just serving God in his own way, which is believed true in some traditions. (And, in the book of Job, Satan is not an enemy but the accuser who got God's permission. In GO it was Crowley who messed with Job--he is essentially doing all the Satan things.) Also, since even the churches are alright with archangel Samiel, I don't have anything to complain.

Btw, Gadreel passes this one too. His name means "wall of God", even better.

I also like the idea to use some characters like Raphael, an archangel who's never fallen, to emphasize his glorious past and to avoid a hidden demon identity (which is tricky but can be explained as he got beef with Hell and didn't want to be seen as the prominent demon anymore so he just uses an alias). I just have a hard time finding a fitting character like that and somehow Raphael doesn't feel right (also rejected by Gaiman himself, but that's only secondary).

Samael is the closest I can get. I am curious to see his angelic identity revealed in S3, if it's ever going to be.

PS: I was wondering why they didn't give Azi a typical angel name, something ends with "el", meaning God. I thought it was indicating that he is not within the high-rank angels or he is going to fall or something in S3, but in the FAQ it seems...that's just a random decision? Well, I know I'm always looking into these things too seriously lol