#put a move on you and then supposedly betrayed his faction to follow you

[janiedean]

nothing like seeing people still saying jon/ygritte was an abusive rship in my *recommended* posts in the year of the lord 2024 anyway I had missed instant blocking people just scrolling the dashboard

[agentrouka-blog]

What do you think about the conditions at Wall after Jon death? How do you think Jon will handle things after he gonna resurrected because it gonna mess as he was mediator between wildlings and NW?

Hi anon!

I have no real ideas here. It depends on how much Bowen Marsh and his co-conspirators had actually planned for the aftermath?

Just before the assassination, Jon makes sure to inform every last of them that Stannis was supposedly killed "with all his strength", by reading the Pink Letter aloud in the Shield Hall.

We know Bowen Marsh strongly disapproved of how closely Jon was tying the fortunes of the Watch to Stannis' fate. This news, along with Jon being grievously injured will absolutely dominate the immediate aftermath of Jon XIII.

(TL;DR: You're asking me?)

Stannis "death" leaves Selyse and Shireen is a very vulnerable position, same with Melisandre. The wildlings are not likely to be fond of them, either. But the wildlings have been integrated into the structure of the Watch, and not all black brothers disapprove of that. The structures Jon tried to put into place aren't actually that unstable, so I don't think it'll all collapse into chaos. They know they have a common foe, and they have had some time to get used to each other.

Perchance the conspirators vastly overestimated how welcome their actions will be in the eyes of the Watch. Either they take over and there is a truly dangerous stand-off between the various factions, or they will meet a surprisingly swift end before Jon is even awake.

Then there is Hardhome.

"But now I find I cannot go to Hardhome. The ranging will be led by Tormund Giantsbane, known to you all. I have promised him as many men as he requires."

"And where will you be, crow?" Borroq thundered. "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog?" (ASOS, Jon XIII)

Jon's bestie here has a clear mandate to save the thousands of civilians, and it's unlikely he'll just abandon that plan entirely. Time is of the essence. So a number of wildlings will likely still march North and simply try to use the wildling castles as their base instead of Castle Black. If they manage to save them, there will be a LOT of desperate wildlings at the Wall, demanding the return of their enslaved women and children from Essos. Will they stay at the Wall or try to gain help elsewhere?

Jon, meanwhile, one could surmise from this unprovoked little line, will "hide" at Castle Black, his spirit warged into Ghost. His body (which I expect to be magically comatose like Bran had been) could be cared for by loyal friends like Satin or Val. Tormund took his people to the next castle east, Oakenshield, another potential destination. Perhaps his survival might be obscured from his enemies by burning another body in his stead, leading to later rumors of a resurrection.

Monster remains an official royal hostage along with Val. Does Selyse try to keep them part of her household? For all I know, Selyse might remove from Castle Black post haste, maybe to the Nightfort, which Jon "ceded" to Stannis.

"This is the king's true heir. Shireen will one day sit the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms. She must be kept from harm, and Eastwatch is where the attack will come. This Nightfort is the place my husband has chosen for our seat, and there we shall abide. We—oh!" (ADWD, Jon IX)

There she could be found by the returning Tycho Nestoris, and by Justin Massey (with Alysanne Mormont and Jeyne Poole), who had been tasked with travellling to Braavos to hire sellswords with Iron Bank money to secure Shireen's throne. But will he truly do that when he learns Stannis is supposedly dead, or will his personal ambitions interfere? He has been counseling caution and self-preservation all this time.

What happens to Jeyne Poole, known as "Arya", another royal ward now, officially wed to Ramsay? How much pressure will the Northern mountain clans exert on her behalf? Mel's influence here will be crucial for Selyse, but perhaps no longer respected by many others. How many R'hllor followers will stay loyal if their Azor Aai is gone? How will the actual events around Winterfell play into this? All of this eventually leads to the burning of Shireen.

Say, Jon can't stay down and out for too long, but he is unlikley to be immediately lucid if he's been in a prolonged warg-state, plus his injuries will require some recovery time. Events will have moved along quite dramatically by the time he reappears, and there is no telling how any but his closest confidants will react to the idea of a "resurrected" warg Lord Commander, so I doubt he will actually remain that beyond potentially trying to exact justice for the worst transgressions that take place in the meantime.

In general, I see Jon's path leading away from the Wall. I don't actually think he will reunite with Sansa there, I think he will be drawn into the political arc around Winterfell and House Bolton, if only indirectly, and he will be preoccupied with the immediate trauma of having been violently betrayed, of having warged, of whatever spiritual journey he undertakes in his recovery, etc. He will be much more volatile than before the stabbing. If the Watch doesn't want him, it doesn't mean that he'll give up on wanting to prepare the North for the impending ice threat.

And that's not even counting how the Northern Lords will eye Jon as Ned's remaining son, if he is known to be released from the Watch. Manderly sent for Rickon, the clans rode for Ned's daughter, now there's a kid of an age with the late Robb Stark, with leadership experience and his self-forged connections, the Stark look and a fierce wolf. Some will try to move him into a leadership position, others may eye him warily as a potential Ramsay.

Then we have Theon running around with Asha, no doubt. And Sansa riding in on a dying horse. Rickon and Davos.

It's going to be interesting.

[irandrura]

Around 13 hours in, at the Garif Village:

There are still elements of the plot that make much more sense in hindsight. Ashe’s visions of Rasler were unclear on the first playthrough; but now I know that the Occuria are sending them to try to manipulate Ashe into destroying Archades with nethicite, in order to stop Cid and Venat from using their nethicite research to overthrow them, I can see where the visions are leading. In other words, the visious have moved from being vaguely sad and ominous to being interpretable as moves in a game of power politics. The Occuria are the closest FFXII has to visible or active ‘gods’, and even they are concerned with relatively straightforward matters of political power and ambition.

(I do mean to write a post about religion or divinity in this game, since I remember finding that an odd topic, but I think it might have to wait until Bur-Omisace.)

However, what stands out to me most strongly at this point is the game’s emphasis on motivation.

Put simply, none of the heroes seem to be very clear on why they’re doing any of this.

Well, for half of them, at least. Fran, Basch, and Penelo all have motives that boil down to “follow and help the person I am loyal to”. They’re there because of another character. But the people they follow – Balthier, Ashe, and Vaan – all have quite ambiguous motives that they themselves don’t even seem to understand. The game has gone to some effort to establish plausible reasons for each character to be on this quest, but then it keeps coming back and problematising them.

Based on Vaan’s prior words and actions, there are a range of reasons he could be here. He could be just seeking adventure. He could be trying to become a sky pirate: either by obtaining enough wealth from this adventure to buy his own ship, or by tagging along and learning from Balthier. He could be acting as a Dalmascan patriot, either seeking revenge on Archades or liberation from Dalmasca. In that light he could be tagging along with Ashe’s resistance, or following Basch out of a desire to avenge Reks. Any one of those reasons, in a different game, could be enough for his character arc. Here, though, Vaan seems to often change his mind. When Balthier asks him why he’s here in Rabanastre, Vaan is lost for words; and in Jahara, the best Vaan can come up with is “I need answers, and I think I can figure them out if I keep following you.”

In some ways I quite like this, and even find it more psychologically credible than heroes of other games. Vaan’s only seventeen: he’s still figuring out who he is. If I remember myself at that age, I didn’t know who I was going to be or what I wanted. I was exploring a lot of different possibilities, and following the paths that seemed interesting, in the hope that my purpose might become clearer over time. The same is true for Vaan.

Balthier, on the other hand, is more enigmatic. Noticeably I haven’t seen any ‘personal’ scenes with him thus far. He puts up a glib, confident front, and unlike Vaan or Ashe, hasn’t shown much of his deeper self to the player. This makes him more of a cipher. The surface interpretation of Balthier – and the one that Ashe expresses to Vossler in Raithwall’s tomb – is that he’s just after money. However, for a supposedly mercenary character, Balthier doesn’t seem to care that much about it. He was lured into the tomb expedition with the promise of Raithwall’s treasure, but when he discovers that treasure is just a summon, he offers nothing more than a snarky quip. He doesn’t seem at all irritated to be denied the treasure he was promised. As we go on we see Balthier going to pretty extreme lengths to help out, even though the payment seems far too meagre. He demands Ashe’s ring as payment for going to Jahara, but would a single ring be worth very much? He says he’ll return it if he finds “something more valuable”, but he doesn’t appear to have any idea of what that might be. The impression one gets is that he only asks for the ring in order to test Ashe’s commitment to her beliefs – but why would a mercenary care about that? And finally in Jahara, when Basch rightfully calls him on his motives, Balthier changes his story again and claims he’s just in it to see where the story goes.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I can speculate that at least part of his reason for being here is daddy issues. Even so, the idea that helping Ashe’s quest would lead to Cid or any resolution of his family issues is pretty far-fetched: this is a very circuitous route to Draklor. Beyond that, Balthier’s been running from his father, so why he’d want to change directions now is even more unclear. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that, like Vaan, Balthier doesn’t really know why he’s here at all. He’s an older man so it’s less likely to be youthful confusion. Is he driven to stay by some fascination that he himself doesn’t understand?

I am vaguely aware of a reading of FFXII that sees romantic subtext between Balthier and Ashe, which might give him a further reason to stay. All I can say here is that so far I can see no subtext like that. In a different story I can imagine the ring scene coming off like that, but so far Balthier has shown pretty much zero interest in Ashe as a person, and similarly zero sign that he even considers her attractive, so I tend to stick with the mercenary interpretation. I might have more thoughts on shipping later in the game, but right now I see nothing that isn’t just blatant eisegesis.

That leaves Ashe. She is, I would argue, the closest thing FFXII has to a ‘hero’ or ‘protagonist’, and on one level her motive is very obvious. Ashe wants to drive out the Empire and re-establish a free and independent Dalmasca with herself as queen. The thing is, though, that’s very easy to state – and very difficult to work out in practice. So far Ashe is very good at making dramatic resolutions and projecting confidence, but they often don’t seem very well thought out, and she finds herself needing to change her mind. The most dramatic instance would be Ashe’s declaration that the Dawn Shard will be her sword against the Empire – and retreating when Vaan points out that she has no idea how to use it, or even how it works.

It’s also striking, of course, that Ashe made that bold promise to use what is to all intents and purposes a magical nuclear bomb against Archades, and then a few scenes later, in the Garif village, she’s willing to listen to Larsa and go with his proposal to establish a negotiated Archadian withdrawal. And this also soon after she felt so betrayed by Vossler’s attempt to negotiate an Archadian withdrawal and independent Dalmasca! What’s going on in Ashe’s head? Does she hate the Empire or not? Back in Bhujerba she was pleading with Ondore to support an open resistance movement, and now she seems to accept Larsa’s claim that they need to stop Ondore launching a revolt.

It’s hard to resist the conclusion that while Ashe wants to be queen of a free Dalmasca, she has no earthly clue how to achieve that. She’s being buffeted around by the winds of fate, grasping at the first thing in front of her that seems like it might help. I think it shows that Ashe has been raised to be a princess, to project confidence and duty in public, but underneath that she’s still a young woman who’s in way over her head. She knows she’s surrounded by cunning and patient older men who’d love to use her as a figurehead to boot. Ashe is skeptical of those demands from outside, but she still follows a path laid out for her by others – Vossler, Ondore, Larsa, and ultimately the Rasler vision and the Occuria – because she hasn’t yet figured out what her own path should be.

So ultimately, what’s striking me most about FFXII right now is that I’m following a party of characters none of whom seem to clearly understand what they’re questing for or why.

It’s cleverer and more subversive than I remember. The quest motif is everywhere in fantasy, but in the traditional, Tolkien-inspired form, it’s usually very clear what the goal is and how it will be achieved. The Lord of the Rings outlines the quest of the Ring halfway through the first volume and the heroes never substantially deviate from it. The challenge is to accomplish the quest. Most follow-up fantasy has a similar clarity to it, especially in video games. In the original Final Fantasy you want to light the orbs and defeat the fiends. In Dragon Age you want to stop the Blight. In every Star Wars game ever, you want to defeat the Empire and/or dark Sith lord. In The Legend of Zelda you want to defeat Ganon. In Chrono Trigger you want to stop Lavos. In The Elder Scrolls you want to stop Dagoth Ur/Mehrunes Dagon/Alduin. There’s a clear goal (defeat the bad guy) and a clear process for accomplishing it (defeat the lesser monsters, unite the various factions, collect all the magic tokens, etc.).

In FFXII, the challenge is to figure out what the hell your quest should be

It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

[thestoryof-officially]

Day 308 - Robotic

Day 308 - Robotic: Write about a robot.

This one immediately made me think about a particularly impactful dance performance I saw a few years ago. A lot of us probably know him, Merrick Hanna. His audition dance on America's Got Talent was about a robot, and we saw him dance to the story of the robot being built, played with, then forgotten and left behind. It was, in my opinion, very beautiful, and very sad, and definitely left a lot to be thought about. So that, of course is one idea. Write about the dance. Or write about the life of a robot. Maybe tell a story through a robot's eyes! Or write a poem about a robot, or about someone like a robot. Really, I think all my ideas usually boil down to short story or poem, but no one else's has to! This one opens a world that takes us back to childhood, I think, and there's so much to think about in that context.

Entry below!

~~~

Nine years ago, I was running from a guard and literally ran into him. It? Him. He, this robot, I mean, had more humanity than anyone I’d spoken to since I was 11. Without even questioning what was happening, he grabbed my hand, pulled me into the bushes, and got me out of trouble. The guard ran by cluelessly and never found us. We became best friends.

Six years ago, we got caught in the war. We were “the bad guys” because we were fighting the government, who was sapping power from anywhere it could be found. I got shot at. He took the hit and lost an arm. I was suddenly really glad he couldn’t feel things like we could.

Four years ago, he started becoming less human. I suppose that’s a poor choice of words considering he was never human to begin with, but the kindness I’d seen in him five years previously had simply disappeared. He became gruffer. The second glance he gave people ceased to exist. He almost completely stopped talking to me, and it was like all the things we’d been through as best friends stopped mattering.

Three years ago, the little lights that told me his systems were running started flickering. His joints became stiffer and he truly began to move like a robot. His replaced arm was the only thing that worked like new, and even then its movements became stiffer and more calculated, yet less careful. It was the last time he spoke a word to me or anyone.

Two years ago, he shot me in the leg. When I cried out, I saw a flicker of recognition in him. He looked guilty. He looked sad. And then it was gone. He turned his back on me, and was pulled in by the government’s system of robotic forces. He stood next to army bots and technology years ahead of him. He stood next to the bots that shot off his arm. He stood next to their Admiral, who just happened to be the guard I was running from so many years ago. And in that moment, ‘he’ truly became an ‘it’.

A year ago, I started to question the war. I used to think robots could be as good and as human as... As… Well, as other humans. I thought they could be kind! I thought they had heart! But I travelled the country side, with a limp, by myself. I became bitter. It was out of sheer will of mind that I didn’t shoot down every robot I saw. I don’t know why. They were unfeeling. Those that had been recruited by the government didn’t care, they killed without thought. They were ruthless and cruel, and I didn’t want anything to do with any of them. Not a single one.

Six months ago, it came back. This time he- it was running from the Admiral that he’d been oh-soooo-loyal to. The irony of him- IT- running into me and running from the very same person was almost laughable. I don’t know why I followed that stupid parallel. I don’t know why I pulled… it, aside, into the bushes, and kept us hidden until the Admiral was gone. I don’t know why… why it wanted to talk to me. Why it started talking again. Why the lights still flickered but looked alive again. But he- it betrayed me! It left! I don’t want anything to do with him- WITH IT! Ever! Again!

Four months ago, I gave up. This robot hasn’t stopped talking since it found me. It talks more than it did before it went silent years ago. It goes on and on and on about why it left me, about how it wished it had never shot me, about how the arm I made it after it got shot was the best thing it had, how it wanted another chance, how it knew what was going on within the governmental forces- and that’s when I gave up. That information was valuable, and I’d let it tag along this long.This was the only reason I was going to start listening. It was the ONLY reason.

Two months ago I gave him another chance. It was… He was once my friend, and he was respectful of me and my boundaries. He’s spent so much time trying to fix the things he messed up, how could I not- Anyway, with his help, we discovered a weakness at the center of the entire government’s power system. There was this massive building at the base of it all that provided some kind of wireless control and power generation to every single one of the government built army bots. As well as their biggest weaponry, their heaviest machinery, and their most dangerous tools. It’s safeguarded to everything we can think of, though. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but somehow having my… my friend, back, is- it opens up a side of me I forgot I had and I think we might have a chance at this.

One month ago the entire world was strapped to a time bomb. The government has been producing army bots at a rate faster than I can blink my eyes, and their weaponry has become so powerful we don’t have anything, anywhere, to rival it. Other world powers are too afraid to intervene. Anyone that doesn’t ally with this government is eradicated. Our small band of rebels grows smaller every day because people are afraid. There’s promise of protection and freedom should you join that side, but it’s a lie. I know it’s a lie. My best friend knows it’s a lie. He knows first hand that it’s a lie. And if they win, they will bleed every resource dry, they will kill anyone, man, woman, or child, that chooses not to stand with them, and they will have absolute control of everyone on their “team”. Factions and groups of lower ranked people within their control are already being separated out, and I can see that they are neither protected nor free. There’s so much discrimination. There’s so much control. The army bots create so much fear, and the coming generations are spending their childhoods in filth ridden villages with barely any food or shelter, much less education or freedom. And when I see my best friend reacting to these things so emotionally and passionately, it’s like he never left.

A week ago, we infiltrated the government system. We hid in one of their abandoned underground tunnels and set a plan in place. We don’t know if it will work, but given how little time we have left… this is our best shot.

Six days ago, he told me it wouldn’t work. He told me it couldn’t work, that something like it had already been tried. Words and fists were thrown his way, but he never hit me back and I ran away without looking where I was going.

Five days ago I sat in a cell and tried to understand why draining the power system wouldn’t shut down their Source. He found me and told me he was getting me out. When he couldn’t figure out the cell’s lock code, he jammed his hand into it, the one on the arm I made him so long ago, and sent in a pulse of energy that overwhelmed and shut down the systems. The cell door all but flew open and we made our escape. Suddenly I understood.

Four days ago, we put together a plan. We tried to contact our other known rebel forces and allies, but none responded. It was down to us. He knew what needed to get done, and I knew what needed to get done. As long as we were precise and timely about it, we could get in, shut it down, get out, and hopefully things would unravel to our benefit from there. All we had to do was get ahold of the relic, supposedly half of… something, whose other half powered the Source. If we could get it, we could overwhelm the Source and destroy it. It was almost too simple.

Three days ago, he managed to find the relic but couldn’t touch it. He said as soon as he touched it he felt his own power source spike. We had to replan a little bit, and close to midnight I went back to get it myself, after I taught him how to keep track of our hack into the security cameras. The guards were still looking for their ‘escaped prisoner’.

Two days ago the guards found their escaped prisoner. I managed to get the relic to him last night, but when I was wandering around in the early hours I was found. They shot me. In my bad leg. And I think they figured out that I have a ‘companion’ hiding somewhere underground. I hope he stays hidden. 

Yesterday he came to find me. The guards never even had to look. Since he could watch the security cameras, he figured out where I was. He wrapped up the relic and came to me. We were too close to being out of time for him not to, and then he got caught too. I can’t believe I let this happen! I think we’re in over our heads!

This morning we concocted a plan. The guards came to execute us and take back the relic. I’m surprised they didn’t take it back right off the bat. Anyway, as soon as they walked in, we attacked. Fighting alongside my best friend again, I was thrown back through memories and realized I knew this feeling. I knew it well. We’d done this sort of thing all the time. And I missed it.

Six hours ago we ran away from the holding cells, the relic tucked under my arm. We were too close to miss this, there was too much at stake!

Five hours ago we returned to our hiding spot underground for our things. It was crawling with guards. In the end we shrugged. We were returning to destroy my equipment. They’d done our work for us. Shame we’d be missing out on the last of those energy bars, though.

Four hours ago we tripped the alarms. At that point it was all or nothing. We ran at breakneck speed toward the center of the base, so out of breath I was afraid I’d pass out. Two turns from our destination a guard grabbed my leg and I felt my entire body come slamming down onto the ground. I dropped the relic and the sheet wrapped around it came off. It rolled away from me and hit my best friend’s foot as my head started to pound. He stopped and glanced back, realizing I wasn’t with him, and I yelled at him to take the relic and run. But he couldn’t do it. He tried to pick up the relic and his power source spiked again. The last thing I saw before my vision went black was guards coming in from all directions and grabbing him by the arms.

Two hours ago I woke up. Funnily enough, I lay right next to the Source. I heard an electronic humming, but it was- it was painful to listen to. Almost like nails scratching against a chalkboard, but somehow translated to the world of technology. I glance to my left. There are dozens of guards stationed around the entire room, at every doorway, against the walls, by every dip in the floor. I look to my right and gasp. He’s there, strapped to the floor. I realize belatedly that I am too. The relic is hanging by what looked like a thread over his chest, and little sparks of electricity and energy are fizzling and crackling around every bolt and wire in him. That’s the humming sound that’s making my head hurt so much, but it looks like it’s hurting him more. 

An hour ago, we met the man in charge. Rather, the robot in charge. Er, neither? He looked like he’d once been human, but more of him was robotic than organic. He tried to tell us that our relationship, a human and a robot being friends, was something as beautiful as he was. That we were meant to be fit together like one, and that what he was trying to do was make that more real, like him. When I tell you I took that as utter nonsense- As it is, I managed to pull one of my arms out of its restraints. The man laughed. He simply let me and my best friend out altogether, released the restraints. He invited us to try whatever it was that we were gonna try. I looked at my best friend and knew he wasn’t buying it either. Of course, I was right. I yanked the relic from its dangling position and ran at the Source. I touched the relic to it and… nothing happened. The relic glowed a little. It was rather pretty, but not particularly useful. Then the man laughed, something that sent a chill down my spine as it was neither human nor robot. The guards attacked us and he watched, amused. It was all a game to him.

30 minutes ago, I was shot. My head was bleeding. My leg was bleeding. My arm was bleeding. But I was alive. 

15 minutes ago, he got shot. We were running out of energy. I didn’t know how much longer we could hold them off.

Ten minutes ago the man took the relic and laughed as we were overwhelmed and backed into the Source.

Five minutes ago I got kicked away from my best friend and I couldn’t get back up. The guards were ordered to stillness and the man approached him menacingly.

Three minutes ago, my best friend got the relic back. His hands burned and sent up smoke as soon as he touched it. The man grew furious and ordered his men and the army bots to attack him and get the relic back. We made eye contact.

Two minutes ago he backed into the Source and held the relic to his chest. There was an explosion and all the lights when out.

A minute ago everyone went still except for me. The lights stayed out. The human guards became confused because their partners, the army bots, they all stopped working. The computers turned off, the Source went dark. But I couldn’t stop crying.

30 seconds ago I cradled my best friend in my arms. The glow of his power source was gone.

10 seconds ago I realized we won. He saved the world.

5 seconds ago I stopped being able to see through my tears.

Now I’m watching myself being pulled away from my best friend. We won. I lost.

~~~

This is most certainly among my longer entries for this daily prompt thing. And it's definitely not what I was planning to do. I meant it to be shorter for one, but the more I wrote, the more I got sucked into this story I was making as I went. About a quarter of the way through I knew I meant to have the robot die in the end. Rereading this I worry that differentiating characters is too difficult to do and that the progression of time doesn't make sense. I have it counting down the whole time, and the goal with this is to instill a sense of anxiousness. I want readers to see "five days ago" and start worrying because we're getting really close to right now, because we're getting really close to the presumed end. I want it to make you think about needing to know what happens next. I think the concept in and of itself could have been very successful in doing this. It's not necessarily unsuccessful now, but it's unrefined, and all of this came to me as I went so it may be a little more scattered and disorganized. In the end, I think I like it. I think I like the story it tells and I think it could be a lot of fun to play with another time in the future.