#so I know it's possible to do it right

[songsofbloodandwater]

So... I was checking out this "Astro-Herbalism mini-course". And I have thoughts. But not because of astrology, or it's intersection with herbalism. Because of the need that some people have on interpreting every single cultural framework as one singular all-encompassing thing. It's nonsense. And it bothers me because It turns your interpretation of literally anything into nonsense.

I think it's something people unconsciously learn to expect when interacting with religion or spirituality first because of cultural christianity, in the west. Particularly through the way most people are exposed to the bible. Uncritical. Most people take for unshakeable truth that the bible is one sacred text, passed down to humanity by God himself, and that it is perfect. No corrections, no biases, no nothing. It's one system, one perfect system. And that's plain wrong. There's multiple authors to the different texts of the bible that come from entirely different sociohistorical contexts, with entirely different rhetorical goals to their writing, and thus the interpretation of the text requires understanding that past sociohistorical context as best as is possible for us in the present. Which is why bible scholars exist. It's not one unified voice throughout and it is not one system. It's man-made literature, part of human culture, and it's subject to human flaws. If you don't take that into account when you're reading the bible, your interpretation of the texts isn't so much a reading of the text as it is an imposition of your own modern ideas into a text that never had anything to do with any of them in the first place.

Then, when they approach other cultures, other kinds of cultural knowledge, separate and different from christianity, they approach it with the same underlying culturally christian idea as their foundation of how to interpret other sacred texts. "This is sacred knowledge gifted to us by God (or the Gods) and it must be perfect, and unified in it's interpretation." And that, again, is bullshit. There is no reason under the vast Heavens why the cultural interpretations and systems of "East and West" or "North and South" must both be part of some "universal plan of God/s" bigger than humans' own minds and thoughts. That's cultural christianity. And even imperialistic thought. Must consume, must absorbe anything different into our own system type of imperialistic.

Trying to bring two systems together to complement each other, practicing them side by side, because you may find they give different answers to your different needs, I understand. But that is very different to what's happening here.

Saying that "jing, qi and shen" equals or corresponds to the "fixed, mutable and cardinal" modes of astrology? That's just doing both systems a disservice. If you interpret the western modes of astrology, or any concept from western astrology, through taoism, you're misunderstanding them. If you interpret any taoist concept through western astrological terms, you're misunderstanding them. You're imposing western ideas into a taoist concept and viceversa. In the end, you did not manage to convey to your audience what the astrological modes are, nor what the three treasures of taoism are, because both were grossly misrepresented in an attempt to force-unify them under one single system.

It's not all the same. And it doesn't have to be. Let cultural practices have differences, historically they have always had them, and they should continue to have them if we want to represent them faithfully and respectfully. Let people find medicine in their own ways, let them see the wide diversity of practices, beliefs and traditions, and choose what heals them based on their own particular needs and history. Diversity of practices and ideas is a good thing. Differences are a good thing. You don't need a single overarching theory, in fact, you can't have a single "theory of everything" for cultural phenomena without disrespecting the source cultural material.

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

Both Selfish; you each lose 2 points

You Selfish, prev Cooperative; You gain 2 points

You Cooperative, prev Selfish; You lose 1 point, prev gains 1 point

Both Cooperative; You Each gain 1 points

(ps make sure to say what you voted)

Making this post long so you have to scroll to see prev's tags.

[medusaesque]

The radicalization of Kim Kitsuragi

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Birthday to Fallen London; My favourite British people beefing it with bats simulator.

[divineandmajesticinone]

THE HEART KILLERS (2024) I EP. 3 "I want you. Nothing more than that."

[starry-bi-sky]

danyal al ghul memes because i don't think i've done those yet for this au.

(the jason one is in reference to the fanon headcanon/au that Jason and Damian potentially knew each other and interacted while jason was in the league. I've thought about it before in context of this au, but haven't thought about it enough to feel inspired or motivated to make a post exploring the idea)

(diablito means, as you can guess, 'little devil'. while i'm neutral to latino jason, i think the nickname is cute as fuck and was danny's main nickname from Jason. i don't wanna touch that timeline so im not gonna decide how old they were when Jason was there.)

Skulker: i am the ghost zone's greatest hunter! i capture and hunt creatures both rare and dangerous. Danyal: a poacher?? you're a poacher?? you poach animals??Skulker:...i sense i've made a mistake of some kind.

anyways that was the day that Skulker cemented himself as Danny's no.1 opp, and still remains there to this day even if he and Vlad are both viciously fighting for second. Out of everyone in the the AP rogues gallery, Skulker will be the first to be thrown under the bus in terms of 'o shit here comes phantom fucking RUN'.

[tennessoui]

cackling at the idea of anakin blurting out #27

very anakin fr

[from this prompt game!] [i've already done: 5. 'are you jealous?' & 46. 'hey have you seen my...?'

27. "I'm pregnant."

The minor princess currently touching Anakin's forearm has spent all night toeing the line between friendly and polite politician who feels understandably starstruck around two retired war generals on her tiny inconsequential planet and wants to ensure they enjoy the dance held in their honor and too friendly entitled princess who needs to back off, seeing as Anakin is a very happily taken man whose beloved is standing literally right next to him.

It's giving Anakin a headache, trying to discern her motive and trying to figure out a way to make it quite clear he has no interest in any sort of recreational pastime with her in any sort of unofficial capacity without causing some sort of galactic incident.

He'd promised his master and the Council: no more Galactic Incidents, at least until the next calendar year.

It doesn't help matters that Obi-Wan, who should be the most upset if this minor princess is really trying to lure Anakin into a dark corner for nefarious reasons, is doing nothing to aid him in this trying time. Even though they've made it quite clear to each other over the past six months that they're in an exclusive, loving, committed relationship that has no room whatsoever for princesses of any kind.

Maybe that's the problem, Anakin thinks morosely as the princess flags down a passing waiter and lifts two flutes of wine from his tray. Maybe Anakin's made Obi-Wan too secure in his love, and now he thinks all he has to do in these situations is stand there with his arms at his sides, smirking slightly and looking gorgeous.

"Anakin?" the princess prompts, offering the drink. Automatically, and for no reason Anakin can think of except for long forgotten instinct, he glances at Obi-Wan first, as if asking for permission from his father. As if he's not twenty-four years old, a war general, a Jedi Master, etcetera.

When Obi-Wan just inclines his head with glittering eyes and that damned smirk only partially hidden behind his own raised glass of wine, Anakin almost accepts the princess's offer. Because she's definitely offering much more than just a drink. Maybe she even dosed that drink with--with something. Something to make him more agreeable or pliable or--Anakin doesn't know. But something serious enough to wipe that smirk from the corner of Obi-Wan's stupidly kissable lips, that's for sure.

But then he looks back at the princess and categorizes instantly in his mind all the ways she is not his beloved, and he decides that despite Obi-Wan's general ability to be an ass, the last thing he wants to do is take the drink. Or, truly, remain in this conversation.

"Oh, no thank you," he tells her politely.

He remembers a second later when her eyebrows fly up her forehead and her mouth pinches into a tight, aristocratic line, that on this planet it is considered incredibly rude to reject a gift of any sort.

And he'd promised No Galactic Incidents.

"I'm pregnant," he adds. "So I cannot. Partake. Though it looks good. I mean, beautiful. I mean. I'm pregnant. Yes."

The princess's eyebrows fly higher. Beside him, Obi-Wan coughs rather violently. Due to swallowing his drink wrong or to hide a burst of laughter, Anakin doesn't know.

"Oh," the princess says. "I...was under the impression that humanoid males cannot carry offspring."

Anakin clears his throat and crosses his arms behind his back. He wonders if it'll be a more believable fiction should he place his hands over his abdomen, then he thinks about anyone seeing that ever and decides he'd rather lose his other flesh one to a lightsaber all over again.

"I'm from a desert planet in the Outer Rim, your highness," he tells her. " Tatooine, if you have heard of it. Many species there have evolved special biological traits over time to ensure survival. This is one of them. You understand, of course."

He isn't even sure the words he's saying make any sort of sense at all, and Obi-Wan has gone from being absolutely no help to being an incredible hinderance instead, standing completely silent next to him and Force signature blocked from their bond.

"Oh," the princess blinks and then blinks again. "I apologize, of course. I did not realize."

"You could not have," Anakin assures her, kindly in his opinion, and she makes herself scare only a handful of minutes later. Apparently as much as she'd appreciate bedding a war hero, she draws the line at bedding one with child.

This realization is enough to make Anakin wonder if perhaps he should pocket the excuse for the next time he's at one of these affairs and fighting for his life. After all, his lover has proven himself to be incredibly useless.

Speaking of which:

"Hope you enjoyed that," he mutters to Obi-Wan as he turns his back on the ballroom to glare more fully at his master. "Thanks so much for your support."

Obi-Wan blinks guilelessly at him, lifting his drink to take another sip. Purposeful now, probably. To show off that he can drink to soothe his nerves while Anakin won't be able to touch the stuff for the rest of the night.

"Please, have patience with me, Anakin love," Obi-Wan says. "I've just found out that I am to be a father. I'm in shock."

Anakin tightens his hold on his wrists behind his back. It's either that or shove his most beloved into the buffet table.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Imagine if Marvel has bamboozled us all into thinking we figured out their big plot twist of Teen being Billy Kaplan and then he’s revealed to actually be Nicholas Scratch

[coquelicoq]

it's about...longevity? stability? it's about natsume believing he'll be somewhere long enough to plant flowers and see them bloom. it's about him taking touko seriously when she asks him to tell her what flowers he wants to plant. it's about making something with his own hands, building a future with the fujiwaras. it's about him repairing a rundown home for someone else, restoring it because it's beloved to them, because it's the home of someone they love. it's about him seeing touko's joy and thinking about the youkai saying we'd like to look upon her happy face forever. it's about the box garden making him think of the fujiwaras' garden and his parents' garden, about the flowers being both the memory of flowers that bloomed there before, and the flowers that he and the youkai planted earlier that day. it's about him waking up in both worlds with sensei. it's about touko finding the petal in his hair. it's about him feeling how he falls short and the youkai saying, but you have such gentle hands...

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[toadletthethird]

Contrarian and Opportunist both use all pronouns, but for different reasons.

Contrarian does so because they saw the whole reality multiplying and breaking, how can they believe in any strong identity? + it's in his nature to break expected rules + she would want to try everything + they're stranger' ally + all other valid reasons y'know

Opportunist on the other hand does so just because he goes with anything people call him as long as they call him

"Gender is a social construct!" They both exclaim in unison, but one of their voices turns more and more into the triumphant villain laughter

[buckycap]

we haven't seen a dorian and orym who've confessed their feelings and have openly talked about how much they love and care about each other on the battlefield yet, dorian whose never felt this kind of love before but knows he has to protect it and orym who Has felt this kind of love before and has had it ripped away from him and is gonna do everything he possibly can to never have that love taken from him again and will hold onto it with a white knuckled grip

[lunarharp]

love's shadow will surround - 6k T orufrey fic about a witch and a silverleaf

He's left the lights of his small house on, his tiny atelier, waiting - he likes to see the glint of it on the leaves, his light reach the tree here. Give him what he can. It's always a comfort.

But when his physical senses are dulled, it brings it all back like fog, the flashes of memory. Of that day, all of them around the twisted body. He cups a few straggling branches, letting the hurt filter through him, almost as if keen to. They called him the Witch of Light in those days, eulogise his work still - but that was his masterpiece.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Peeped the horrors

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[praisethesuns]

theories about the watcher and what it entails

obligatory MASSIVE FUCKING SPOILERS under the cut. this post will discuss one of the endings of the campaign, the path required to get there, and what it means about the greater world of, well, rain world.

this is the product of a considerable amount of contemplation and thinking too hard; it is also just a theory for now although i really do think i am onto something. further information as more of the watcher releases may change things but i want to record what i've concluded so far for posterity.

to also note: i do not have the dlc myself, and most of my conclusions have been drawn from watching others' playthroughs and piecing together the game's mechanics and dialogue. if how exactly one goes about something in the watcher is inaccurate, that is my bad.

to also also note: i tend to be rather verbose when it comes to explaining things. i do hope it is not too grating.

SO WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE WATCHER'S SECOND* ENDING???

*i consider the "rot"/"prince" ending watcher's second ending, with the OAOA echo's (who i will be referring to from now on as top, due to their name in the files being implied to be "spinning top") as the first

for starters, i think a recap of what the second ending entails is pertinent - that explicitly stating what occurs is tantamount to untangling what precisely is going on.

---

the rot-prince's ending in the watcher campaign requires you to visit the outer rim and create rifts from it to the other new regions of the campaign, with every new rift to a region turning the latter region purple on the greater map. sheltering in these purple-marked regions results in purple rot encroaching further through these regions. creating rifts from these regions to other regions will spread the rot further; and reaching the ending requires most regions to be corrupted, followed by visiting the throne one final time.

returning to the throne several more times along the way, the watcher will meet the titular prince (again, that is what they are referred to in the files), first as a presence as they climb the tree, then as an individual (arguably even puppet? which i will expand on later), who can be spoken to and interacted with past a certain point.

on the final meeting, however, the prince's puppet will be silent and still. the world will warp, and karma flowers will bloom from their head. the following cutscene depicts thousands on thousands of karma flowers growing, the darkness and purple of the outer rim's rot overcome with golden light.

at this point, then - credits roll.

so what exactly happened here?

COLOUR THEORY, THE GREAT PROBLEM AND A BRIEF RETURN TO VANILLA - PRELUDE

to start, the rot we see throughout the watcher campaign is very clearly purple - a departure from the blue we see in vanilla's campaigns within five pebbles. this colour is present as a motif throughout all this path of the watcher's campaign - the purple of the corrupted regions, the purple of the rot.

but the presence of purple is especially notable because of one key thing - purple is the complementary colour of yellow (especially in the RYB colour model - and to note, blue is the complementary of yellow in the RGB model, but we will focus on the purple here)

yellow, a colour associated with many things in rain world. ascension, karma, enlightenment, void fluid. this places the purple of watcher's campaign as a very deliberate inversion of what we traditionally associate with the process of passing on that the ancients/forebears/benefactors idealized so much in rain world. and this inversion in and of itself inverts once more at the end of it all, as all the outer rim is overcome with yellow in the final cutscene.

granted, while i consider the downpour and watcher dlcs to be very mutually exclusive branches and expansions of vanilla, there is a particular mention of inversion in downpour that i think should be noted.

throughout the broadcasts of downpour, an iterator with the tag "NGI" repeatedly refers to a "transcendental inversion", pushing it as a theory towards the solution of the great problem. while they are disregarded by the other iterators in the chats, the idea of a transcendental inversion being heavily involved in the solution sounds rather familiar, no?

it's the final culmination of the prince's ending where all the purple in outer rim inverts to yellow.

(of course, for a more continuity-compliant piece of evidence, NGI's acronym has been translated in other languages to roughly mean "indigo" something - indigo, the colour between blue and purple on the spectrum. even if the inversion is not mentioned by them in canon vanilla itself, NGI's seemingly dismissable interjections may have more truth to them than their peers think.)

i believe the final cutscene of the prince's ending is us witnessing that very transcendental inversion - witnessing the triple affirmative and the solution to the great problem finally come to fruition, at the end of it all.

which is a rather steep task to fulfill! but at this point we should also dissect what precisely the great problem is, and what the triple affirmative entails.

the great problem involves allowing all the beings of the world to reach enlightenment - to allow every last living creature to thus reach ascension. this is not just for the ancients, but for the creatures as well - particularly the creatures, as the ancients believe that it is their obligation to the world to spread the capability for enlightenment.

the iterators are thus created to find a solution to this issue that fulfills the triple affirmative - affirmative that it has been found, affirmative that it is portable, and affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable - a method to enlighten/ascend all the world that is logistically feasible to implement and carry through.

so how does spreading the rot contribute to all this?

WIBBLY WOBBLY TIMEY WIMEY... STUFF

the regions in the watcher's campaign are scattered throughout time and throughout space. this is most apparent following top's story, as the watcher follows their path through both. it is this very shadowing of top that allows them to truly move on from their echoic state in the end.

but what i find most relevant to this theory is what happens when you meet top after creating a rift without the protection of a karma flower - something directly stated as "risky". they will comment on the state of the region - a corrupted, rot-infested version of a vanilla one - and they will say that all the world looks like this "when they go too far". that the final end state of the world is rotten, decaying. i believe the fact that they take you to outer rim specifically after this conversation is them bringing you to the closest "safe" place - the outer rim's name is significant because it is the outer reach not of space, but of time. it is the furthest future before the absolute end.

so why is the world consumed by rot? what does this rot have to do with the ultimate transcension?

this likely lays within further dialogue we see from the prince themselves - expressing a desire to further their "kingdom", seeing the watcher as a friend - but these specific lines are what is most telling to the prince's nature -

"I am cataloging all things, you know. The imperative that was in THEM remains in me. But I am not wholly them, and not blind to the folly of their forbearers. I am… something new."

furthermore, the room where the prince's "puppet" (note the very specific word i am using here) is labelled as "AI" - the very same that the puppet chambers of five pebbles and looks to the moon are labelled as. this notation is nothing short of deliberate, and the prince's line (referring to THEM (the iterators), their imperative (the great problem), their forebears (the benefactors)) more or less implies that they are a successor to the iterators, but not one of them themself - they are something entirely new. combined with the knowledge from vanilla that rot comes from iterators adds a whole new meaning to it.

the prince is an agglomeration of iterators - maybe pebbles, maybe sliver, maybe more - and they are the descendant of the remains of those iterators' consciousnesses ("I am not wholly them"), with the drive to fulfill the triple affirmative all the same ("the imperative.. remains in me").

and drawing back to the solution? the transcendental inversion, the outer rim blooming?

the prince sought to expand their kingdom to all the world (all the regions in-game) so that they may fulfill what their predecessors were tasked to do so long ago. that they may unite all as one under the rot and move on from the world. not just them, but every last being that was subsumed by their infection - the iterators, the creatures, the world. all is overcome with the rot and all passes on at the very end of everything.

that this is what we as the watcher accomplish. that the ripples of our meandering and of our rifts and of our search for answers echo through space and time, all culminating in the final departure at the end of it all.

it's bittersweet, and it comes at a hell of a cost - the whole world is assimilated into one, and countless creatures and beings had to suffer along the way - subsumed and consumed by the rot and the greater intelligence it would eventually form.

but at the end of it all, the world finally moves on.

...

Thank you for reading to the end. i hope you find something worthwhile in my thoughts/crazed ramblings. i don't think this conclusion is one every rain world fan will like but this is the one that, for better or worse, makes the most sense to me. in the end, we will all have to see what comes next, what the subsequent arcs of the watcher's story tells us. what i am positing may in the end have no truth to it at all. thank you again for reading, and take care of yourself out there. <3

[essektheylyss]

I'd thought I remembered, in the Knights of Requital planning, someone mentioning the gala being moved, because it gave the Nein an extra day to prep, and Dolan did specify that it had been unexpectedly pushed back a day, but doesn't suggest he knows why. (It's not clear to me based on the conversation when this change happened—it's possible Dolan has simply heard this update recently, but it also might've been a last minute change.) I was wondering because the timing of the Zauberspire attack coinciding with the gala seemed odd.

It is very narratively convenient, of course, and certainly the Kryn spies could've been using it for the same reason that the Knights of Requital were—important figures of the city were distracted and otherwise occupied, and Thuron does give an indication that Ulog was feeding them information as well, so he certainly could've suggested that timing to both.

But two things about the attack struck me: first, that the Zauberspire does not seem to be very far from where the gala is held, which makes it less of a distraction and more of a liability for covert military operations; and second, the Assembly reacts instantly. Moreover, Trent is already there, though he normally resides in Rexxentrum. He doesn't exactly seem the type to show up for annual holiday festivities, given he doesn't stand to gain much if anything from hobnobbing with a bunch of regional socialites, and Ludinus later suggests he is not exactly being dispatched to events as a diplomatic entity. Of course he can be in another city quite quickly, but this all happens so quickly that I find it unlikely that there would've been time to inform someone in another city prior to apprehending the infiltrators, given the immediacy with which the mages respond.

The point being, I think they were warned.