#so many visual artefacts

[waifubuki]

[leelarots]

(my)Theta's design, and how it connects to the show: a breakdown in sections.

Section one: Clothing

Poncho, mandarin/grandad collar shirt, cargo pants, socks—theta's most iconic outfit, characterised by his poncho. well suited for walking in the mountainous estates of his family.

Cricket jumper, plain white mid-length sleeve top, cargo pants, socks—worn rarely. theta does not know what a cricket jumper is, but enjoys owning a genuine human artefact.

Dress shirt w/ loose cravat tied around collar, chequered trousers w/braces, socks—theta's second most iconic outfit. he'd wear a waistcoat if it wasn't already too warm for the drylands* during daytime.

*a note on the drylands: it is an arid desert in my fic (I am aware this is contradicted in some canon sources). this means that though it is hot during the day, it cools to below zero during the night. while outside in the drylands, theta usually wears outfit 1 minus the poncho during day, donning the knitwear during night hours for warmth.

Variations:

Section two: Headwear/Eyewear*

as a note: this is to signify his getting closer to being the doctor rather than just theta

*it only occurred to me after making all the pictures that I had put most of his accessories in with the clothing section, and so could not make a section named 'accessories'. it's a bit clumsy.

Section three: Identifying features

Illustration:

Painting:

*I would argue that this is why many of my paintings of him are inconsistent, as people can look drastically different in photos from one setting to the other, but also I'm just bad at capturing likenesses. Pick your excuse for me, I guess.

Section four: Colour palette

*when I say the desert, I refer to the drylands.

To conclude:

If you have read all of this, thank you! In total, the process of writing this and drawing all of the images used amounts to about 15 hours. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the process, but it was certainly a labour of love—I am glad that it's over with. I tend to keep a lot of my headcanons very private, so if nobody else gets anything out of this, I will have a visual guide of my thought process to look back on and reference.

[canmom]

oh no she's talking about AI some more

to comment more on the latest round of AI big news (guess I do have more to say after all):

chatgpt ghiblification

trying to figure out how far it's actually an advance over the state of the art of finetunes and LoRAs and stuff in image generation? I don't keep up with image generation stuff really, just look at it occasionally and go damn that's all happening then, but there are a lot of finetunes focusing on "Ghibli's style" which get it more or less well. previously on here I commented on an AI video model generation that patterned itself on Ghibli films, and video is a lot harder than static images.

of course 'studio Ghibli style' isn't exactly one thing: there are stylistic commonalities to many of their works and recurring designs, for sure, but there are also details that depend on the specific character designer and film in question in large and small ways (nobody is shooting for My Neighbours the Yamadas with this, but also e.g. Castle in the Sky does not look like Pom Poko does not look like How Do You Live in a number of ways, even if it all recognisably belongs to the same lineage).

the interesting thing about the ghibli ChatGPT generations for me is how well they're able to handle simplification of forms in image-to-image generation, often quite drastically changing the proportions of the people depicted but recognisably maintaining correspondence of details. that sort of stylisation is quite difficult to do well even for humans, and it must reflect quite a high level of abstraction inside the model's latent space. there is also relatively little of the 'oversharpening'/'ringing artefact' look that has been a hallmark of many popular generators - it can do flat colour well.

the big touted feature is its ability to place text in images very accurately. this is undeniably impressive, although OpenAI themeselves admit it breaks down beyond a certain point, creating strange images which start out with plausible, clean text and then it gradually turns into AI nonsense. it's really weird! I thought text would go from 'unsolved' to 'completely solved' or 'randomly works or doesn't work' - instead, here it feels sort of like the model has a certain limited 'pipeline' for handling text in images, but when the amount of text overloads that bandwidth, the rest of the image has to make do with vague text-like shapes! maybe the techniques from that anthropic thought-probing paper might shed some light on how information flows through the model.

similarly the model also has a limit of scene complexity. it can only handle a certain number of objects (10-20, they say) before it starts getting confused and losing track of details.

as before when they first wired up Dall-E to ChatGPT, it also simply makes prompting a lot simpler. you don't have to fuck around with LoRAs and obtuse strings of words, you just talk to the most popular LLM and ask it to perform a modification in natural language: the whole process is once again black-boxed but you can tell it in natural language to make changes. it's a poor level of control compared to what artists are used to, but it's still huge for ordinary people, and of course there's nothing stopping you popping the output into an editor to do your own editing.

not sure the architecture they're using in this version, if ChatGPT is able to reason about image data in the same space as language data or if it's still calling a separate image model... need to look that up.

openAI's own claim is:

We trained our models on the joint distribution of online images and text, learning not just how images relate to language, but how they relate to each other. Combined with aggressive post-training, the resulting model has surprising visual fluency, capable of generating images that are useful, consistent, and context-aware.

that's kind of vague. not sure what architecture that implies. people are talking about 'multimodal generation' so maybe it is doing it all in one model? though I'm not exactly sure how the inputs and outputs would be wired in that case.

anyway, as far as complex scene understanding: per the link they've cracked the 'horse riding an astronaut' gotcha, they can do 'full glass of wine' at least some of the time but not so much in combination with other stuff, and they can't do accurate clock faces still.

normal sentences that we write in 2025.

it sounds like we've moved well beyond using tools like CLIP to classify images, and I suspect that glaze/nightshade are already obsolete, if they ever worked to begin with. (would need to test to find out).

all that said, I believe ChatGPT's image generator had been behind the times for quite a long time, so it probably feels like a bigger jump for regular ChatGPT users than the people most hooked into the AI image generator scene.

of course, in all the hubbub, we've also already seen the white house jump on the trend in a suitably appalling way, continuing the current era of smirking fascist political spectacle by making a ghiblified image of a crying woman being deported over drugs charges. (not gonna link that shit, you can find it if you really want to.) it's par for the course; the cruel provocation is exactly the point, which makes it hard to find the right tone to respond. I think that sort of use, though inevitable, is far more of a direct insult to the artists at Ghibli than merely creating a machine that imitates their work. (though they may feel differently! as yet no response from Studio Ghibli's official media. I'd hate to be the person who has to explain what's going on to Miyazaki.)

google make number go up

besides all that, apparently google deepmind's latest gemini model is really powerful at reasoning, and also notably cheaper to run, surpassing DeepSeek R1 on the performance/cost ratio front. when DeepSeek did this, it crashed the stock market. when Google did... crickets, only the real AI nerds who stare at benchmarks a lot seem to have noticed. I remember when Google releases (AlphaGo etc.) were huge news, but somehow the vibes aren't there anymore! it's weird.

I actually saw an ad for google phones with Gemini in the cinema when i went to see Gundam last week. they showed a variety of people asking it various questions with a voice model, notably including a question on astrology lmao. Naturally, in the video, the phone model responded with some claims about people with whatever sign it was. Which is a pretty apt demonstration of the chameleon-like nature of LLMs: if you ask it a question about astrology phrased in a way that implies that you believe in astrology, it will tell you what seems to be a natural response, namely what an astrologer would say. If you ask if there is any scientific basis for belief in astrology, it would probably tell you that there isn't.

In fact, let's try it on DeepSeek R1... I ask an astrological question, got an astrological answer with a really softballed disclaimer:

Individual personalities vary based on numerous factors beyond sun signs, such as upbringing and personal experiences. Astrology serves as a tool for self-reflection, not a deterministic framework.

Ask if there's any scientific basis for astrology, and indeed it gives you a good list of reasons why astrology is bullshit, bringing up the usual suspects (Barnum statements etc.). And of course, if I then explain the experiment and prompt it to talk about whether LLMs should correct users with scientific information when they ask about pseudoscientific questions, it generates a reasonable-sounding discussion about how you could use reinforcement learning to encourage models to focus on scientific answers instead, and how that could be gently presented to the user.

I wondered if I'd asked it instead to talk about different epistemic regimes and come up with reasons why LLMs should take astrology into account in their guidance. However, this attempt didn't work so well - it started spontaneously bringing up the science side. It was able to observe how the framing of my question with words like 'benefit', 'useful' and 'LLM' made that response more likely. So LLMs infer a lot of context from framing and shape their simulacra accordingly. Don't think that's quite the message that Google had in mind in their ad though.

I asked Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (the small free Gemini variant with a reasoning mode) the same questions and its answers fell along similar lines, although rather more dry.

So yeah, returning to the ad - I feel like, even as the models get startlingly more powerful month by month, the companies still struggle to know how to get across to people what the big deal is, or why you might want to prefer one model over another, or how the new LLM-powered chatbots are different from oldschool assistants like Siri (which could probably answer most of the questions in the Google ad, but not hold a longform conversation about it).

some general comments

The hype around ChatGPT's new update is mostly in its use as a toy - the funny stylistic clash it can create between the soft cartoony "Ghibli style" and serious historical photos. Is that really something a lot of people would spend an expensive subscription to access? Probably not. On the other hand, their programming abilities are increasingly catching on.

But I also feel like a lot of people are still stuck on old models of 'what AI is and how it works' - stochastic parrots, collage machines etc. - that are increasingly falling short of the more complex behaviours the models can perform, now prediction combines with reinforcement learning and self-play and other methods like that. Models are still very 'spiky' - superhumanly good at some things and laughably terrible at others - but every so often the researchers fill in some gaps between the spikes. And then we poke around and find some new ones, until they fill those too.

I always tried to resist 'AI will never be able to...' type statements, because that's just setting yourself up to look ridiculous. But I will readily admit, this is all happening way faster than I thought it would. I still do think this generation of AI will reach some limit, but genuinely I don't know when, or how good it will be at saturation. A lot of predicted 'walls' are falling.

My anticipation is that there's still a long way to go before this tops out. And I base that less on the general sense that scale will solve everything magically, and more on the intense feedback loop of human activity that has accumulated around this whole thing. As soon as someone proves that something is possible, that it works, we can't resist poking at it. Since we have a century or more of science fiction priming us on dreams/nightmares of AI, as soon as something comes along that feels like it might deliver on the promise, we have to find out. It's irresistable.

AI researchers are frequently said to place weirdly high probabilities on 'P(doom)', that AI research will wipe out the human species. You see letters calling for an AI pause, or papers saying 'agentic models should not be developed'. But I don't know how many have actually quit the field based on this belief that their research is dangerous. No, they just get a nice job doing 'safety' research. It's really fucking hard to figure out where this is actually going, when behind the eyes of everyone who predicts it, you can see a decade of LessWrong discussions framing their thoughts and you can see that their major concern is control over the light cone or something.

[acatwithstockings]

Could you please, please tell me everything about the 1990's Good Omens (very bad) Movie script? you mentioned not being able to taIk about it because no one is interested (which I very much relate to, but in just basically anything Good Omens related) I was not there for when it was leaked, so I'd really like to know like... all of it (I promise I am so interested, and also very very obsessed with Good Omens. I'll absolutely be your captive audience.)

the only things I think I know are that Crowley's mean and has a nightclub, and Aziraphale has a museum(??). and it's in America??

You don't know how happy it just makes me to ramble on about that one. Could write a whole essay tbh (I try my best not to bc my spelling is atrocious pff ).

Only snagged it myself after a whole year of searching when it got put up on Dropbox for a few hours. Got taken down quickly again. Idk if it was bc of a copyright claim or if the owner took it down themselves bc it isn't supposed to be spread around due to said issues and they (not quite so cleverly) posted the Link on a post that would make it especially easy for the copyright holder to find it. At any rate, I Got really lucky in that regard. The copyright issues around this thing are fascinating in general and could make for a great study in regards to the flaws of that system.

As for the script contents... Well it's something.

Yes Crowley is mean, it would be wrong however to reduce that version of him to that. (I will try and point out why later). Yes he owns a nightclub, the aptly named hellfire on a hill (? Idk enough about british topography to know if that's a hint towards a real part of town or just bc the visual of it is cool ) in London. So It does not play in America and Aziraphale is working at the British museum. Canon explanation why they try everything and anything to not give back the artefacts they stole, I suppose. (That was a joke. In the script itself it isn't even as much as mentioned that our favorite angel has any interest in collecting anything, missed opportunity if you ask me)

In general the whole thing plays out extremely differently from the story we all love. And sadly lacks the Prattchian humor... For obvious reasons. It does have it's moments tho not many but they are there. ( "Crowley un-snakes" will never not be funny)

What follows is a lengthy summary which will have a bit of analysis and personal interpretation mixed into it . Bc who needs good struktur if you can do stream of consciousness? Am I right?

We begin with the protagonist Crowley in company of Aziraphale, who in this version sadly takes a bit of a backseat, playing checkers in Aziraphale's study. In this version they are color coded: with pure white clothing and hair and pure black clothing and hair. Crowley remarks that 'everything is going too well'. To which Aziraphale points out, that complaining seems to be a favorite past time of the demon. in this version he has a knack for putting down/dismissing Crowley on basis of being a demon (" Oh, isn't that just like a demon? Six-thousand years and all you do is complain") and it's part of his ark , kinda. Cohesion and following things through isn't exactly a strong suit here.

It looks like Aziraphale is about to win, however Crowley uses the cliché 'Lock over there' trick to cheat. In the following dialogue we learn that they have been playing one checkers match a week for the past six thousand years. So basically it's presumed they played their first match in Eden before checkers was even invented. (Then again the stage direction describes a painting depicting Crowley as green snake wearing sunglasses in Eden, so they just have been trend setters from the start) . They then set a date for their next match, Crowley makes his distaste for earth known, they meet Aziraphale's assistant Polly, who is very unimpressed by Crowley and then he is off not without causing some mischief with a stolen wallet.

Aziraphale gets a little scene where he is appraising a painting for its authenticity. He gets called 'bramy as a box of fruit bats' and tells the ones that brought the painting that if it were real, he'd know bc he would have seen the master paint it. The interesting thing here is that this scene essentially is there to show us, that despite not acknowledging Crowley's cheating or directly calling out the forgery and its purpose (to gain money), even calling it pretty, he knows what's going on he simply chooses to play/be aloof .

Next we get introduced to the nightclub. Nothing much happens here at first except that we get introduced to the Barstaff. Or well at least Tina (my love) the barman. As it seems Crowley is managing a successful business and outside of a little rant, calling people sheep and wanting bigger cocktail umbrellas, he genuinely seems to be competent in his leadership and friendly to his staff. Even knowing them by name .

Other notable staff members are Warren, I think he has one line and is the handyman/security of the nightclub and Marjorie who gets a few more lines and is part of the waitstaff. Who by the way are put in full body imp costumes bc of course the nightclub is themed after hell.

Crowley then contacts hell, where he ultimately gets told that Satan himself has a special task for him. And we get the first clue that Crowley, who so far has given us very cool very early 90's style Anti"hero' is scared shitless. Not just that, hell thinks he is a bit of a loser, not being impressed by his mission reports and all that.

We then get to the good old Hyde Park scene with a nearly drowned drake safed by Aziraphale's intervention and everything. What is interesting here however is, that Crowley is a full blown nihilist and Aziraphale just very over enthusiastically positive. Aziraphale saying a woman is doing something good by giving her ice cream to a child while Crowley points out that the ice had first been dropped to the ground and been liked by a dog. (Script!Aziraphale as much as I love you but I am with script! Crowley on this one). Aziraphale points out that that hardly matters because the child is happy and that makes it a good deed. Crowley snarkily retorts that happiness is a stupid metric for good things and says he likes one thing about humans : that they are reliable in doing the selfish bad thing.

Aziraphale then tries to get Crowley to reveal why things are going to well. Crowley points out that they are enemies and he shouldn't give out that information despite the arrangement (sadly we don't get more information about that but I would love to know how it looked in that universe) and only is convinced by Aziraphale being hurt about it and giving him sad puppy eyes. Crowley then invites Aziraphale over to his nightclub after hours to talk about what head office actually wants from him.

We then jump to the nightclub again. Crowley is surprisingly decent towards people, Tina is managing the club and all seems rather nice. Madam Tracy is making an entrance. In this version she is an slowly aging out of it IT-girl. It's implied that she had a multitude of affairs and that she has now been payed off big time. (I enjoy Madam Tracy in this version a LOT). She never seems to be quite there but still owns any situation.

Her and Crowley have a little conversation that gets broken up when he decides to deal with a Troublemaker at the bar instead of letting Warren take care of it. (Side note that part of the script gave me the HC that script! Crowley is very short, definitely shorter than script!Aziraphale don't ask me why) . He is having a full blown Anime protagonist moment, including using the bribe the trouble maker gives him to give to the Waitress the Troublemaker had harassed in a very cool™ manner and stopping a punch with one hand. Just believe me it's very anime. But again Crowley seems to be actual decent boss, believe it or not.

He then gets a Call in the bathroom . Satan talking to him through the mirror without prior notice. He orders Crowley to get to a graveyard within 30 minutes. Crowley is keeping it together but he is panicking. He is having a short conversation with Tracy again in which he stays relatively friendly surprisingly enough.

Fun fact this whole film would have had "Every day' as musical theme. Bc from this moment the song gets mentioned continuously.

After speeding and vandalizing a cop car out of desperation since he is late and they determined to stop him, we get to meet satan. In this version he is a cold calculating (but very cool) business man . Crowley, in German we'd say 'legt sich erstmal ordentlich auf's maul' (meaning he trips and falls on the ground). He is groveling before him, bootlicking and trying to appease his Master (for real tho if that movie would have been made there would have been Satan/Crowley shippers bc that shit is some fuel for a toxic ship). At any rate Crowley is making a bit of a fool of himself and Satan is enjoying the Powertrip. In the end he gives Crowley the antichrist with the task to raise the baby or else suffer worse than anyone else in hell. However if he succeedes he is getting to leave the planet (again he supposedly doesn't even like earth in this version)

Anathema is introduced. She is just a little occult girl that felt the antichrist coming to earth. No mentioning of prophecies or anything. Our beloved Agnes does not exist in this universe. Just a little girl with green eyes and a sense for the occult.

Now with a baby he is supposed to take care of, Crowley makes his way back to the nightclub. There he hides the newborn from his employees and gets pulled away to discuss something by Tina. Since he is hiding the baby he puts the newborn down, right into Madam Tracy's money bag. And well, while he is off talking with Tina , Madam Tracy is taking her bag without noticing the child and off she goes. Leaving Crowley with the problem of a lost antichrist and for some reason a slowmo shot of him trying to catch up with a taxi.

He starts drinking. He knows he is done for so what's the point. (The first bottle he grabs is Aardvark Snapps idk why I finde that interesting) . At this point he has accepted that he will end up for an eternity being punished. Hours later Aziraphale makes an appearance and is a little bit judgemental about Crowley being drunk. (Side note: an other hc of mine is that script!Aziraphale is straight edge bc of that scene). Crowley tries to have him join him drinking but fails. And then just tries a to have a little heart to heart. ("I am doomed, Aziraphale") Only getting a little speech about being a demon and therefore inherently being doomed ('duhhh!') back.

Crowley eventually just confides in Aziraphale how much he has fucked up having a bit of a monologue about it. Eventually Aziraphale offers to help find the boy, but only if he is allowed to influence him. To which Crowley reluctantly agrees, because it would mean that he still fails his task of raising a boy that Satan could be proud of. But Aziraphale is a little bit manipulative (also Crowley is still drunk while Aziraphale is sober) so they shake on it. Anyway this exchange is one of my favorites in the script .

We finally jump eleven years into the future and get to meet Adam.

He has been adopted by Madam Tracy. And is now running a bed and breakfast in the quaint little town of Tadfield. Instead of an army base this Tadfield has direct access to the sea. Including it's very own pier. Anyhow I said Adam is running the b&b that's because Madam Tracy is a neglectful parent and as much as I enjoy her script version, she is not doing great here. Adam is running errands, making breakfast for his mom and generally keeping things together. His whole introduction is him being a little adult .

He finally gets some child time and we meet 'the Them' except they are not 'the Them'. Brian, Pepper and Wensleydale are a friend group and they try to talk to Adam because Pepper wants to be friends with him ( I think the intention was to make Pepper and Adam as THING but idk) . But Adam wants nothing to do with them and instead just wants his peace and quite. So he gets insulted for not having a father and sulks off.

Anathema has also arrived at the scene. And has a culture shock bc of the lackluster infrastructure out here. She arrives in Tadfield with some difficulties and now has to somehow find a place to stay. And while the town seemed overrun with places renting out rooms it also has a case of outdated world views and nobody is willing to take Anathema in for some reason or the other. She eventually gets pointed into the direction of Madam Tracy. Where she is informed that she can have a room . And Madam Tracy casually dunks on Picasso which I can support.

Anathema then repeatedly runs into Adam and tries to strike up a conversation but he just doesn't want to and runs off. As both of them eventually go home at the end of the day he accuses her of following him, since they both are taking the same path. As he gets told that Anathema also lives at the same address as him now he gets angry and stroms to Madam Tracy, disrupting a seance to scold her for taking on a lodger without his approval. He is angry that Madam Tracy is so reckless taking in people without proper background check.

Following that, Adam interviews Anathema. And they bond .

At night Adam sneaks off to the pier and we learn that he has build a model of Tadfield in an abandoned arcade.

He and Anathema bond a bit more over breakfast. (And honestly I like that version of them more relationship wise. As much as I love Prattchet, he did have a particular style of writing children that also came through in Gomens . It lends itself great to hypotheticals and punchlines, not so much for interpersonal relationships)

Back to Crowley and Aziraphale. Last time Crowley had been hopeful and appreciative of the angel. Well now he is running out of time and he is getting grumpy and down in the dumps and ready to give up. While Aziraphale is still unrelentingly optimistic. Poly makes an other entrance, Crowley puzzles together an ancient Etruscan pott. All riveting stuff.

Shadwell, or what's left of his character makes a short appearance as 'MAD OLD MAN' shouting and standing on a soap box as set dressing for Crowley to buy a newspaper and... Pay for it . (Honestly I would have not expected HIM to pay for anything)

He gets zapped into hell without notice.

(Side note Miss Ashtoreth is mentioned as secretary of Satan himself.)

Satan wants to check up on his son's progress. Crowley is shitting himself and lies, reassuring Satan that the boy is properly evil and all that . Of course Satan wants to see the boy real soon and tells Crowley to tell the boy that he is ready for when the boy wants to see him. And after taking a look at Adam by rearranging the universe itself to show a likeness in the stars (hell is a very surreal space with an office above the pit and direct view of all of the universe) Crowley gets zapped back to earth. (Also Satan calls Crowley 'Crawler' which is the script version of Crowley's name change, probably)

Crowley Is now properly stressed out.

On the other end of London (probably) Aziraphale's Crowley senses tingle and he just starts running (presumably) towards Crowley. This never gets brought up or explained. And is so bizarre I couldn't skip it.

Back in Tadfield Adam and Pepper get a bit of a bonding moment. Talking about action figures, Pepper giving Adam a lecture about not being sexist , getting fish and chips. The topic of Adams lack of a father gets brought up again and he lies. Telling Pepper he had met his father before and his father is some sort of international business man, that meets with presidents and is very busy. Eventually Pepper asks about Anathema and tries to convince Adam to take her (pepper) to the movies.

Back in London one Angel apparently unable to use public transport arrives at the nightclub. We can assume that he had been running the whole way. He gets pointed towards Crowley by multiple staff members, 'Every day' gets another cameo and he accidentally stumbles into the dressing room for the waiting staff, which is very embarrassing for him but not for the women.

When he reaches Crowley's office, the demon doesn't want to talk. He is panicking and packing to go on the run for the rest of eternity. (Which for him just means a suitcase full of sunglasses) . What follows is the infamous dialogue script!Crowley get his reputation from. (I might make myself very unpopular here but I think that reputation is not quite deserved. Yes he is an asshole but also the harsher exchanges only play out when he is stressed/panicked and usually if he goes too far he will try and paddel back. Still worst of the Crowleys without a doubt just not quite as bad as people like to paint him. Also script!Aziraphale isn't half as naive and helpless as people like to paint him either and in this house we let him have his agency! But also more on that later)

The exchange switches tone once Aziraphale lets his unbreakable optimism fallter and gets sad. To which Crowley immediately reacts bc trying to reassure him that they are in fact friends and that he shouldn't be sorry. Pointing out that he (Crowley) now knows what the boy looks like to counteract Aziraphale's pessimistic statement that they could never have found the boy bc they didn't even know what he looks like. They agree to hit one more town in their search for the boy.

In Tadfield Anathema finally gets to talk about her quest to find the SOMETHING with Madam Tracy. And have her witness a fight between Brian and Adam about Adam's father. (Srly Adam gets constantly bullied bc of that.) Anathema steps between the two to protect Adam. They make a deal to tell each other's secrets. First we get Anathema showing Adam stuff about the antichrist and the weapon she plans on killing him with.

Then we get an intermission with Crowley and Aziraphale discussing how they should choose which town to go to. They decide with a dart throw.

Back with Adam and Anathema. Adam shows Anathema his model of Tadfield. To the question what he plans on doing once that model is done, he tells her, he is going to build the rest of the world and rule over it. He also voices his desire to go somewhere else so he is no longer stuck in Tadfield.

Aziraphale and Crowley arrive in Tadfield during a Thunderstorm and face the same problem as Anathema. No one wants to rent them a room in town. And while with Anathema the whole thing was rooted in sexism, disdain for outsiders (aka read as Americans) and misunderstandings about her occupation, for those two it's the obligatory 'People think they are a gay couple' thing but with a giant side of Homophobia.

Crowley want to give up, Aziraphale want to go on and eventually they end up at Madam Tracy's.

Madam Tracy mistakes them for the gas person, Crowley wants separate rooms, Aziraphale a shared one,(we never get to know which they now took bc the script has both, scenes with a shared room and with a separate rooms. It could also be that Crowley simply stays longer than Aziraphale and therefore the shared room becomes his single room. At any rate it is never specified. And to be honest there are multiple parts of the script where the author very obviously had given up on it , soooo) Crowley praises Aziraphale's skill as homemaker, Madam Tracy tells them, they have to wait for Adam. Adam comes home Crowley recognizes the boy.

Crowley and Aziraphale take a stroll on the beach and come to the agreement that each should spend a day with the boy, despite Crowley trying to avoid having Aziraphale influence the kid. They also witness how Brian's father is getting things set up and ready to tear down the pier.

In the evening they play an other game of checkers. Adam witnessing first hand Crowley's cheating as he gets the both of them to have dinner with the whole house.

At the dinner table they convince Madame Tracey to let them take Adam to London for a day. Adam being obviously overjoyed about the whole thing.

Anathema sees Aziraphale's and Crowley's true nature for a sec. And I am sorry if this part comes across as rather dry, it's also rather dry in the script.

Adam gets taken to London. First Aziraphale get to show him the museum and talk about human creations . (Side note , when I first got my hands on the script I thought I was missing a page bc the dialogue has a really awkward jump in this scene but no ... It's supposed to be like that and either it was the author giving up or it was supposed to be a kid thing. Jumping from one topic to the next with not much logic. We will never know)

Adam then confronts Aziraphale about Crowley's cheating. And here comes the part why I will never see script!Aziraphale as truly naive or helpless. Aziraphale admits to Adam that he had always known Crowley cheated, he just thought it virtuous to not point it out. Bc he played fair and in his mind that was enough to stand above the other and win in a sense and just let him do the cheating. Adam points out how it's stupid, and that was that. Aziraphale is stunned and does what most people with too much money and no idea how to handle kids do, exactly drag him somewhere, where he can buy shit.

Next up is Crowley. First he drags Adam to Soho. Not Good Omens there might be a cozy bookshop somewhere Soho but well 90s it's a bit of a cess pool Soho. With hookers and homeless teenage girls ( and for all those people that take Crowley being displeased with Adam for giving the girl some change as point to call him fundamentally mean/bad... I implore you learn what character motivations are. He has been tasked with raising an evil child, has promised an evil child, obviously he is displeased when that child is doing something selfless. And he wouldn't do something selfless in the presence of said child either bc again he is supposed to influence him towards evil) Crowley then gets him a milkshake and takes him to his club where they have the mirror conversation to Aziraphale's. Ending with Adam pointing out that it is pretty boring to always win for the wins sake by the means of cheating.

On the way back they have a short (also very old couple and married) conversation about their respective experiences with the boy. Accidentally letting it slip that they know who Adam's father is, believing the boy to be asleep. He is not.

That night Anathema finally succeeds in her endeavor of finding the antichrist. Her crystal ball revealing to her that it is indeed Adam. She is so shocked by that, that she lets the ball fall but luckily for her Aziraphale does his thing and it lands safely without breaking. (That another quirk of the script apparently Anathema and Aziraphale were supposed to be something and what ever that is, it's even weirder than Adam and Pepper)

Madam Tracy also finally recognized Crowley from THAT night and they have a honest heart to heart. Or whatever you call it when the otherwise always woozy character suddenly seem lucid and aware of what will happen.

That night Adam goes to Anathema for emotional support bc of the father thing. Anathema however is in the middle of a crisis bc she now knows what Adam is and had tried to get herself ready to murder him but struggles with herself to do it. Eventually Adam notices the knife behind her back and with the first flair of his antichrist powers forces her to show it to him before storming off hurt.

Being emotionally distraught he runs to his hideout on the pier and calls out to his feather. First nothing happens but then after Adam went off the pier and back again it is completely transformed into a bright happy carnival. His Father has arrived. Satan immediately takes Adam under his wings . He even dresses him up as a mini self.

The next morning the whole town of Tadfield is one giant carnival. There is a parade with elephants. And the people from around town are all mindlessly attending the celebration.

Crowley has a short meeting with Satan (on an elephant can't stress that enough) and gets told that he is supposed to come to Satan to talk about his promotion to alpha centauri. AND

( Don't ask me why I find this too funny to not share, my humor is very broken )

The town is being further transformed and more people are made mindless puppets. But now Crowley is happy to have gotten away with his stunt. He is roleplaying flirting with someone in a mirror. (Also in the script notes it literally says James Bond for acting directions for Crowley, and that's such a dorky idea I love the theory of it ... Bit of a waste in this tho).

Aziraphale tries to change his mind but Crowley shuts him down by pointing out that he was the one saying happiness alone is making things a good deed so it shouldn't matter if people have to be made into mindless puppets first. They are happy after all.

Meanwhile Adam is torturing Brian by throwing tomatoes hat him and having the rest of the town join in with the fun. He just wants his father to be proud of him (nawww ) (that naw was sarcastic). In the crowd Anathema is fighting to regain control over herself.

Aziraphale still tries to convince Crowley. Tugging at his heart strings but even the tried and true "I thought we are friends" won't work this time. Crowley wants to seize his opportunity, he wants out and up.

While those two are arguing, Anathema struggles. All she wants it the knife but she is exhausted.

Crowley is looking for a starting point for his launch towards alpha centauri. He is climbing onto a church tower. Behind him Aziraphale still hasn't given up. Despite not liking heights (!? Wasn't mentioned before will not be mentioned again but apparently script!Aziraphale has a fear of heights). He finally gets an idea and challenges Crowley to one last match.

Crowley for once doesn't cheat and it looks like he is about to win but then Aziraphale DOES cheat, desperate to keep Crowley on earth and have him fight at his side. And Crowley just shrugs and accepts. His next line after acknowledging the win already calls Satan his ex-boss and if that is not a very impressive 180° turn then I don't know what is. (Just a throw back to character motivation, we could speculate it's because most of what Crowley has said were lies and half truths and deep down he actually likes earth and bla or he just remembered how much he would miss his nightclub BUT I as number one script!Crowley (not really) defender say ... It's just unfinished/bad writing and there simply wasn't enough time or inspiration or whatever to finish his character ark)

Anathema manages to give both of them the knife. Crowley is so idiotic and tries to grab it but it burns him . I mean, duhh! Anathema literally tells them that this knife can hurt the antichrist why should it be harmless for a way lesser demon? So Aziraphale takes the knife.

After calling Crowley his best friend, Crowley himself calling himself stupid, Aziraphale, presumably (presumably is important here) with the knife, goes off to confront Adam. He tried to talk Adam out of it. Trying to point out that no good father leaves his kid alone for eleven years and if this is really what Adam wants. As he points out that Madam Tracy despite all her flaws still love Adam he gets discorporated, by Adam. But bc this is a Movie script and we don't have much time left he just stays in his true angel form (which is very much just white robes , wings and halo ) right where he is, further trying to talk Adam out of it .

(here is an other line in my mounting pile of evidence that script! Aziraphale is neither naive nor helpless and simply chooses to carry himself that way bc he thinks it's virtuous. He literally acknowledges that people can do bad things. Something he would not do at any point before that in the script. I rest my case )

While Aziraphale is trying to make Adam think about things, Crowley is off confronting Satan, presumably without the knife.

Satan acknowledges that Crowley had lied to him but is still in such a good mood that he still wants to give out the promotion. Even throws in the titel of fiend extraordinar. For a moment it seems like Crowley considers but ultimately he tells Satan that he wants to quit. Satan is not happy about that and after Crowley also pulls out a pink rubber glove and the knife (yhea Crowley had the knife all along , take that continuity or rather scree logic, like not showing how they get a rubber glove is fine, what ever but having the last scene with the knife be the one where it's shown that he can't touch it and Aziraphale had to carry it would have made it feel a bit too deus ex machina.) Satan forces him into half snake form and summens hands that try and drag him back to hell.

Thanks to his already established Crowley senses (probably ) Aziraphale suddenly shows up and charges at Satan. Who in turn is like 'An angel, really? You betrayed me,..' and then roasts Aziraphale to a crisp before destroying the knife .

Adam confronted with a robotic acting madam Tracy, listening to his every command, starts to reflect on his actions. Getting called in by his father to greed the four horsepersons he notices Aziraphale and Crowley.

Adam now faced with all the destruction says: no, I am not doing it. Stan tries to threaten him into obeying but he gets the good old 'You not my dad'. For being a deadbeat for 11 years. Adam then heals Aziraphale and frees Crowley. Now flanked by the two Adam banishes the horseman.

Satan demanding obedience once more, gets reminded by Crowley that he himself once rebelled. And after laughing about that revelation he tells Adam that it was interesting meeting him but as it seemed he wasn't cut out to be a dad. To Crowley he says that he is now banned from hell and to Aziraphale that he should tell his boss, that at least his son (the antichrist) had more guts than his(Jesus and yes the script sadly uses he/him for God).

After Satan vanishes they have to escape a collapsing pier. Noticing too late that Madam Tracy is also still there. Adam ends up releasing her from her trance by calling her mom and telling her that he loves her. Aziraphale ends up saving both of them, flying them to safety on the beach.

At the beach they also meet Anathema, who promises not to kill him, and Pepper . They watch as the pier explodes and burns to the ground. Anathema also has uncomfortable eye contact with Aziraphale while he ripples back into human form . (Don't ask me why it feels uncomfortable, Anathema is described as looking tens while he still full angel and softening once he is human again, so idk)

Apropos Anathema and Aziraphale. The next Morning, he comes to say goodbye and ends up offering a job bc (I forgot to mention it when it happened) Polly, his assistant had a promotion. So he is in search for a new assistant. She end up kissing him on the cheek and calling him angel but in a way where it's ambiguous if she now knows that he is one or if she just thinks he is a good person and something always makes her forget what he really is. At any rate Aziraphale says he had never gotten a kiss on the cheek in six thousand years and knowing a bit about history and cultural practices I am inclined to calling him a liar. But then again this is fiction .... So sure ... Cheek kiss virgin this one.

While that is happening Madam Tracy is asking Crowley if she can keep the boy now . And Crowley reassures her, that after this, no one is going to come for him. He even offers to throw a birthday party for her at his club, all she should do is to just to look after the boy. It's actually a very sweet exchange.

Outside Brian and Adam have a little exchange, Brain trying once more to get to Adam with the father thing. But Adam has no daddy issues anymore. Instead he asks Pepper out to the movies and Brian just tags along without being asked. Where is Wensleydale you asking ? Take your best guess, he was mentioned once said one thing and then fell off the earth. He probably exploded with the pier and nobody even remembers.

With the kids now finally as a group we have the last shot of Aziraphale and Crowley. They are walking along the street , Crowley one stolen apple in hand . Having their talk about good and evil. Accusing each other of being a little bit of a good person (press x to boubt) and just enough of a bastard (oh absolutely). How they both knew the other was cheating all along. And maybe alpha centauri isn't such a good idea after all. You can't even get booze there. The last thing that is said is Aziraphale telling Crowley to 'not start THAT again', after being offered the apple.

I lied one more screenshot bc Every ...it had been for told by the cursed script for ages now. (I am pretty sure it had been in the talks to put go to Every day' even before the script was ordered so that is just a joke)

At any rate I do have to go to work in ....eh three hours ... So I will leave it at the summary for now. I am dyslexic and English mu second language so I am very sorry for all the mistakes I probably made . If someone reblogs this before I get the chance to correct them, let it be said that at least nobody can claim this is ai pfff.

Also not I said the name of the author the two times I mentioned him simply bc I don't feel like acknowledging the name of the person. I got into Gomens bc of Sir Terry and I stay here for him. This little obsession with the shit script happened by pure chance and purely against my will pfff

[tatiejosie]

Oh gosh I love the Character ask game!!! I had to really limit my questions because I didn't want to just spam you with questions lol.

So how about:

- 2, 3, and 12 for Donald

- 1, 9, and 24 for Cecil

- 6 and 15 for Eve

You DO NOT have to answer every question!!! You can pick and choose which ones you want to answer, I know I'm asking a lot!! I just really want to pick your brain about these characters because every single piece of art you do of them I'm nodding my head and going "yes. Perfect. This is Exactly how I see this character" lol.

GET SWARMED WITH TEXT, WOOSH ⚡✨

✨DONALD

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

He has William registered in his phone contacts with a little picture of him. I think it’s cute

There’s so many things about him that I love, it’s not fair!!! He’s kind and dependable and devoted. He’s strong and skilled and still gentle nonetheless. He genuinely cares for others and does his best to try and help when he can - whether it’s for Cecil, or for some civilian kids he doesn’t know.

[spoiler of S03E06 below]

He’s not a mindless lapdog, he’s on the side of morality. Helping Invincible behind Cecil’s back and giving out classified data from the GDA would really put him in the sauce, but at this moment, he’s not a secret agent helping a blacklisted superhero. He’s facing Mark, a 19 years old who’s had the weight of the world on his shoulders, who constantly gets grown adults coming for his arse. He’s helping a kid, he’s giving him all the info they have because he just doesn’t have any moral reason to hold on to it, when Mark is left to fight by himself. Yeah, Cecil would chew him out for that, going out of his way to help a hero that he perceives as a potential threat - but still, he’s just a kid. I think Donald sees that.

[end of spoiler]

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character? It’s the devotion to the United States military that’s kinda icky. He should get that boot out of his throat for a minute and radicalise himself.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? WHICH!!!! PICK ONE FROM THE LIST!!!!

Donald doesn’t have much of an appetite. Being a cyborg affects his perception of food, and while he can digest nutrients and process food normally, he only eats a bit - once in a while - to give his organic brain the nutrients they need.

However, he enjoys cooking. It’s methodical and peaceful - it’s a prime activity to do while dissociating, it’s relaxing, and it’s also fundamentally human. Having a private chef or sustaining on the GDA cafeteria food feels oddly alienating. Making his own food, for himself, for others, the process of turning raw ingredients into a meal to be enjoyed beyond the simple need to refuel, is grounding to him. He meal-preps a fuckton of shit and proceeds to not eat any of it because he’s nOt HuNgRy.

He’s on the autism spectrum. His glass lenses are opaque because it allows him to hide the bad visual contact and maintain a proper body language at the workplace. He’s not a very expressive person, but he has a plethora of niche special interests; transhumanism and nanotechnology, Balinese and Shinto mythologies, obscure sci-fi french comics from the 70s (Métal Hurlant…), the radium craze of the 1910s and collecting artefacts from that time, collecting tarot decks. He’s normally not a chatty person, but he’ll turn into an unskippable cutscene and yap your ear out if you mention one of these subjects. Cecil knows by experience.

✨ CECIL

1. Why do you like or dislike this character? Hot old man with bad temper. Cunty af. Morally grey. What more do I need to say?

9. Could you be roommates with this character? No because I would make him pregnant

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

TABITHA SCARLET FROM SCARLET HOLLOW!!!

Disgruntled blonde who’s emotionally constipated and hard to approach, leads a trainwreck of a company with an iron hand and not because they like it but because “there’s no other choice”, is okay with being hated by employees/surrounding because of their job and temper, lots of repressed angst that they don’t address because it’s a can of worms and at this point, nothing can be done for them.

✨ EVE

6. What's something you have in common with this character? Really not much. I guess wanting to help and make a difference in the world? Genuinely wanting to have a purpose as someone who helps?

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.) I don’t really ship Eve with anyone ngl. I couldn’t care less about Mark/Eve, and Don&Eve is platonic. I really think that this girl should learn to be happy by herself, to discover the joy of being celibate and feeling complete.

[space-blue]

DO YOU KNOW WHAT!! I had to go check the comic I just posted, as in that case I did not time the blushing intentionally. I mean it must have been in the back of my mind. But I didn't sit there planning this.

his pupils dilate like crazy too and then go back to being small immediately afterwards!! It was so cute

Which means I've also internalised this truth... no matter what Jayce is taken with Viktor... You're so right.

and I bet it’s painfully obvious to silco too haha! Seriously, Jayce is SMITTEN.

also, that one ask where your pondering if vik should be tsahik in training seems really cool!! Plus I’d feel like it would have correlation with his illness and such.but after seeing that human science in ur other comic he’d lose all interest immediately and convince Jayce to give him some human science books

(Speaking of illness, does viktor have his chronical illness in this au?)

DAMN IT I also didn't do the pupils on purpose... I was drawing this on autopilot, I swear...

And yes, Silco will exploit the hell out of that, which is probably also why Vi will be left to flirt with Cait more than she really ought to.. Gotta seduce away as many Humans as possible.

I don't think Viktor will lose interest due to science. I think the one thing he'll flip over is the use of metal and human artefacts. But being an avid student of the mysteries of Eywa, he'd see how they can complement each other.

For example, Viktor would see the dream walker's neural link as something weak and feeble. Eywa could transfer consciousness. The people all "pass" through her, after all.

However, he'd about lose it at cloning. You're saying he could have a new body made, without illness, and then use his own superior technique to transfer bodies? But there's no way Piltover base would grow a whole ass Na'vi over a decade just to please the locals.

Jayce would definitely offer to have a better brace made, and metal pins in his spine, which would be a super contencious thing.

So far what I have is that Viktor was born with a weaker leg, nothing bad, but it made him limp a bit and lose his footing. One day he fall down a cliff face and broke that same leg even worse (hence the scar under the brace)

He's been using braces he makes himself since, and canes where possible. Zaunites live in a large canyon, so there are a lot of steep cliffs, but Viktor's on better footing now. He doesn't have a lung disease, but he has issues due to the amount of time he spends in the caverns beneath. It has a lot of strange gases down there, but if you delve deep, you can access an enormous root of spirit tree, around which zaunites are buried.

He's down there often enough to have coughing issues and allergies. He's generally not super healthy, but not as bad as human Viktor. He's not on a death timer.

I wouldn't want the story to focus on that. Though I really like their timeloop arc for all its visuals, it's just not something I'd want to implement here, though them having new bodies/becoming new people is definitely part of the theme.

[sandytree1]

Criticism of Blue Eyed Samurai

Well, I just watched Blue Eyed Samurai. Been spotting several positive clickbait thumbnails of it, so even though I didn't have high expectations based on the trailer, I gave it a go. And well, it was what I feared it was. I still enjoyed it though! And it's an engaging story, just not what I wish it was. Anyways, I wrote a comment on Reddit about it, which I thought I'd repost here.

Edit: I ended up going in and reordering some paragraphs under headings, as people on Reddit replied to by comment. Noticing people are nitpicking the historical accuracy of my commentary, which wasn't really what I was concerned about. It's more that certain cues in these stories make me expect certain things.

The main point of much of this text is to look into what makes Blue Eyed Samurai a noticeably American story, by comparing it to other jidaigeki stories with a similar setting made for and by Asian people, and stories set in Asia made by Americans (for Americans).

🚧 NB! I'm still working on the text. Text marked in cursive are just notes, so please ignore them for now! 🚧

Asian stories

So, this isn't the first time we've gotten an Asian story told by Americans (for Americans). And that in of itself doesn't necessarily make the show unwatchable. Beyond the cases of whitewashing and yellowface in Hollywood, we can also find a few love letters to Asian media.

For China, we have Kung Fu Panda, a love letter to Kung Fu movies with a Chinatown aesthetic. For Asian ethnicities overall, we have Avatar the Last Airbender. And for Japan, we have stories like the Ghost of Tsushima and Shogun.

As a period drama fan, what I expect coming into these shows are generally other pieces in the same genre, that is Asian stories told by Asians. Perhaps due to the lack of any relevant Asian American genre. In the case of Blue Eyed Samurai, I was expecting a jidaigeki more in the lines of Azumi, Oshin or Princess Kaguya. However, I felt that Blue Eyed Samurai fell short, even by the standard of other Asian stories told by Americans for Americans.

Overall, the story's theme is two fold: action and feminism.

Action and martial arts

While Blue Eyed Samurai throws around words like samurai and honor, it doesn't appear to actually understand what these entail. Instead, it feels like it only focuses on the superficial badassery of it. In contrast, Ghost of Tsushima did a great job with its Japanese localization. Although some parts was a little bit off still, they salvaged this by centering their themes around bushido culture and made references to terms used there, and the visuals references Japanese aesthetics of the transient seasons and impermanence, which is commonly used in haiku poetry. It features seasonal environments such as ginko leaves, reed, maple, and spider lilies to mention some. The same can be said for Shogun, which is more about the tension being lost in translation, and where especially Mariko recited actual Japanese poems at several occassions.

Meanwhile, Kung Fu Panda also has the tropes and artefacts of Chinese wuxia story, but it is ultimately based on Chinatown. A theme park-esque idea of China designed by and to cater to white people, as a Chinese American defense mechanism. Yet, it stands on its own as an American love letter to Chinese kung fu films.

In the west, many use Kung Fu Panda as an argument for successful orientalism. However, Accented Cinema points out, it may have more to do with China's own failure in representing themselves, and that Kung Fu Panda's lesson was just what China needed at that time: To stop doubting and to learn to love themselves. Even in the face of the traditional Chinese fantasy genre (wuxia and xianxia) losing foothold in Asia, they can still stay themselves as a new generation reinvents the genre. And the new stories coming out of China seems to have taken this classic hollywood message to heart.

I'll use this opportunity to shoutout some stories by China to come out of this new era: The Legend of Hei, the White Snake, The Untamed, Black Myth: Wukong, Genshin Impact, etc.

In contrast, Blue Eyed Samurai has the same attention to detail when it comes to the artifacts of a jidaigeki story. But it falls short, because it lacks in as meaningful a message as Kung Fu Panda had, and somehow lacks in the tropes (or whatever it's called?) that you'd expect to see in a jidaigeki. Instead, it focuses on superficial badassery and western feminism, and it feels like it clearly caters to white people's ideas and desires.

But overall, great choreography and compositing, engaging story and characters ... Blue Eyed Samurai is good, but does veer into the uncanny valley for me, which I know was an issue Asians had with ATLA. Guess I felt it a little bit more with Blue Eyed Samurai due how much (unrealistic) violence and (meaningless) sex is glorified, and made me question what exactly the overall moral message of the story was supposed to be beyond simply "revenge plots are cool but also destructive." As somebody else said, it's giving "guts and tits for the people."

I was hoping for something like Azumi

I do not mean that I wanted Blue Eyed Samurai (BES) to romanticize bushido and samurai. However, I did want it to explore these concept, because they made such a big deal out of it. The closest comparison I can make and what I was actually hoping for when going into BES, was something more like the manga Azumi.

The main character of both series, Mizu and Azumi, are similar in several aspects. Both are orphaned women who grew up to become fearsome assassins, whose sworsmanship is so incredible that they're able to fight off hordes of men singlehandedly. Additionally, both are mixed race, though where Azumi only has blue-ish eyes, Mizu has actual blue eyes. Additionally, both work as assassins during the sakoku policy, though while Azumi lives around the time of Tokugawa Ieyasu in the 16th century, at the start of the policy, Mizu lives further along in the 17th century.

Azumi is a gritty look into (among other things) both shinobi and samurai that does not romanticize either, and has won an award for its exploration of these concepts in relation to buddhism. In fact, everyone in Azumi suffers. The only one who is perhaps glorified is Azumi, who many critics compare to a boddhisattva.

Throughout the story, Azumi has learnt to not be too attached to earthly comforts, but still suffers because of her attachment to her companions. As Azumi completes her pruning missions for her boss (the Buddhist monk Tenkai), she accumulates a lot of bad karma in the form of endless waves of people pursuing her for either revenge, the bounty on her head, the thrill of defeating a master swordswoman, etc. Because of it, 90% of her closest companions SPOILER die, and many of her friends are raped or permanently maimed, and has to deal with the trauma and practical inconveniences of it. Often because they are caught in the crossfire between Azumi's targets or those who pursue her.

By the end of the story, Azumi still ends up making new companions like usual and her boss continues wanting to send her on pruning missions. But she decides to leave them all behind, so that those she cares about will not be affected by her bad karma again. She knows she will have to stay on the road indefinitely and will never really be able to enjoy the comforts of settling down, because of her pursuers. The series makes the buddhist argument that earthly attachment in general causes suffering, and Azumi is enlightened by abandoning those attachments and by facing her karma, although that does not mean she will not end up with a violent death. The story ends openly with Azumi wandering off into obscurity.

Mizu is not a samurai

We could argue that she is a ronin, but then she'd technically must've been serving a lord as a samurai in the past. She should be at least be a tiny bit concerned with chivalry; At least enough to discuss or talk about it, which we know isn't the case. Mizu is closer to being a shinobi/ninja, since her goal is to assassinate her 4 maybe fathers. Another thing Mizu shares with shinobi is that both are often criticised by samurai because of their penchant for ambushes and lack of concern for bushido / warriors code. Yet she breaks the mold of being a shinobi, since she doesn't really sneak around in (civilian) disguise and will openly brawl her way through a dojo and into a fort. In this aspect, Azumi is much more like a shinobi.

While Mizu's motivation is simply revenge for the injustice she and her mother suffered at the hands of the gaijin faction, in Azumi the motivation is to prune the country like a bonsai tree off individuals which may threathen a new age of peace, and prevent the country from slipping back into the civil war that marked the Sengoku period.

But where characters in Blue Eyed Samurai is heavily protected by plot armor, allowing Mizu to be an almost invincible pin cushion, no one is safe in Azumi and injured characters requires months to recover and heal from cuts.

While writing this, I recalled that in episode 5, they interjected a story about a samurai marrying and fathering a child with a woman who descended from an enemy clan. He kills both her and their son, which turns her into a onryō. Mizu being an Onryō works, but I am left questioning how this fits into the story beyond its symbolism, as there's been no explicit supernatural elements in the story. Mizu is bullied for being the (devil) spawn of a quote "white devil" in childhood, I think it would be more interesting if they called her a "white ghost," since onryos (which could represent Mizu) are a type of vengeful female ghost. Furthermore, Taigen often compares Mizu to a dog, esp. when she does not live up to the samurai standards he holds her to. Not sure where that fits in either..

Orientalism

So the statement about samurai criticising shinobi was called out as orientalist. This was my reply:

As for orientalism, I guess Blue Eye Samurai is being orientalist then, which I was kinda feeling while watching but didn't really put into words. It's pretty stereotypical to connect Japanese with honor and samurai after all, contributing to why I felt the show was very American.

In the sense of samurai simply meaning warrior, then we can consider Mizu a samurai. But Taigen (and Akemi) connects being a samurai with honor and complains about fair play. By making this connection, he invokes bushido/chivalry and excludes people who ambush others like assassins from the definition of being a samurai, and by extension criticises assassins like ninjas for not shying away from "dishonorable" ambushes. To restore his honor, Taigen wants to arrange a formal duel and even writes up a challenge letter (hatashijou), which makes sense in terms of the dojo trope. But well, the series does contradict itself a lot in favor of cool one liners, and what it means to be a samurai or knight has changed throughout history.

Time period

Some people began nitpicking the historical accuracy of my commentary, which wasn't really what I was concerned about. I am open to artistic liberty. However, with BES it was a little bit harder, since they made so many historical references and leaned into the jidaigeki genre, but then broke it in ways that came off as uncanny to me. Looking back, I guess this uncanny feeling was the orientalism letting itself be known, though I couldn't put it into words back then.

As jidaigeki is a subgenre of historical stories, certain cues does make me expect certain things. Like when I see an English-speaking gaijin with such a vile attitude as this as the antagonist, I would make the connection that this story is probably set sometime after the Americans forced Japan to open up for trade in the 1800s. Yet this expectation is then contradicted when I learn that no foreigners are allowed in Japan yet due to the Sakoku policy, which makes me wonder what this Irishman is doing here all alone centuries too early and how he even managed to climb to such a powerful position while being so isolated.

Gaijins as antagonists

Why an Irishman as the gaijin antagonist? It'd make more sense if it was a portuguese or dutch. If Blue Eyed Samurai is set in 17th century Edo Japan, it's a long time off when the Americans forced Japan to put down the sakoku policy, and even then, why Britain/London? If anything, Japan and Britain liked each other enough later on to form an alliance for their shared fear of Russia.

Why not other colonial powers who were actually active in Japan and Asia overall at the time (the Dutch) or the ones who caused Christianity to be banned during the sakoku (the Portuguese).

My first thought of a precedent goes to Konishi Shizune, the Christian revolutionary leader in Azumi who's also mixed race like Azumi, which is based on the historical Amakusa Shiro.

(Depictions of Gaijins: Americans during postwar Japan in Hajime no Ippo. Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Solid)

Japanese in Europe

With Mizu heading to Europe, I came across people discussing the plot armor and how Mizu wouldn't stand a chance against the guns nor London police. It came off as kind of white supremacist, and the entire thread was locked because of unsolicited opinions from outsiders.

To be fair, Japan had guns too at the time. According to Netflix themselves, Blue Eye Samurai takes place in the 1600s. If that's the case, it means that the guns were mostly muskets, rifles and pistols which took time to load, so people did still use swords even in Europe. And only a century earlier in the 1500s, when Dreamwork's El Dorado is set, people would still use firearms and crossbows side by side. Oda Nobunaga also used firearms in his own warfare during the sengoku period.

Also, the police didn't exist yet, since the UK police were created in the late 1700s. As for the London battalion or royal guards storming her, it'd either amount to when she was stormed by the hand claw guys. The plot armor in the first season was a lot imo even then though. But sneaking up on them depends on the terrain and context, so I can see it happening.

Furthermore, it's not unrealistic for Japanese people to travel to Europe, because there's historical precedence for this. In 1613, Hasekura Tsunenaga was sent on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with the pope and the king of Spain, and some of his men even stayed behind to form the Japon clan in Spain. The expedition took 7 years, and ironically enough, once he returned, christianity had already been banned in Japan. The people who still kept the Christian faith in spite of this came to be known as kakure kirishitan.

Debauchery means it's for adults ..

The way characters (esp. Mizu) will throw out badass oneliners as if on a treadmill, only to contradict exactly what she said as short as 5 seconds later does mess with my suspension of disbelief.

The story also goes into prostitution and patriarchy, though it also felt superficial to me. If anything it feels like an excuse for fan service, similar to Game of Thrones in a sense. Like they know that sex sells, and that's what "the audience really wants." That said, again I enjoyed both GOT and Blue Eye Samurai, even though some may laconically break the former down to "dragons and tits" and the latter to "guts and tits".

Token representation

Mizu's apprentice was born without hands, which could have brought about an interesting exploration of disability. But instead, he's relegated to being a quirky sidekick and comedic relief.. Even though he's disabled, he is shown to act like other people who are not, except when it's in the favor of a joke. Ringo comes off as somebody who does not need help and is able to manage without anybody. To me, this comes off as dismissing the struggles that disabled people go through to remain high-functioning in a society that is not designed for them, which I again struggle to suspend my disbelief for.

I had hoped that BES would feature disabled characters as well as Arcane did: Viktor, Sevika, and Isha are all great characters, who are shown to fully work with their disability throughout the story. For example, Sevika loses her arm in Powder's explosion, and replaces it with a powerful mechanical arm fueled by shimmer (drugs). However, when her arm is put out of action, she will retreat as she knows she's at a disadvantage. And Isha is seemingly deaf and mute, though it does not stop her from bonding with other characters and rushing into action. And yet, she is still a child that needs protection, and somebody who struggles to communicate at the same level as a fully able-bodied character. These characters are badass and amazing, even if they're very clearly not invincible and clearly show that they need accommodations.

BES is an American story

Blue Eyed Samurai has all the visual motifs of a Japanese samurai story (jidaigeki), but the tropes and logic is extremely American. It does get the artifacts and set dressing of a jidaigeki story right (surprisingly accurate at some points), which is why it triggered the uncanny valley for me sometimes. When certain artifacts and set ups appeared, I expected it to follow certain tropes I'm used to from jidaigeki, but it didn't really do that.

Patriarchy and gender roles

While I understand and appreciate your critique, I don't think the narrative is grounded in realism. It's more like expressing the need that women do have to see themselves in the shoes of a physically invincible protagonist. Also the motivation isn't simply revenge - what has happened to Mizu has convinced that her very existence is suffering. She's internalized the hate to an extent that it no longer matters whether she lives or dies. She will slowly change as a person and her motivations will also change, which I hope we get to see . All the characters are somewhere trying to rebel against their gender roles, and that I feel is the 'message'. Also as far as the right antagonist to show goes, Fowler seems an indictment of British colonialism a few centuries too soon, but his attitudes aren't unfamiliar. At all.

Blue Eyed Samurai doesn't explore the concepts it references or markets itself with, but seems to throw them around because samurai and honor sounds cool and is a stereotypically Japanese/Sinosphere thing. Instead it'd rather explore gender roles and patriarchy. And the character Blue Eyed Samurai primarily uses to explore these themes with isn't the titular protagonist, but rather Princess Akemi.

But Akemi's struggles with patriarchy, also comes off as more a Western suffragette story than a Sinosphere one.

The Princess as a Caged Bird

Other stories about gender roles and patriarchy in ancient Japan to which we can compare this to is probably Isao Takahata's Princess Kaguya, though this one is probably set long before BES in the Heian period.

Like in Kaguya, the ohaguro set is presented as a symbol of oppression for Akemi. However, instead of being explicitly oppressed by outside forces like Akemi, Kaguya is instead pressured by her father's idea of happiness, as he internalizes society's idea of happiness as being the perfect princess. Throughout the film, Kaguya questions what it is all for and even counters against her governess that "a princess is not a human then!"

Princess Kaguya as a roadside flower. To be plucked in a moment of fancy, and neglected once savored and bored. Merely a trophy to be won and stowed away in a display cabinet.

The film explores what makes life worth living, by exploring the difference between humanity and moon people.

Filial piety. Fulfilling your own dreams through your offspring. Showing off achievements to relatives. accumulating merit.

Geisha and maiko in contrast to the Oiran of the red light district. Streetwalkers. Prostitution - the world's oldest profession.

Oda Nobunaga's younger sister in Nobunaga Concerto and Azumi.

Hypergamy. Tradition of men being adopted into the wife's household. The Fujiwara clan of the Heian period, who continuously married their women into the imperial family for generations. Attitudes around cheating and monogamy (Genji Monogatari).

The Fallacy of the Stereotypical Asian woman

Oshin - Resilience and endurance.

Asian women as firecrackers. There's a reason why the stereotype of Tiger Mom even came to be, because Asian women and people in general are not weak and strictly submissive, although they are often mistaken as doormats.

Honne and tatemae

Yamato Nadeshiko

While writing about this, I ended up going on a tangent about Asian women, which you can read here: The Fallacy of the Stereotypical Asian Woman.

Gender roles in Genderbender

Kaze Hikaru

Ryou

Torikaebaya Monogatari, where a brother and sister in the Heian period is gender mixed at birth, to fulfil gender roles they're more "suited" for according to societal expectations. Another Heian period text about a guy who crossdresses as a woman to get close to a woman he has a crush on.

Gender fluidity has been the norm throughout most of history.

A wolf in sheep's clothing

I guess the show is more concerned about gender roles and patriarchy. I'm actually not all that concerned with historical accuracy, but I couldn't help but be thrown off by how it felt like vastly different time periods (and thus different expectations in terms of jidaigeki tropes) were meshed together. I still stand by that the show is a very (overseas Asian/) (Asian) American narrative, which made it uncanny how accurate it still was in terms of getting the artefacts etc. of a jidaigeki right. Sort of like a "wolf in sheeps clothing," though that doesn't make it a bad thing. For example, Akemi feels more like a Western suffragette, rather than an Asian feminist. Yet the ohaguro set etc. may be a reference to Isao Takahata's Princess Kaguya, which is about feminism.

The story came off as stereotypical to me. Yet it does get the artifacts and set dressing of a jidaigeki story right (surprisingly accurate at some points). I did cringe at some points or feel the uncanny valley, but again overall the show was engaging and enjoyable.

I've enjoyed other orientalist stories before, such as Kung Fu Panda and Avatar the Last Airbender. I've also enjoyed occidentalist stories like mohuan and isekai. Yet something with Blue Eye Samurai made me cringe sometimes. Comparing it to the others I've mentioned, perhaps it's because it's set in a more non-fantastical setting as opposed to a jianghu of sorts idk. Blue Eye Samurai is still entertaining though, and may be the start of a new genre.

It's hard to explain what it feels like for people who don't have the same cultural references, so here's an example of occidentalism. I noticed that when Genshin Impact (a Chinese game) released the new Fontaine region where they decided to mix Britain, Italy, France etc., which people claimed is just plain weird haha. But Fontaine has still been well received regardless it seems. On the other hand, I still cringe every time I see Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Solid.

Historical references

Random, but here's a list of different artifacts and set dressings that appeared in the show. The little theatre play about the ronin and his wife uses kurogo (black clad actors) to manipulate the dolls, which was novel to see. Previously I've mostly watched kurogo being used to manipulate perspective such as in this Matrix Ping Pong skit and the Tokyo 2020 pictogram opening ceremony. Traditionally, Kurogo is used in Kabuki to create special effects and are supposed to be invisible to the audience.

Mizu's husband uses a naginata, which is basically a spear. Although also used by warriors in general, it was often used by women.

[noneatnonedotcom]

Alternative Danny villain

so last one was fun, this time I'm going to work with a specific power off the bat and then see what we roll.

first off how many rolls do we get? 1d4= 4 huh pretty strong then.

first power that i'm actually selecting.

Fish Oil: (600CP) Through a miracle of breaking the rules, Fionn was not the only boy to get the first bite of the legendary Salmon of Knowledge, the fish that contained all the world’s wisdom. You found yourself with a replica of the fish and ate it whole, from head to toe for yourself too. Thus, you gained all the wisdom of the world, even if it is concentrated in your thumb. By biting your thumb, you are able to connect your mind to a seemingly endless repository of knowledge, containing all the information that exists in this world. Like a mental library, you can search through it just by thinking but also like a library, it takes time to find information and time to read through it as well, plus you will not automatically memorize what you see there. But with the patience of a good lord, you can find out anything you wish, within the limits of this world.

concept i'm going with is an enemy who's just more in the know than danny. but we'll see how the rolls turn out

first roll was

Lord Marshal: (400CP) You have become the ideal leader with one set of skills, depending on your chosen ruling policy. Being able to handle economics & logistics very well, with finance and trade being your bread and butter you could easily double the level of wealth for your domain within a month. Having a level head for judicial processes and policies, able devise order from an active mob with your silver tongue and settle civil matters. Or become a vibrant-figure that any kind of army would die to get a hold of; having a skill for tactics to run a war twice over as well as the skills to both train and lead a newly formed militia into hardened warriors within a month or (in reverse) reintroduce these same warriors back into civilian life.

second roll

Stuntmaster: (100) The absolute best part of being a skilled warrior as a Solar Exalt? It’s how your every movement follows with both grace and grandeur, how you become a stuntmaster that makes combat look almost like dancing. Your attacks become eye-catching and graceful, and while no more effective, your skills in battle will look visually impressive in addition to your already-existing effectiveness. This can also be applied to any sort of skill, power or trade you put effort and enthusiasm into, letting you perform all of your abilities while looking absolutely fantastic doing so.

third roll

Dark Teacher: (200CP) Teachers have a great deal of power, given they are the source of each proceeding generation’s greatest warriors, magicians and leaders. Rarely is this more true than it is for you. A teacher like few others, those who study under you find that they learn as if they had enormous talent for anything you teach them, picking up everything from the combat arts to the spells of the far off Norse with lightning speed. Even faster this grows should you welcome them into your bedchambers and give them the gift of your thighs. You are particularly charming to any student you have in that manner indeed, and find that even those not yet your student will feel a growing desire to become such as your own fame for great skill and power grows.

fourth roll

Avalon: (400 cp) "The legendary sheath of Excalibur, a copy of which now rests at your hip, though no one finds it strange that it does so. This sheath is an incredibly valuable artefact, as it bestows powerful regenerative abilities on you while at your side, allowing you to heal from almost any wound in minutes at most. Even if most of your body was vaporised, as long as your brain and a fair amount of the flesh and bone connected to it remained, you could restore yourself to normal in five minutes of healing. Avalon cannot heal brain wounds and you will die if it is destroyed, though the item also struggles to handle cursed wounds. Though it drains your energy, you can also activate the special power of the sheath, which will place you in the world of Avalon while you maintain it. While here, it is almost impossible to reach you and even dimension crossing effects will only work from insanely powerful users. Effectively, it lets you dodge away out of almost any effect in an instant. Notably, avalon as a sheath will resize to fit any sword you wish to put into it."

in light of lacking any particular fighting style I'm gonna roll on the free martial arts table.

Stunt Master: (free) "You are a master of stunting. Any time you try to do something amazing the world will conspire to make your attempted stunt just that little bit more dramatic and incredible. Maybe there just happens to be a rope to let you swing across the ballroom dramatically as you make off with the nobles treasure, or maybe there's just the right amount of handholds and footholds on two opposing walls, at just the right distance from each other, that would allow you to dramatically wall jump your way up. So long as you strive to do things in an amazing and/or over the top fashion you will be slightly rewarded for doing so, Fate conspiring to make you that little bit better at whatever you're doing because apparently Fate is really fond of over-the-top action sequences. You can still fail when you're doing over the top stuff though, so don't get too out of hand, this just represents a slight-to-moderate increase when you're purposely trying to be amazing.

of course that's what i rolled, okay so we got someone who's got avalon the sccabard of king arthur that makes him immortal, he's inately able to do over the top actions and stunts and the universe reawrds him for doing so.

his martial arts style seems to just be rule of cool.

his mental abilities are what's really impressive here though. he's got all of the wisdom of the world literally at his fingertips, he's a master tactician and trainer of soldiers and he's even more effective when teaching students directly (with even more power when sleeping with said students)

he's kinda the oposite of danny. the popular kid who's not too strong on his own but can train people and lead them in combat.

so basic idea he's a descendent of king arthur from the DP universe, he retrieved the scabard and is now trying to save the world with his rag tag team of teens. he's dangerous because he's constantly doing over the top stage combat but the universe is conspiring in his favor to see that it works out for him and he always looks good doing it.

and if he fails avalon will just heal him up immediately.

not sure how i'd do this villain. he's probably an anti-villain if I had to guess. but I got nothing beyond that other than he's mainly sending his knights of the round after danny before he has to step in personally.

@weatherman667 any ideas?

@heliosthegriffin not sure if you're into danny phantom but wanna take a swing too?

[one-of-many-journeys]

Day 22 (1/2)

Stone's Echo

I left the village before dawn, restless. First, to Larend's salvage camp, after that, who knows. I can't roam this stretch of land forever. The number of problems for me to solve for the people here will only grow, exponentially, until everything dies.

Turning eastward, I returned to the ancient killing field I'd passed weeks prior, riding under the arms of Titans, choked with greenery. Burrowers patrolled, watching over sparse herds of Chargers.

As the sun rose, I arrived at Larend's camp, smoke rising in a single scant plume behind a ramshackle wooden fence.

As the orange light of morning fell across the camp, I handed the Shellwalker plating over to Larend and collected payment due. He was still in need of the parts after all. Not many hunters for hire were willing to cross these regions for shards alone, given the presence of Regalla's rebels and the Apex machines appearing across the lands. So, it wasn't just Cauldron Tau—Hephaestus has been at work in Cauldrons all across the lands, maybe the world. Brilliant. At least I've dealt with the rebels in the area now.

On a circuitous route back west, I checked out some old military ruins overlooking the battle field.

Unsurprisingly, the Oseram traders had picked through the place already, and there wasn't much in the way of salvage left behind. There were datapoints, though—scraps of military orders, personal memos, dying words. I tried to picture the valley below devoid of life, a burning pit of bots, rolling up toward the compound in a wave of black metal and bio-mist. Then I wished I hadn't.

Further on, back on the valley floor, I returned to the ruins I'd passed on my first ride west, where I'd saved a few delvers from a band of rebels. The delvers had evidently moved on, but now equipped with my ignighter, I'd be able to blast my way through the Firegleam deposits dotting the ruin's sealed walls.

I did just that, though the crystals burned quick and hot, and I couldn't get away in time to avoid the barrage of stones that followed detonation. Barely missed my dumb skull. I have to be more careful.

Inside, my Focus picked up an artefact behind a locked door across a broken walkway. It was a projector of some kind; powerful, packed with visual data, but not much else. Curious, I engineered a way across.

With a little more blasting, I found a datapoint with the code for the locked door, and an empty power cell to bring the mechanism back to life. Once charged, I couldn't walk the cell across the flooded portion of the room—the ensuing electric blast rattled my bones. The years had made the machine volatile, and I needed to drag it across on top of a handy crate to keep it out of the damp.

Entering the code and opening the door, I was able to examine the ornament more closely. Projections of bright yellow leaves emanated from the sphere, powered by an internal source across the intervening centuries. Impressive, but I have no idea what greater machine it was made to slot into. Still, all that whirs is of value to the Oseram. I might find a good price for it or, better yet, find out its true function and return it to service.

I took the sphere with me when I left, tying it to my mount.

I passed back through the battle field, now heading west. I scanned the rebel camps I'd cleared when I first crossed the border, checking for any sign of resumed activity. Nothing. With my efforts, I've managed to drive the rebels out of No Man's Land and most of Utaru lands too. Not bad, but I have a feeling their true might is hidden across the mountains in Tenakth territory.

Crossing back into Utaru lands, I headed north toward Plainsong, wanting to check that Yef and the other Eclipse prisoners had made it back home safely.

On the way, I spotted large Utaru structures in an uncultivated area—a village lost to the wilds in the aggression of new machines. Skydrifters patrolled the village skies, including two Apex variants. I figured I could do the Utaru a favour and clear out the pests, though I mainly wanted to study Hephaestus' new experiments.

The black-armoured Skydrifters were stocked with acid canisters in place of their usual shock coils. An acid arrow to each on the first; spear strike, then hardpoint arrows to the corroded armour. I kept the other Skydrifters off me with coil detonations and my Ropecaster.

Once the first was down, I picked away at the final two machines, keeping away from their flaming tail whips and waves of long-range, little mines with my Pullcaster, latching onto the old village structures. My Spikethrower came in useful too.

Finally downed them all, the herd of Fanghorns long since spooked off into a nearby copse. Good haul, and good data scraped from Hephaestus' machines. Hopefully Gaia can make use of it.

The village altar, tilted, the floor rumpled by up-shooting grasses breaking through the weave. It must have been even more beautiful when inhabited. I hope the Utaru can return here someday.

I rode the short way remaining, making it to Plainsong in the afternoon. Things are seeming a lot calmer now with the nearby rebels driven out and the forces of Hephaestus stopped at their nearest source, if not entirely.

Working the fields, I found Emboh. He told me that Jaxx had returned a couple of days prior with a Tenakth youth in tow, and thanked me for searching for his friend. It was good to hear that the Chorus had allowed Korreh to stay in Plainsong, but by the look of the dead, blighted crops Emboh was attempting to revive, the city might not be a safe place for the youth much longer.

Sure enough, I found Jaxx and Korreh near the city entrance. Korreh had passed the days since his arrival learning to play an Utaru instrument, similar to that carried by Kalae on her pilgrimage. The music was beautiful—deep, earthy, reedy drones, dry winds and deep rumbles. He was utterly transfixed on the music, and Jaxx seemed proud of how quickly he'd adjusted to his new life. I only hope it'll be a long one and that, someday, the Tenakth might learn to value their infirm enough to let him feel the air of his clanlands again.

On my way through, I dropped my Utaru garb off with Gana for a fresh coat of dye, choosing more muted colours suited to desert camouflage. Whether news comes from Gaia or not, I need to head west to seek out the rest of Regalla's rebels and unravel Sylens' mysterious plot before he can do any more damage to the people of these lands.

I found Yef with a group of fellow former slaves sitting by Daen's kitchen. Yef had taken the lead, first in the way back home, and now in the care of his injured people. I could tell he was restless, meant more for a life of exploration and daring feats than tribal rites and bed rest, but life in Eclipse clutches had shaken him, and he was glad now just to breathe and to tend to the scars of body and mind left on their captives.

I shared a meal with the ex-captives, offering as clear answers as they would understand about the Eclipse and their motives, for those who wanted to know. For most, it was enough to know that they were Carja and came to these lands to do as Carja have always done. I didn't press my point.

At the altar, I found Bree. He was planting Kalae's seeds in a basket to sit amongst the other offerings. She was never permitted the chance to speak on this stage as part of the Chorus, and instead would watch from behind, silent with the rest of the blooms of the dead, but it was not all despair. Despite Bree's rage at the corruption that gripped the Chorus, he had continued spreading Kalae's ideas, along with the truth of Kel's shortsighted brutality.

A few more hours spent in the golden light of evening, waiting for Gana's work to be done. One of the Utaru waved me over and offered to paint my face in the style of a Thresher, a symbol of strength and perseverance. Why not?

I need to move on. With the rebels driven out and the flow of Hephaestus' machines stemmed, the Utaru's most pressing problem is starvation. Only repairing Gaia will resolve it. West next, to get to the bottom of Sylens' plans. Until Gaia calls me to action, I'll do what I've always done best: right wrongs, and kill killers.

[theoxenia]

One of the most striking features of this relief—and many similar examples from Classical Attica—is that ritual activity within the sanctuary is commemorated in the form of an encounter with the deity herself, who acknowledges and welcomes her worshippers as a visible, anthropomorphic being, her divine status demonstrated by her superhuman size. In visual terms, we might say that the family’s visit to Brauron is celebrated as an experience of Artemis’ epiphany. How might we interpret this iconography? The difficulties it raises go to the heart of many challenging questions about ancient Greek religion, such as the nature and accessibility of the gods, the significance of ritual, the role of belief, and the relationship between collective practice and individual subjectivity. It also illustrates how religious artefacts—whether images or texts—seldom yield straightforward answers. For example, are we to take the relief literally? Does the scene suggest that Aristonike and her relatives actually saw Artemis when they prayed and dedicated their sacrifice to her? Does the phiale she holds indicate that the goddess has come to join in the sacrifice performed in her honour? Or does the figure of Artemis instead correspond to the statue that stood in her sanctuary, suggesting that an encounter with a cult image was itself a form of epiphany? If so, what might this imply about the power and significance of religious art? If we take the relief to be operating on a symbolic level, could it imply that Artemis was ‘present’ during the ritual in a more abstract sense? If so, her appearance in the scene might be better understood as an ‘expressive symbol’ of her special relationship with her worshippers at Brauron, visualized by the artist according to the iconographic conventions of anthropomorphism.

"Epiphany" by Verity Platt, in The Oxford Handbook Of Ancient Greek Religion edited by Esther Eidinow and Julia Kindt

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Claws of Dumat and the Tevinter Bird/Dragon

The Claw of Dumat was introduced to us for the first time, visually, in DA2, and it was not until DAI that we got information about it via a note. However, it was not alone; a second artefact that lacks of any information appeared beside it: a metallic sculpture of a bird or a dragon that I called along this blog the Tevinter bird.

[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

The Claws of Dumat

Where does this artefact appear? We have seen it four times already: In the Valdasine Thaig in DA2, in different places within the Fade of DAI, in Fairel's tomb in the Hissing Wastes of DAI, and in the DLC The Descent, inside a chamber of the Heidrun Thaig.

In DA2 game

The claws of Dumat appear for the first time in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig's entrance, at the sides of the main corridor that will lead us to the Thaig filled with Red Lyrium. This implies that this Thaig, which has no typical Dwarven decoration of Paragons and the writing on its walls was not traditional Dwarvish, was deeply related to Tevinter. The Thaig was located below the Deep Roads and was built before the First Blight [exact same characteristics than the Heidrun Thaig] .

We learn later that the Dwarves than inhabit this Thaig had strong trade relationships with Tevinter [they gave them lyrium, according to the codex Valdasine], and it is not clear if they were involved in the construction of Emerius [former name of Kirkwall]. The configuration of the Thaig makes us suspect that Tevinter made experiments here. There is a constant pattern along these rooms: blue lyrium, Claws of Dumat, and red lyrium, that makes us speculate that these three elements are related one another: immense source of lyrium that must have been used to feed the Claws of Dumat until the magisters used slave blood, which in the end, corrupted the lyrium and turned it into red one.

As we continue exploring the Thaig we find an interesting and mysterious codex: The profane. We interpreted it in details in the post Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium : we assumed that these profane may have been dwarven or humans who were abandoned in this Thaig when it was closed, and hungry, started to eat lyrium, the "blood of the gods", becoming through the aeons into the "profane" creatures, that only endure hunger. Hence, they brought the attention of Hunger demons in a place where the Veil was already thin due to the experiments performed with Claws of Dumat. These profane creatures don't look similar to the abominations of the Red Templars, so we could assume that they only consumed blue lyrium and the corruption of it into red lyrium happened later.

As we continue exploring the Thaig, Varric recognises the last chamber as a Dwarven “Vault”, filled with many Claws of Dumat from which the red lyrium grows.  Here, we find a staff called Valdasine, which codex says that before the First Blight,  the Dwarven House called Valdasine provided lyrium to all the Empire. However, one day, they closed the doors of their Thaig and blocked communication with everyone. When the doors opened after a time, it was empty, no bodies were found, and there were no clues of what happened. From a design point of view, clearly the profane and this event must be connected: This thaig is the Valdasine’s Thaig, and the profane are all those families that were trapped here and forced to eat Lyrium. The age seems to coincide roughly: both events happened before the darkspawn existed. It's also worth noting that the presence of a staff implies that this Thaig had mages, since dwarven were unable to use magic. This reinforces the idea that Tevinter had a deep relationship with this Thaig in particular, and Tevinter mages were present here with some purpose [most likely, an experiment that required big amounts of Lyrium]. We have to remember that dwarves and Tevinter mages had shown another similar situation where Tevinter Mages experimented within dwarven Thaigs in Golems of Amgarrak. In it, a Tevinter mage was trying to recreate a fleshy alternative to Caridin's golems, crafting the mysterious Harvester.

In DAI game: The Fade

The second time we see the Claws are in the Fade of DAI. They appear at different times and contexts: In The Raw Fade - Part 1 among statues of the Free Marches eagle, implying a strong relationship of this artefact with Kirkwall. This may reinforce the idea we explored in DA2 in Kirkwall history and design and in particular with the Enigma of Kirkwall : It is likely that Kirkwall was where the breach to the Fade was done centuries ago, through blood sacrifice. This is also reinforced by the codex Claw of Dumat, where we learn that Corypheus trusted that this artefact would allow him to bring back Tevinter to its former glory.

In the section of the Fade that I called "The Tevinter Path" in The Raw Fade - Part 2 we find more Claws, implying that they were used in the process of reaching the gods that had gone silent. This event can be interpreted as the Magisters breaking into the Black City in the Fade physically.

In Flemeth’s Fade – Part 1 , we find another Claw in an intersection, where a statue of the Free Marches is shown in front of some Avvar Keepers of Fear. Again, this seems to represent the tumultuous history of the region of Kirkwall: Tevinter invaded natives of this place to build Emerius with a hidden purpose beyond the mere extraction of stones for the construction of the Imperial Highway [more details in Kirkwall history and design]

In DAI game: Fairel’s tomb

In the Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb we find a Claw in one of the tombs, implying that the whole story of Fairel may have been related to Tevinter and its magisters as well. This makes sense if we remember that the Fairel were a clan specialised on Runecraft, and this art was used in the construction of Kirkwall. There is also a mention of runes/sigils that can only be seen from the Fade in the Heidrun Thaig in The Descent – The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar.

The tomb where the claw appears displays a specific fragment of the story of Fairel:

Fairel, Paragon, fled from the strife his brilliance created, the strife that destroyed thaigs, sundered houses, from weapons that clan used against clan. His own clan and his two sons followed Fairel to the pitiless surface, the surface where they would hide from the war that took their home.

As we see, it is related to the exodus of Fairel and its causes: a weapon he developed, which provoked strife and destroyed clans. During this quest in DAI, we learn that this secret weapon is a kind of rune, but the game doesn't give it more importance later [it feels more because the rush of ending the game, than something lore-related]. This is the main reason why I think Fairel’s house, as runecrafters, may have helped magisters to develop Emerius [which is built following glyphs and runes patterns, for more details check Kirkwall history and design]. As a clan alone on the surface, during a time when most dwarves were underground, they may have relied on Tevinter or accepted any deal in order to survive.

There is clearly a link between the Fairel ruins and Corypheus: Corypheus knew about these forgotten ruins when nobody knew they were there, thus he commanded the Venatori to dig them and look for Fairel's particular weapon: a rune.

Also, the presence of Tevinter elements in this tomb must have been brought in the past, during the times of Corypheus when he was a human magister, since these ruins where not known by anyone until now: it was Corypheus who informed the Venatori about them. The Shaperate, the only other institution that may have had this knowledge, never knew about them since they “recorded Fairel as dead” as soon as he left the underground. So I think it’s reasonable to keep supporting the idea that this clan and these ruins were involved with the ancient Tevinters quite deeply.

In DAI game: DLC, the Descent

In The Descent – The Deep Roads we start the exploration of this region with a big Claw in the main room. It is flanked by two elven rounded trees in the dwarven style. This is already telling us that this Thaig, which predates the Blights, had Tevinter presence not only for trade: their blood ritual instruments had been incorporated to the decoration of the chambers of the Thaig Heidrun, built on a lyrium mine and then destroyed by and earthquake caused by unknown reasons [the stir of a woken-up Titan by an unknown event].  .

In front of the claw, there is a table with a game and a Dwarven stone-paintings that belongs to these strange paintings we found in Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb, where we speculated that maybe represented Kirkwall, or another city Kirkwall-like.

Later, we find more Claws in another room where they are exposed in a way that implies worship. Since it's in here where the Tevinter bird appears, i will talk about this room later, in the Tevinter Bird section down below.

What do we know about the Claws of Dumat?

In the DAI Fade [ The Raw Fade - Part 1] we find an extremely juicy codex explaining about this artefact. The codex is written by Corpyheus’ slave who was sacrificed later. What we learn here is:

It implies that Corypheus has been developing different altars to “bring Tevinter to Glory” [Would that mean that the Tevinter bird is a prototype?].

We are informed that the Old Gods have been silent for a while and that has caused the loss of followers. This has been a source of fear in Corypheus. [This info is confirmed by Corypheus as well during Orlais: Shrine of Dumat]

This slave knows that Corypheus has been meeting with other “priests” to try to find a solution to the decline of the cult to the Old Gods. 

Corypheus took his name around the time the Tevinter Magisters entered the Golden City. So we can assume this is a narration very close to the time in which the Sidereal Magisters stepped into the Fade physically.

Corypheus knew that the old elves were tied to the Fade, and the mortal elves have something of that power in their blood, hence he wanted to use their blood for the ritual of entering the Fade.

The Claw of Dumat supports the victim on its top, with shackles, and seems to drip blood along the statue to a pool with runes. [Could these runes be a creation of Fairel?]

It is implied that Corypheus used little blood magic before the silence of the Old Gods. The loss of god's voice made him fall in despair.

These words were written and reflected/preserved in the Fade at the base of one of these Claws of Dumat we find just after we pass by some Free Marches eagles. Again, the presence of the Free Marches eagles around the Claws of Dumat may be a representation of Kirkwall, but it could also represent another thing, maybe related to the Tevinter bird.

The Tevinter Bird/Dragon

It is a metal statue of something that looks like a bird or a dragon. It could be the “Tevinter” style of the usual Kirkwall eagle, or something else that escapes me completely. If one is careless, these draconic-bird-like statues can be mistakes for Claws of Dumat, but they are not. They share the same style than the Claws: they are Tevinter, made of dark metal, in an angular and pointy shape.

When we compare it with the statue of Mythal dragon shape, we can see some similitude, as if it were the same one but in the pointy “Tevinter” style. Of course, if this were the case, this metallic representation of Mythal lacks of its iconic spike. 

In DA2 game

The first time we see this statue is in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig [read Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium ], in a Chamber that Varric refers to as a Dwarven Vault but its key claims it to be a crypt. There are veins of red lyrium around these statues and around the Claws of Dumat.

In DAI game: Crestwood Caves

The next appearance is in Crestwood: Flooded Caves, at the entrance of a chamber of a Dwarven ruin.

This place seemed to be important, since it is decorated in this fashion. This entrance even has an illustration in the Book of Inquisition [image above], showing that these statues are placed at the side of the entrance completely on purpose. The position seems to be similar to Mythal statues we find in the elvhenan ruins or Temples.

In that illustration, however, we also see a big mask-face over them, reminding us those faces we saw in dwarven Thaigs in DAO, or in the Avril of Void. These faces always gave me the impression of being unconcious representations of the Titans within the dwarven culture.

Later on, I found a plaque close to this place, in a locked room, that seemed to imply this whole dwarven ruin was a route that connected Aeducan Thaig with Gundaar Thaig [another famous Thaig, and one of the first in falling under the darkspawn threat]. It’s interesting that the name Gundaar appears here, since it’s one of the three Thaigs that the lore considered lost and have been hiding curious developments [the other two are Kal-Sharok and Hormak, for more details read Orzammar, Witch Hunt, and The Horror of Hormak ].

In DAI game: Heidrun Thaig

The last appearance of the Tevinter bird was in DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads where, despite the lack of information in a codex, we find a curious chamber in the Heidrun Thaig that may provide some insight.

The chamber in question seems to honour four statues: two Claws of Dumat and two Tevinter birds. This could have been a chamber of summoning or enhancing magic, since we know the Claws of Dumat were used with blood sacrifices to empower magic. So even though we don’t know what the Tevinter bird’s function could have been, the presence of the claws makes us infer that it may have been related to blood sacrifices and the process of breaching the Fade.

Another detail that supports this hypothesis is that, in this Thaig, blood magic has been performed long time ago: we meet an Arcane Horror in The Uncharted Abbys, Bastion of the Pure, who still performs blood magic with animal bodies [we find some dead animals that are still warm]. The curious detail is that this chamber has a lot of elvhenan objects: several inukshuk, an eluvian with the same frame that Merril's, and a statue of Humanoid Mythal. In the same chamber we also find one of the Tevinter sacrificial altars, which makes us suspect that Tevinter and Elvhenan knowledge have been fused in this place. That these elements appear in this part of the underground may be related to the fact that the Bastion of the Pure it's where we find the densest amount of lyrium [important component to cast powerful magic].

However, I'm not sure if we can assume this Arcane Horror is an ancient magister of that time. I’m more inclined to think that it is the father of the builder of The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar, who needed to be in the Fade in order to see the sigil that is present in all this Thaig, apparently. 

Speculations about the Tevinter bird/dragon

The information we have collected in here is rather scarce. We can have a good understanding of the Claws of Dumat, but it's hard to extrapolate all that to the Tevinter bird. So, I developed several hypothesis:

It's a prototype of a Claw of Dumat

According to the codex of the Claws of Dumat, Corypheus had been working on different prototypes, so we can assume this Tevinter bird may have been one of those: a mere prototype. However, if it was so, why would it be present in Valdasine's Thaig? You don't use failed prototypes. Unless its presence, in combination with the Claws, is what makes the claws work.

It's something related to Emerius

Kirkwall always had an iconic metallic statue of an eagle [1, 2]. We can even say that the geometrical symbol of Kirkwall [7] looks like an eagle extending its wings [7] even though the origin of that symbol has a strong resemblance with the original symbol of Emerius: a raising dragon [7].

In the Viscount's Keep, we see different other representations of the eagle [2, 3, 5, 6]. The origin of [3] seems to be [4] which is a symbol closer to the Emerius style than the current, geometrical one, so this design detail tells me that this symbol may have belonged to the time of Emerius. The fact that the claws of Dumat appear in the Fade close to the [1] eagle statues may represent something. Maybe the original rising dragon represented in the Emerius symbol was hidden later in a bird-like figure?

Since the dark metallic eagle represents Kirkwall [or Emerius if we are talking about old times], this draconic/bird statue may be the representation of another city with similar characteristics than Emerius, maybe less important during the time of the Tevinter Empire glory.

This idea is also suggested when we find a Claw of Dumat in the first chamber of DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads , where we see one of those Dwarven stone-paintings, which is neither the usual painting we saw along DAO, nor the usual one representing Kirkwall in DA2.

There is also a weird "bird" statue that we only see in DA2, that I talked about it in Xenon and his Black Emporium, depicted as a humanoid bird with chains that holds a mask on it. I can't bring a decent, non-conspiracy relationship between them, but it's the only bird-like statue I can think of through all the games. This weird statue appears in many houses of Kirkwall in DA2 [specially noticeable in Danarius house].

It's a Forgotten One which, as a dragon, was taken by the Tevinter interpretation as Dumat [or any other Old God]

In the way it is presented in the Vault of DA2, and considering it has a draconic shape to it, we can even speculate that this statue is a small representation of Dumat himself.

Hence, this statue is attached to big chunks of metal and close to the Claws of Dumat in that Vault as a mere decoration.

I like to play with the thought that it may be Myhtal [as I did in the beginning of this Tevinter Bird section]: I already talked about the speculation of Mythal being of double nature [Evanuris and Forgotten One, that the unreliable oral tradition of the Dalish lore twisted to give it to Fen'Harel, details in Speculations about the Vinyl Art or Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun], and the Forgotten Ones being dragons that were worshipped by the Elvhenan until they claimed their divinity [read more in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History]. In that moment on, they may have erased the ancient gods turning them into the forgotten ones, who escaped to the Abyss [which is related to the underground, where we know many dragons hibernate]. Therefore, there is a possibility that these forgotten dragons were taken later by the newly arrived humans [the Neomerians] who developed the cult of the Dragons, aka The Old Gods, being completely oblivious of the relationship that these creatures had with the Elvhenan, a civilisation they hated and despised. So that, they took the image of Mythal and considered it Dumat, and for that reason, they used this statue as a decoration to place around the Claws of Dumat.

The con of this interpretation is that it's not clear what kind of Dragon was the real Dumat-Archdemon which desolated the lands during the First Blight: was it truly Mythal? Another fragment of her? or was another Dragon? We already made a lot of speculations about the true Mythal being trapped in the Black City in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art that makes this current speculation to falter.

Considering this horrible counter-argument, we could assume that maybe this is another Forgotten One that we have no name at all, but again, why would you put it close to the Claws of "Dumat" then?

Conclusion

It's clear that all speculations are pretty weak and lack of consistency to be considered seriously. For the moment, we know this statue exists, and may have some relationship with Tevinter, the Dwarves, and Emerius, even though we can't detail how that relationship is. Let's hope that future games, if they are not meant to destroy the DA lore, may give us some enlightenment on this matter.

[eljackinton]

Quickfire reviews of all the games Jack played in 2024

Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty

Cyberpunk 2077 is, if nothing else, an impressive achievement in creating virtual worlds. Night City feels more alive, realistic and believable than any other city in games. However, its attempt to be every game to every player pulls it back from true greatness. Trying to be both a "go anywhere, do anything" style theme park but also tell a deeply personal story of a terminally ill protagonist diminishes both attempts.

It's why Phantom Liberty feels so much more successful at what it attempts to do. A smaller world area tied directly to the ongoing plot makes the player feel more involved, and the story more magnetic. Should CDPR revisit the Cyberpunk world, I think Phantom Liberty is a good blueprint on how to pull it off.

Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate

This Dangeresque game feels in many ways a direct response to the Strong Bad points and click games that were released near two decades ago. While the previous entries were well received, there was a sense that some of the tone and humour had been dialled back to appeal more to general audiences. The Roomisode Triungulate, by contrast, is purely for Homestar Runner fans, the game itself more in-universe artefact than anything else. For better or worse.

Norco

A wonderful, creative sci-fi point and click that blends sci-fi dystopia with ambiguous spiritual fantasy. A bleak but hopeful tale set in a world that it feels like we are very swiftly hurtling towards.

Warhammer 40'000 Mechanicus

A pitch perfect depiction of the bizarre and alien culture of the Adeptus Mechanics, its creative decisions are bold and work well in it's favour. Gameplay wise it is tight, adaptive and very very addictive. I look forward to the sequel.

Signalis

You don't need me to tell you that this game will go down in history as an all time classic. As frightening and unsettling as it is fascinating and intricate. A Rorschach test of a plot that offers no definitive answers but leaves you thinking on it for months.

Industria

A short, tight homage to the Half Life 2 era of FPS games. Industria is very visually impressive and it's parallel world intrigues, but at times feels more like a tech demo than full game. I have high hopes for the sequel to satiate my appetite.

Lethal Company

A work of genius that is fun to jump into but I really wish there was more depth to the progression of the game. I can see it becoming much more involved as time goes on, or at least I hope it will.

Quake Add-Ons

There's something fascinating about all the ways mappers and modders stretch and contort the Quake engine to make it do new and interesting things. All the add-ons bundled with the most recent edition of the game are testament to this, especially Episode Enyo, which is almost a total conversion in it's own right.

The Witness and The Looker

Jon Blow's attempt to create a true "art game" is almost impossible to judge, but ultimately I enjoyed my time with it, even if I had to use a walkthrough for the back half of most of the puzzles. Even if at times it doesn't really come together, I appreciate what it was trying to do. The Looker's playful ribbing is a good follow up, and is just short enough that it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

10/10 writing. 10/10 sound design. 10/10 atmosphere. It's a shame the gameplay itself feels under-baked and far too simple. There's the makings of a great folkloric "hobo simulator" here, but instead it came out as more of a glorified audio book. Still worth a look into if the concept catches your fancy.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

It actually took me several years to get through Turok 2 because I found so much of the backtracking and secret searching such a slog. Gameplay wise it's about as good as the first one, but where that game zoomed along at a breakneck pace, the starts and stops of Turok 2 really bring the whole experience down.

Black Future '88

Likewise, I spent the last few years jumping in to Black Future 88 in fits and starts. A difficult game to get into because it is best played in short chunks but the only way to master it is to play constantly to get good at the mechanics. I finally completed a successful run this year, and figured that was enough for me. Stylish, slick, I'd like to see a sequel take its ideas further.

Life is Strange: True Colors

An enjoyable mystery drama, that nonetheless feels like it was designed in a lab to be the most Life is Strangest Life is Strange experience you can get. Ultimately though, it feels like it's missing bite. Inoffensive in both good and bad ways that make it forgettable in comparison to its predecessors.

Ion Fury and Aftershock

An underwhelming and frankly unambitious retro FPS that I wanted to love but instead came out of disappointed. Ion Fury is an impressive homage to the Build Engine era but with little all else. No real plot or storytelling to speak of. No attempts at subversion or deconstruction. Homage is all it is, and honestly I wanted more than that.

Kentucky Route Zero

Words cannot describe what an utterly unique experience KR0 is. A story told in a way only video games can do, in ways no video game has ever done before. Bleak, hopeful, dreamlike. A masterpiece.

Heaven Will Be Mine

I've kind of struggled with getting into visual novels in recent years, though no fault of their own, but what I will say is that I enjoyed Heaven Will Be Mine's very creative and interesting story with unique and interesting art that helps give a dreamlike quality to it's tale of manufactured space gods.

Inscryption

Another unique experience telling a story that could only be done by video games. Best experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible. Even beyond its storytelling, Inscryption has incredibly well designed and addictive gameplay.

Sonar Shock

An impressive recreation of early 90's era ImSim mechanics, and a reminder as to why we streamlined or dropped a lot of those mechanics as time went on. Difficult to recommend unless you absolutely NEED to play a game that takes you back to 1994. Mercifully short and an interesting experiment nonetheless.

The Marathon Trilogy

Marathon and its sequels are a strange thing to go back to in the modern era. An attempt by Bungie to tell an intricate and deep science fiction story within the limitations of the time. With no cutscenes, voice acting or particularly elaborate in-game staging, Bungie make do with what they do have and weave a fascinating sci-fi epic out of text terminals and environmental assets. Legendary for a reason.

HROT

Part Quake homage, part surreal post-Soviet meditation, HROT welds a slick, fun game with references and in-jokes that are as interesting to discover just as much as the surreal story is to try and decipher.

Eastshade

A bold attempt at trying to do a non-violent Elder Scrolls type open world game. Made up entirely of exploration, painting and side quests, Eastshade doesn't succeed at everything it sets out to do but it makes a string attempt at proving that you can make an engaging first person game that doesn't involve combat. It also looks extremely beautiful.

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide and Hoards of the Underdark

I had little good things to say about the bland base campaign for Neverwinter Nights, but I had hopes for the highly regarded expansions. Sadly, despite an improvement in writing and an attempt to make the scenery less sterile Undrentide and Underdark are still chock to the brim with boring environments and weightless combat. Add to that a bunch of extremely difficult late game combat encounters and it led to me using cheats just to get myself to the end.

Hunt Showdown 1896

Hunt relaunched this year with a new map, new engine and new monsters to fight, but the overall experience is ultimately unchanged. I could quibble about some of the tweaks, the new UI and server issues, but none of that changes the fact that I am still addicted and have yet to get anywhere near tired of the game.

[fiorilavellan]

@fadewalking

Fiori was a scholar. She had spent her life chasing the threads of old magic, spells woven so deeply they still left echoes in the world long after their empire had fallen. Once they were poets, warriors and kings. Even reduced, they had history and culture to be proud of. What they had kept may only have been a fragment of a splinter of what was, but even those splinters shone so brightly it was hard not to dream of what the whole might have been.

The Inquisition had given her resources she had never imagined. Old texts, stories and songs from around the continent in so many languages it made her head spin. Old spells, magical constructs, ruins so old it was a wonder they didn’t crumble at the touch. Places where their people had once walked, protected for once, for careful study. Artefacts left in place rather than plundered, so they could be understood. She had learned a lot during those years, and even if she had rarely contributed anything of value, the Inquisitor had barely noticed such a tiny drain on their resources. 

That had ended when the Dread Wolf had revealed himself. Suddenly she was noticed, as an elf who specialised in old stories and songs, how they connected to history. She had been made to explain, over and over, the significance of the tales, why Fen’harel was feared, why the Dalish spent their lives guarding against his influences. And then she was sent to spy on him. It was ridiculous. A waste of resources and time. She knew how to play the Game as well as any other elf in even the smallest position of power, had played it well during her time in the Inquisition in order to secure resources for her clan and passage for her people. But she wasn’t any good at hiding who she was, or sneaking around, or sending secret messages. It was absolutely no surprise at all that she had been caught.

Fiori remembered very little about the reclusive scholar of the Inquisition, might have heard his voice in the distance, or perhaps replied to a note. In fact she was sure, now, that he had once asked her for a particular volume on star charts, written by sailors from Tevinter. 

She couldn’t remember anything he had written or what she had said in reply, but in retrospect it chilled her, to know she had been that close. The Inquisition had told her what they knew about him, but there wasn’t much to go on. A long-ruined home, something of a sweet tooth but a distaste for tea, esoteric knowledge of the Fade and spirits. How had they missed such obvious holes?

Leliana had worked carefully to insert her into Solas’ rebel army. They both knew she would likely fail, the Nightingale had pleaded her case to the Inquisitor, to no avail. She was unknown to Solas, despite crossovers in their field of work. She was an elf with strong ties to her culture, and she was something of a rebel herself, so they should have a lot in common. She was beginning to regret lying about the hair thing. Clan Lavellan was known for dyes and weaving, and blue was a common choice for hair in her family. But humans always liked a rebel rather than an elf too devoted to their culture, and it had smoothed the way to say she was on bad terms with her Keeper. The Keeper who had taught her the spell for colouring her hair in the first place. That spell was the only one on her when they put the shackles around her wrists. It kept crackling and fading, so that she looked like she had fallen into the dye vat for the first few hours until the shackles finally cut off her magic entirely. Clever really, to have a visual indication of a prisoner’s mana reserves. Now her hair was its natural wheat blonde, in long waves down her back where it had broken free of its braid. The shackles were lighter than those the Chantry used; more like glowing bracelets. They left her hands free in the hours she was left alone in her cell. There was a window high up on the wall, and she had latched her fingers onto the sill and hauled herself up for a look only to discover it was magic. There was a view, but it changed hour by hour. It was a pity she had nothing to stand on to watch it go by. She was expecting execution. She had already confessed exactly who she was. Fiori couldn’t stand pain, and owed the Inquisition nothing for putting her here. It was only a shame their only spy was so damned inept, it really didn’t bode well for the world. 

[lowkeyclueless5137]

Winx Club au(S1)

Alright! But hear me out!

Like I have the creative zoomies(again) and I brainroted this for DAYS! Like you have no idea how on point I nailed everything.

Except visuals... We are here for the plot... :'3

I will accept any kind of visual suggestions tho... Plot too if you have :3

Anyway! I put the title! You know it: Winx Au!

Bc why not? Why tf shouldn't I smush together these 2 pieces of media that I like?

Anyway! We will have A LOT to cover... Because, much to the horror of moi, we will have 6 seasons. Like, if you know winx or were in the Fandom, you know the mixed opinions that started after season 3. It's just... A lot...

Even so, I enjoyed way too much the concepts and themes of the later seasons that I... Kinda forgot about plot? Shocking, I know...

Although season 7 was way too painful to watch and that's where I dropped everything and went my merry way. U-U9

Anyway! With that out of the way, we will dive into this Au, but first, some disclaimers:

I WILL go into more darker themes. Maybe Winx had a lighter tone, but it did go dark a few times. And I will go and shove it in even darker pits.

There will be swearing, much like violence... Because I need it for plot purposes.

This Au will start IN PARALLEL with Winx S1. So if you see mentions of og winx characters, locations or artefacts, you know why. I will also neglect season 7 and 8. Which means that for me, lore wise, will be irrelevant. I say this, because I will use lore aspects up until season 6, therefore it's just the bare necessities :3

At one point, the winx time-line and this au's time-line will meet up. So you should expect even a meeting in between the og winx and our group. :3c

Now, with that out of the way, we will go under ✨the cut✨ for it!

To start off: world lore.

Twisted wonderland was a planet full of magic. Unfortunately, due to political reasons, this planet didn't want to abide by the rest of Magix's quite tight rules and regulations, therefore it wasn't granted as many benefits as the other planets who agreed upon them. The primary reason was, of course: there has to be one singular royal family ruling over the whole planet. Twisted wonderland had multiple monarchies, democracies, republics and everything. And it was clear neither of them wanted to cojoin and be ruled by a single entity.

What was very special about twisted wonderland, was it's diversity in magic and how open it was. While it was very diverse, quite the array of categories of magic being able to be accessed, it was more or so notable that the common folk either didn't have magic affinities, or very weak magic, to the point they don't unlock even the base forms. Those people are called: stagnants, and could follow just primary magical courses at the very least.

Some notable institutes training people are:

NRC- an all boys school for fairies. Founded by the great 7, NRC is a 4 year boarding-school, whith a riguros training system. You can only boast about being in NRC after you passed in your 3rd year, because the exams are means of expulsion on their own.

RSA- the infamous specialists School. It trains magicless people into becoming knights and guards. It is quite renowned for it's 4 year training and great knights who could handle difficult situations.

NBC- the school of witches and wizards. Mostly known for it's long history and the very notable positive figures it housed. Despite training students into the dark arts, many came out to be protectors of their homelands or serving for good.

Now, for the first season:

We follow Jack. Jack was a Beastman, coming from a magicless family. His family had a very weak connection with magic since countless generations. But that didn't really stop Jack from living his life. He was a normal guy. That's all about him.

Alright, maybe not so normal, since he was close friends with the raising star in acting and modeling: Vil Schonenheit. Vil was known to be a fairy in training, just like his father, grandparents and so on. But Vil was also nice and always made time to go outside and hang out with Jack, so Jack really didn't think Vil was bad like the villain he was always portrayed in movies or plays.

But even so, Jack was never ready when he first discovered he could do magic. It was something more of a heat of the moment: his younger siblings were in danger, falling from a tree they climbed, so Jack, in a panic, summoned a layer of magic snow that cushioned their fall. It was clear he was the source, because it was the middle of the summer then.

With that, Jack really had his world rocked from it's feet. Vil just started his first year at NRC at that time, so he really wasn't sure if he should lay this news on his friend.

Nonetheless, Vil was excited when he heard the news. Jack was a terrible liar, so he figured he should fess up rather than hide it. Vil, obviously, was very happy and expected for his buddy to come to NRC with him. To assure he will get picked up, Vil would train Jack over the holidays, trying to get a grip on his powers before going into school.

Vil managed to get into his 3rd year when Jack finally got accepted and got in as a first year. Unfortunately for him, Vil did tell him that now that he was in his 3rd year, he would have to work even harder, so the best they could do is to text each other and maybe they could hang out sometime.

So Jack stepped in NRC, with a rough idea of how things work and clearly ready to learn more.

Vil told him about the sorting ceremony, so Jack really didn't expect to be so gloomy. When he thought about the fairies, he saw them so colorful and sparkly. Even so, someone did grab him, explaining that it's a metaphor for the butterflies process. They start as gloomy caterpillars before gaining their wings.

That someone was none other than a short boy with hair made out of blue flames. Jack was surprised of the hair, but the boy, named Ortho, was thrilled to meet another first year. He really hoped to be sorted for the Ignihyde courses. At that, Jack really didn't understand.

Ortho explains it to him: there are 7 courses, meant to train a future fairy in one of the 7 virtues the founders had. Each course has it's unique perks and special places on campus.

The 7 courses were:

The Heartslabyul course-focused mainly on a little bit of everything. It's a course that relies heavily on the rule abiding. A fairy must always aim to solve a problem without breaking rules or morals, which can affect their magic as well. Their special aera was the rose garden, where the students could relax or maditate. Jack noted that it would be a great course for him. He wanted to practice everything.

The Savanaclaw course- a course that relies mostly on limited use of magic. It trains fairies to be proficient even without magic, making it the best course in training great guards. They just never give up no matter what. Their perk was unlimited access to the sports grounds. Ortho said that even if he was energetic, he wouldn't stand a chance in there. He's a couch potato unfortunately. :'3

The Octavinelle course- they are courses mostly aimed at one's inner peace. Since the state of the mind also affects fairies, Octavinelle students are known to be always with their feet on the ground and able to deal very easy with spells that require a more deep understanding of oneself. Ortho wouldn't call it really a perk, but there is a cafe on campus that Octavinelle fully runs it. They also have an aera of the library allocated to them only.

The scarabia course- it's very popular for their focus on resources. These students are fairies who can easily use their environment to their advantage. Apparently their perk is access to a lot of supplementary courses outside. They could just crash in other course's expedition outside and be totally fine with it. Jack really didn't know what to say, but Ortho reassured that apparently the scarabia fairies are quite chill.

The poemfiore course- it's a course focused on antidotes and curses management. Their main perk is unlimited access to herbs and ingredients that are cultivated on the school grounds. Although they are also renowned for their impeccable looks and manners. Ortho did say that perhaps he could fit the bill for it, while Jack mentioned he had a friend in there.

The Ignihyde course- a course focused primarily on magic and technology. Since there is magic tech, the Ignihyde fairies can merge magic with tech flawlessly. There are many technological fairies in there, although there are also a few exceptions. Their perks aren't that known, but they have the underground workshops, where they can invent or tinker with whatever they please. Ortho said that his big brother is there, so he hopes to get also in there. Jack didn't really feel like he had a knack for tech, so he really didn't know what to say.

Then, the last one, Diasomnia- the practical magic course. Not only is the course where one of the most powerful fairies are coming, it is also a course with a lot of perks: status, more optional courses, meditation places and also a personal library section. It's the course that outshines everyone. Ortho did say that he hoped he wouldn't end up with a jerk from there in the dorm. Jack just awkwardly looks in the other part.

Ortho also mentioned that apparently the dorms are mixed. So there is a fair chance that even if they end up in different courses, they could still be roommates. Jack also hoped that, because ortho was literally the only 1st year he knew.

They do get sorted by the dark mirror. An odd name, but Jack didn't question it.

He ended up in Savanaclaw. And Ortho ended up in Ignihyde.

Jack was of course guided towards a senior: Ruggie. He presented himself as the prefect of the Savanaclaw course. A prefect, as Ruggie put it, was a student who excels in their courses while also embracing the virtues of the founder the course is based of. As a prefect, Ruggie had a job of overseeing the savanaclaw students. Mostly to guide the first years and nudge them into adapting. He also explained the school main rules to them, which Jack took a big note of:

-do not be off the campus after 22.

-do not smuggle in dangerous curses/artefacts.

-do not cross the restricted sections of the school.

3 big rules. Of course, there are the minor rules also, but these 3 are the ones that immediately get you expulsion.

Ruggie also gave to everyone, one by one, their programs and dorm keys. Thankfully Ruggie was the kind soul who smuggles in a map for the first years, so they won't get lost, then pushed them on their merry way to the dorms.

It took some mad orientation skills and also a small meeting with Vil, before Jack finally found his dorm.

And it was a mess.

The dorm itself was pretty big, considering it had 3 supposed bedrooms, all connected through a small lounge. It was very spacious. But it had things sprawled around, 2 guys arguing, one of them on the coffee table, and 2 literally throwing books and pillows at each other.

Oh and Ortho was there. He seemed to be texting someone when he saw Jack and happily approached him.

It took a bit to calm down and finally get around with intros and everything. There were 2 bedrooms, each with 2 beds and everyone was already pre-determined.

In the first room- Deuce Spade from Heartslabyul and Sebek Zigvolt from Diasomnia.

Second room- Jack and Ortho

Third room- Epel Felimer from poemfiore and Ace Trappola from Heartslabyul.

And for now, things seemed quite awkward, with everyone settling in at their own pace then sleeping.

The first few days were also awkward. Everyone had their own courses and still had to get to know each other, which was a bit hard. Still, for the sake of coherence, Jack tried his best to bring everyone together to bond.

Which leads them to a weekend hangout through the Sage city. Gradually, they had fun together, went to a cafe, arcade and walked through the streets, bonding. It seemed to do wonders as now they were all comfortable enough to crack jokes in between them.

But their fun moment is cut short when they happen to overhear a very sus conversation on an alleyway. Being the bastards they were, despite Jack, Deuce and Sebek being against it, the 6 of them decide to snoop a bit on the convo.

They overhear 2 people, cloaked from head to toe, talking about finding some sort of key. One of them seemed quite impatient as the other reassured that until they find the key, that a stone they showed should do the trick. Ortho recognised it as a black magic stone, which got the group to worry.

Sage Island was very known to heavily rely on fairy magic, also dubbed as white magic. Black magic is used sometimes in here, but if it's used to affect the land, the island itself won't stand, since it's core is made out of fairy magic. At least that's what Epel explained to the group in whispers.

Their little cover is blown anytway, because they couldn't be discret to save their lives, so due to this, the 2 people summon a monster made out of trash, meant to dispose of them, while they fleed.

And rightfully, being the fledgling fairies they were, this group was absolute shit at it. Everyone tries to be leader and everyone is crashing one against each other. It doesn't help that only 4 out of 6 could actually transform. (Jack and Ace) which left 2 more vulnerable.

In the end, Jack comes up with a plan to defeat the monster and actually rolling with it, assuring them as the winners of the fight, while the monster returned to trash piles. But they made a mess out of it, so now they hurried back to NRC to just get a shower and talk about it, since maybe they were tired, but sleep was the last thing on their worry list.

Except that they get caught up by Ruggie. They came in late, but seeing how they were looking like shit, Ruggie decides to close an eye for the meantime, with the promise of not happening again. They didn't go that much over the curfew, so he could just assume they got lost on their way back.

At their dorm, the 6 of them gathered together after cleaning up and getting some comfy pijamas and decided to discuss about it.

Epel says that he is the fairy of earth, hence why he felt a slight disturbtion in the earth magic from here when the monster was summoned. That monster clearly wasn't a being with life and mind of it's own as Ortho put it, but their next dilema was: What was the deal with those 2 people?

Ace suggests that maybe they should leave it and mind their own business. Deuce said that he is worried about the monster returning, or even worse, more of them coming. Sebek was wondering what kind of key were those people looking for. Epel had mixed feelings about it, while Ortho was insisting to look into it.

Jack suggested to tell some authorities about it, which gained a flat no. They didn't know how the individuals looked like, nor did the monster they fought got caught by the public. They could be considered to be bluffing for clout, so for now, this stood in between them.

The conclusion: no one would believe the without evidence.

So in the spirit of their unanimous decision of investigating, Ace suggests a group name for them. They were kind of like a team so names were suggested around. The final draft was: Requix squad. It sounded sick by Epel's standards, so they decided that this was their group name.

So they start their investigation. Looking around for clues about what the key was meaning, watching the news, discovering that more and more monster attacks were spotted, thankfully the specialists and fairies were there in time. And of course, attending the courses and triaing to unlock their fairy forms or more power.

Early on, they get introduced to the concept of fairy forms: there are 2 main forms: base form and enchantix. In the first year, students are meant to learn the bases, including control of their base form. The 2nd year students are meant to unlock charmix, a power up for their base form, meant to signal them getting closer to enchantix. And by the final of their 3rd year, they have to get enchantix, so that on the 4th year they could properly train to be guardian fairies.

And like that, our Requix squad is very vexed about it. Ortho had an idea what that stone they saw could be, but he still had to do some research and confirm his worries before sharing a possibly flawed theory.

During this, Jack has Leona, his practical magic teacher, noticing his lack of attention. He does confront him about it. Maybe it was just the start of the year, but Leona could see that Jack was a vigilent kid, so him looking so troubled must've been because something happened. Rightfully, Leona assumes it's because Jack is a late bloomer with magic and all these monster attacks that leave the first year fairies to learn combat more early.

So Leona tries to reassure Jack that he needs to put more mind on his own self and only then he will be able to connect with his magic more.

Meanwhile, Ace has a nightmare. One that ends up waking Epel as well, the 2 having a talk about it.

Ace tells Epel that he saw something bad. A big monster, dark tunnels, and the same cloaked figure from the alley, hidden in the shadows. Epel wasn't the best at comforting, but he did his best. In the morning, Ace didn't share about it with the others, everyone assuming he just didn't sleep that well.

Meanwhile, Jack catches Ortho trying out a dark magic spell. When asking about it, Ortho realises that he has to fess up to the truth: he was half witch, mainly from his mother's side. Since the Shrouds had the heirloom of the first born to be the fairy of death, Ortho's big brother, Idia, gained that title, along with being a full fledged fairy, even if he did cary some faith traces of dark magic, those didn't affect him. Meanwhile, Ortho inherited both fairy and witch magic, making it hard to control and sometimes, his own body can't take it, manifesting as dizzy spells or even fainting when one of the sides takes over. So far, Ortho took many precautions, but he just can't pursue one side of him without feeling the repercussions, so sometimes he tries dark magic spells to balance it out.

Jack is a bit taken aback by it, but Ortho pleaded for him to tell no one. Jack had no option but to comply and help Ortho out with his little problem, mainly by helping with the research about the stone.

And they finally come with a rough idea. What that stone was, could it be a gloomix stone. The others are a bit confused, but Ortho tells them that gloomix is a witch form. Just like charmix is for a fairy, gloomix is a powerup for a witch's base form. Except that while charmix comes from making personal amends with oneself, gloomix is made through taking dark magic straight from a power source or given to you by a more powerful entity.

This leads them to search more about where could the gloomix stone could come from. They discover some aincent tunnels, so while everyone is asleep, the 6 sneak out and find a hidden entrance to the tunnels right behind a statue on the school hall.

Ace does become uneasy, saying to Epel that it was just like in his dream, which also got Epel a bit uneasy. They are exploring a bit the place, using an enchanted paper to map it out.

Thankfully for them, they find a big door. One under many locks. An idea coming from Sebek was to use a convergence spell. They were all a bit skeptical, but if they find something useful in there, they could pinpoint the one behind the monsters and finally report it to the authorities. Heck, maybe they could gain some nice grades out of it. It wasn't unheard of extra credits or good grades from fulfilling a very difficult problem/mission.

The convergence spell is wonky, not working at first. But a second time has all of the group finally coming to a comune agreeement: they need to open that door. They are a group and nothing can stop them!

And it works! The locks are down and the doors open.

And the place? A big library. Lots of stairs, both tall and deep, filled with rows and rows of books. There were also floating platforms going up and down as on the walls, different murals were painted.

They decide to go down instead of up, finding at the bottom, after a hell lot of stairs, some tables, armchairs and couches. There was also a big Cauldron in one side, some utensils and many more things, yet the most interesting of it was a crystal ball.

Jack nudges Ortho to do something with it, but the latter doesn't want. Instead, Sebek pokes it, wondering what it is. The ball does seem to light up and shake with life as from there, a spirit of a man in a lot of robes presents itself.

Also a cat, which immediately slaps Sebek for poking the ball. :'3

The man presents himself as Trein, the spirit of the aincent library. He thought that this place was locked, as no one really got on. The group is pretty quick to say that it was fairly easy to get in, because they did a convergence spell. Trein was a bit skeptical, since the convergence spell had to have both light and dark magic to open all the locks.

It brings a bit of suspicion among the group, Ortho growing uneasy and Jack trying his best to divert the situation towards their goal: finding the truth about the monster attacks. Trein couldn't help them that much, only show them present events through the crystal ball. Lucius however, could find for them any book they desire.

The group contemplates for a bit, before finally telling what they want: a book on monster making. Lucius finds it quite quick and gives it to them, starting to skimm through it and try to find what kind of monster did they encounter then.

It was found out that it was actually a simple type of dark magic spell, a monster made out of environment objects. Therefore their foe wasn't someone that powerful. Maybe they were even on par with them.

But their little research moment gets stopped when they hear a roar outside. Lucius reports to Trein that some sort of beast is trying to break into the library. The group decides to fight it, because that might be their next big clue after all.

In the fight, Ace and Jack also unlock their own fairy base forms. The monster doesn't get defeated that easily, leaving a few wounds on the group, who had to rest a bit in the library.

But, they managed to defeat it in the end. And fortunately, this monster leaved behind something: a wilted flower. It must've been created from that flower in question, so maybe they could find another big clue.

Trein seems quite pleased with the group in question. Maybe everything seemed a bit of a haze, all on the run and bearly they got a month since their started school, but Trein saw some potential in them. So he decided to test them: he gives them a riddle and they will have to bring him the answer to it. The library will only be open to them and them alone, so they shouldn't worry if the monster would return. To find the library again, Trein entrusted them with a magic bottle, that it will show them where the library is when unbottled. They only have 1 chance after all, so they all should think the riddle through.

As for the riddle:

You can't see, smell or hear me,

You feel me at your worst,

You know me at your best,

You, alone, can't have me,

I will be your power and your weakness.

What am I?

So the first years are left to sneak back to their dorm and contemplate.

Except that the next day, after classes, everyone is called for an emergency roll call. As it turns out, the island is suffering consequences of the dark magic monsters being more and more by the day. And so, it was mandatory for NRC and the locals to have some dark magic detectors around. Those were put a few days ago.

And already they went off a few times, getting everyone to realise that someone in this school was secretly a witch. This qualified as a traitor, given the circumstances.

And so, it comes to each group of students to be interrogated under the detector. Of course, knowing just how they got the library seal down, our group is a bit uneasy and also suspicious of each other. They tried to contemplate any kind of last minute plan to escape it, but so far, nothing came to them.

And of course, the detector goes off on them. In front of everyone. Of course, Crowley, the headmaster, gives them the option to fess up who's the witch or all of them to face expulsion and also be handed to the police for further investigations.

And Jack, desemned leader of the group, has no other option than to fess up that Ortho was half a witch. He tried to defend him, saying that Ortho couldn't have done such a thing, but everyone was obviously shocked and more or so disgusted by this.

Thankfully, before Crowley could do a decree, a student raises up, while the other leave for their dorms. That was Idia, very notable by his fire hair. When he goes to Crowley, the detector also goes off. Idia explains to Crowley. Since they remained alone, Idia has more courage to explain that because of their mother being a very powerful witch, both Idia and Ortho have traces of dark magic. It's not much, but enough to have the detectors go off. The monsters that plagued the city were getting more powerful, sign that perhaps gloomix could be involved, which Ortho clearly didn't have.

Also Idia pointed something out, that the Shrouds have a unique trace of magic, which would've let anyone know that a creation spell was done by them, mainly the 'heart of flame'. As an example, Idia himself creates a creature, which notably has a blue flame around it's chest. It easily dissappeared, but it did prove the case.

Crowley buys into it and leaves the group off the hook for now. But if they ever slip up again, he will have to take more drastic measures. For now, Idia is guiding them back to their dorm.

And rightfully, on the halls, Idia warns them. He saw them last night sneaking around. He is aware that they are mingling where they shouldn't, so he tells them to stay put.

He just doesn't want to repeat 'the incident' again.

Back at the dorm, everyone is silent. It was clear that Jack was aware of Ortho's secret and still, it felt like a betrayal. Ortho doesn't try do defend his case, but Ace is the one that breaks the silence.

Idia was going to save their asses anyway so Jack didn't have to just rat out a secret he was entrusted with. Jack tries to defend himself, saying that he didn't know about Idia having an intervention, even so, Epel adds that it's just fucked up that the headmaster was gonna hand them all on the police hands just for that. Deuce points out that now they all have big targets on their back and probably the culprit is happy they have a cover.

Sebek booms in, saying that they must find the true perpetuator, because this now is personal. The headmaster was truly too hurried with this thing, so something had to be up with it. They were 1st years, it was easy to weed them out. If perhaps they were 3rd years or more influencial, then it would've been harder to come up with a proper motive.

So now, Jack just puts his foot down. They are in this shit together. They have an advantage: the library. They need to figure out that riddle, find the object that is the answer, unmask the culprit and clear their name. Now it's the best time to just fess up everything that is on the plate. No more secrets and then they can work this shit together.

So they gather up in their lounge, with pillows and blankets. Sebek conjured a stick they called 'the stick of talky', so they started to pass it around.

Jack didn't have any secrets he hid from them. He was the fairy of snow apparently, which was also new to him, he tries to get around everything and hopes he can just get to the bottom of this.

Ace gets the stick, revealing that he is the fairy of tarot, which puts him in the future seeing fairies, quite the taboo type. His brother was the fairy of matchmaking, a graduate of NRC and Ace hopes to surpass his brother one day to gain more than just 'the little brother' title.

When it's Epel's turn, he says that he wants to be manly, not a cute sparkly ass fairy. But as the fairy of earth, he has to commit to it. He says that he's sick of the poemfiore's strict self care regime, which has him looking like a porcelain doll. And doesn't help that he absolutely hates the prefect's guts.

Sebek reveals that he trains to be a retainer for prince Malleus Draconia, the fairy of dragon's breath. He takes great pride in it, but with Silver, his fellow guard, being a year older and in the 2nd year, Sebek feels a bit overshadowed and ignored by Malleus and Lilia in favor of Silver.

The stick reaches now Ortho, who has a bit of a hard time, but the others were silent when the others confessed so Ortho finally got it off his chest everything, including why Idia was so worried to the point of intervening into their situation because the way Idia gained his enchantix was by giving his base form's wings in an attempt at saving Ortho. Ortho was not a fairy if death, rather a fairy of the souls, which isn't really something to brag about. The others didn't push more info and finally the stick reached Deuce.

Among his delinquent phase, Deuce admits that he has in possession something else. As the fairy of the night sky, Deuce got as a heirloom, the zodiac blade, a blade that was in the form of a bracelet Deuce had on his hand. This blade was insanely powerful and Deuce fears of using it as he is still incapable of controlling it. He fears he could hurt everyone if he uses it.

After the stick finally making a full round, everyone seems a bit awkward. Ace finally decides to address the elephant in the room: they are shit at getting along. This gains a pillow on the face from Epel, which quickly escalates in a pillow fight.

After the pillow fight, all of them were just laying there, laughing and taking a breather. They were absolute disasters, but at least they had each other.

And that's what gets Jack's gears turning. He finally got an idea of the riddle answer, so he prompts the others that the answer they were searching for was here the whole time.

The answer was them all. Their group. Maybe they had a way too fast development, maybe they just got in too much trouble for bearly starting the year and maybe it was all a very wierd streak of luck that got them here, but they are now here, all sprawled on the floor and laughing together despite in what deep shit they are now.

They were in all of this together and they will get out of there together too!

But how do they go to Trein to tell the answer? They were on close watch.

And that was painfully made obvious. Not only the teachers, but also the students put more attention on them. Except that the students also did give them some nasty looks too or even go as far as to prank them. Oh Deuce was on the verge of squaring up with someone if it wasn't for Ace.

But also Idia seemed more of a worrywart now, which the group really was a bit thankful, since Idia's gloomy vibes kept at bay the other younger students.

But still, they took the risk and finally sneaked in while everyone slept to find the library. They do so, surprisingly quick, seeing how there were several failed attempts and more than not some of them slamming into walls.

Trein does wait for them and the group presents their answer: their bond was the answer. Trein takes it as a close one since the answer was friendship (which none of these petty mfs is able to even admit it), but he takes it as correct and finally grands them unlimited access to the library, in the form of a mark on each of their hands. The mark will only appear when they wish to go to the library. And the mark will turn any door they wish to use into a temporary door to the library as to not go all the way through the secret tunnels.

The first years obviously cheer for their success, so they get straight to work. Using Ace's future seeing powers and the cristal ball, the group is able to predict a few of the next attacks. The one they had to look out to was the one on the Halloween, which was when a big ball was held at RSA. Many students from other schools will go there after all. And it was also where their prediction showed that a big monster will come.

So they start to cook a plan. They obviously were forbidden from leaving the school grounds as they were still under suspicion, so they had to be more creative.

So countless hours of late night library studying and and searching. Ortho was a bit skeptical, but in the end decided to make a concealing spell, which would make all 6 of them unrecognizable and thus able to attend the ball. Thankfully it was an open gates event held outside.

Ace and Deuce were trying to assure the details about the ball, while Epel and Sebek were looking into a way to capture the culprit. And Jack was looking into the aspects the monsters had up until now. Ortho had to make the said potion, as a spell would be blown off immediately. It was chaotic and Trein simply watched them ferret from time to time, figuring out that they aren't aware over what source of power they actually stumbled upon.

Halloween comes around. The theme of the ball was, of course, masked ball. And with this, as to not swallow some nasty tasting potion, Ortho merged it into some masquerade masks, perfect to conceal them. To add to it, their casual clothes were now very eye catching gowns and their body proportions also changed. Ortho clearly was proud of his potion success, but warned that it might not hold past midnight, so they should hurry.

The ball itself wasn't that flashy. And it was a surprise that 6 random pretty girls presented themselves in there. To communicate, they had earpieces disguised as earrings, so they split up.

Jack does go to the food table and due to some 'unfortunate accident', a specialist accidentally spills some juice on his dress, which prompts Jack to excuse himself and go to the bathroom. The specialist, named Neige, apologises for it and decides to show Jack where the women toilets are.

On their way tho, Jack knocks out Neige with a spell and is on his merry way to explore the said school, in search for anything that could point to the culprit.

Meanwhile, Ace and Deuce dance together and look gorgeous, Epel hauled a food table, Ortho was hyping Sebek in chugging down a bottle of juice, much like the girls that gathered with them.

Back to Jack, man stumbles upon a quite nicely dressed specialist. Immediately Jack puts the excuse that 'she just got lost' and asks for directions. Except that the guy seems quite suspicious when leading Jack towards the ball location.

Because they didn't go the same route.

Jack is a bit taken aback when the guy tries to attack him, but he defends himself with a spell and so it starts the fight. Thankfully, even when in fairy form, the concealing potion was kept, which Jack was infinitely grateful for as he called for the rest of the team.

But the guy, who reveals himself as Prince Mandor, doesn't let down so easily, able to quickly knock out of the way Jack as he uses the gloomix stone in the form of a glowing collar hid under the coat, to summon a big monster out of the armour statues laying throughout the school.

The prediction was made true in the end, but that didn't stop the group from reuniting and all of them to put a face to the culprit.

Immediately it gets to a big fight as the monster leaves towards the ball. They also had to stop it in time, even so, they didn't have time, nor power to hold against a gloomix power up.

And in true villain fashion, Mandor reveals that he hated fairies from here, who always stole the spotlight from specialists. NRC fairies especially, who were all stuck up jerks. He hated them with a passion, to the point he wanted to put all of NRC to shame.

So our group decides to do a convergence spell, but not the way one may think. They all decide to aim at the collar with different beam attacks, overcharging it with power and thus destroying it.

The prince doesn't give out so easily and manages to flee via running. Jack wanted to run after him, but he was tired and Deuce warned that midnight was coming close. Epel found the gloomix stone smashed on the ground, so he grabbed the shards with him, together using their library marks to get to the library and flee the place.

Trein welcomes them back and the group all collectively are tired. But they present the gloomix stone shards. Nonetheless, Trein congratulates them on their good work. Lucius even gives them all a smol nuzzle. :D But even so, looking at the shards, Trein realises that the stone was made by a very powerful dark magic user, if not a dark magic entity. The price managed to run out of their hands, but right now, they got the gloomix stone shattered. So it was a victory still.

The next day, there are many cheers for the 2nd year group, who apparently managed to defeat the monster that threatened the ball. It was a bit of a collective saltiness from our first year group, because they work their asses for weeks, only to find the real culprit and prevent him from summoning such powerful monsters again. By a short research, it was clear that once the gloomix stone was shattered, the monster was gone, so in reality, they did all the work. Oh they were VERY salty about.

And Trein rightfully tells them that their battle is not over. They need to grow more powerful, not more popular. Begrudgingly, Trein declares himself as their mentor. As the spirit of the aincent library, he holds secrets for far more powerful spells and powers that an NRC graduate could only fantom about, let alone know about their existence and also pursuing them. This library constantly moved around under Sage Island via the secret tunnels, and not anyone could accces it. So for the team to have each a pass, it was quite the feat.

So of course, because they were in no position to accuse someone, let alone a royalty, the first years decided to take up on the offer and defeat prince Mandor and whoever is helping him reek havoc in here.

That's when season 1 ends.

next season

other seasons: S2, S3, S4, S5, S6.

[sh00kspeared]

ooohh tell me more about Orien!! I just started BG3 recently also so welcome to the club lol

Ahhh thank you so much for being interested in him, and glad to see another new BG3 fan!! ♥️♥️

He’s not fully fleshed out yet, but rn I’ve got a few things— he’s a tiefling named Orienes who changed his name to Orien after setting sail with a band of pirates when he got into a financial bind in his late teens.

Funny story, I was recently in a play production of treasure island, where I played both Billy Bones and then later a generic pirate after Billy’s death scene. To help develop my character, I decided my pirate would be named Orien and was the son of Billy Bones who defected from his family and joined Long John’s crew. Since closing night was recently and I was sad to have to give up my character, I decided to immortalize him and turn him into my BG3 character, so a lot of his backstory is inspired by treasure island.

That being said, he spent his time burgling on the high seas. He lost all sight in his left eye after being given a magical artefact by a man he’d made enemies with years ago, which cursed him with blindness. (Inspired somewhat by the black spot from treasure island). He was able to destroy the item before his right eye was affected but began wearing an eye patch after his left eye grew pitch black and started spreading a magical ‘infection’ to the rest of his face and to the side of his neck. Luckily it didn’t continue growing and hasn’t seemed to have done much besides destroying his vision and causing the occasional dull throb in his head. Here’s a picture of the curse:

He later lost partial sight in his right eye after being slashed during a swordfight and now has trouble with his peripheral vision as well as being somewhat nearsighted. This is why he tends to favor stealth, ranged attacks, and magic— especially magic— he calls upon magical forces which help him tune into his non-visual senses, which allow him to still fight well despite his disability.

Orien’s crew broke up after the whole lot were captured by a rival band of human pirates who wholeheartedly believed that tieflings were devil spawns. They tortured him for three days; broke both of his horns and cut off the tip of his tail— before they could continue their torture, though, he managed to break free and decided to give up piracy once and for all, unable to deal with the trauma any longer. (Blind eye and broken horn visible here; still trying to get mods figured out which is why his eye curse isn’t visible in the pic and why only one of his horns is broken).

Flash forward to the events of the game. His past has greatly influenced his current beliefs and behavior. While he does harbor some internal bitterness toward humans due to many humans’ hatred of his kind, he’s also vowed to himself to never wreak violence on someone solely for who they are (though he does have a tendency to be defensive of tieflings in particular). He has no problem with stealing and killing, but does have a soft spot for children and animals.

Now, this man is so touch starved that he starts crushing on Astarion simply because he secretly loved how intimate the experience of having his blood get drunk for the first time felt, but eventually he started to actually fall in love and became enthralled by Astarion’s charm and flamboyancy.

I’m not far enough along to know much more, but I’m really loving Orien so far and am super excited to start Astarion’s romance lmao.

(More pics. And again, mods are wonky which is why both of his horns are intact in the last pic).

[moonisthedoor]

i am still not over the fact that OOTD mirrors the Protocol arc so well... it's an explicitly parallel world from the usual Dreamcatcher universe, with ties to Deja Vu era which in itself was a parallel world and a special album. its main antagonist is/powers the artefact of desire that gives its bearer power and many people wish to obtain it. the title track is about being so high up you're untouchable, all that you wish for is in your hands. "celebrate, elevate, visualize, hypnotize". in Rising – "first plan is activated, you're already invited". I'm SICK