#some other inchresting things of note:

[endiness]

here is a pov word count breakdown of the main book series (i didn't do tlotl, btw, 'cause i'm lazy and doing this is annoying tbh):

blood of elves

geralt: 17.1k

ciri: 35.3k

other: 49.4k

time of contempt

geralt: 33k

ciri: 45.2k

other: 34.6k

baptism of fire

geralt: 67.3k

ciri: 3.9k

other: 40.9k

the tower of the swallow

geralt: 34.9k

ciri: 35.3k

other: 74.5

just to note: take this with a grain of salt 'cause it's entirely possible my word count could've screwed up somewhere as that's what happened the last time i attempted this. and the way i broke down the povs may not be how other people might measure things, too, so there's that. BUT! as far as a general picture of the povs in the books goes, i think this probably is pretty accurate to how things look. (i also rounded the numbers a bit, if that wasn't obvious lol.)

[ambrosiagourmet]

thistle for ask meme!

Thistle :0

First impression

No joke I was convinced early on that Laios & the party were making like a huuuuge leap in assuming that Thistle was the Lunatic Magician TM like guys you can't just go accusing every random person you find in a living painting of being the manager. Alas... he was, in fact, the manager.

Impression now

He's so jester coded👍

I think Thistle is very interesting and a great foil to Marcille, which I looove. They are both magic elf(-ish) advisors, they both get caught up in wanting to help the people around them live longer, they both become dungeon lords in pursuit of that... I think Thistle's story as it is works well for the narrative and I don't necessarily think he was underutilized exactly, but it is a little hard not to want A Bit More sometimes. Even if I do think it would be hard to add that more in without sacrificing some of the pacing overall :')

Favorite moment

I was initially going to say the ending for them, because I do love it, but you know what? I've got a more interesting answer. My favorite Thistle scene is.... this:

This fundamentally changes the trajectory of the story. In trying to find someone to stop the Winged Lion, Thistle launches Marcille into becoming the next lord of the dungeon. The next victim of the Lion. If Thistle hadn't resurrected Marcille, then the plot would have played out totally differently. She wouldn't have been able to finish unsealing the book. Laios would have been on his own when the canaries came. Would they have just cleaned everything up more easily? Would it instead have become something worse? Would Laios somehow have unsealed the book and become the lore of the dungeon right away?

I dunno. But this action reshaped Marcille's life, and Laios', and so many other people's. And it was done out of a desire to keep fighting. To not give in.

Augh idk. It's good. Their connection is good.

Idea for a story

Thistle & Chimera Laios.

But not just a "Laios gets eaten by the dragon instead," I think it would be cool to explore an AU where for some handwavy magic reason, Laios gets his soul bound up w/ the dragon during Falin's resurrection, and he gets poofed into a dragon form.

There's a note somewhere that says that chimeras start popping up the more the lord of the dungeon starts to lose their hold on things, but having met Laios before might help Thistle eventually realize that something is Off about the dragon. From there... well maybe he starts to ask questions and gives Laios more freedom to actually answer, and things could continue from there as Laios gets enough humanity back to start to understand what's happening, and also Thistle takes more time to question the Lion's plans rather than just continue to act. They'd be stuck together, probably with Laios still under Thistle's control, but maybe as they figure out more of the truth, they'd actually work together? Need to rely on each other? I'd like to see how each of them would deal with that situation...

PLUS then on the flip side I think switching Falin into the group part way through the story (rather than at the start) could be really interesting. So the adventures on that side would be fun too.

Unpopular opinion

umm idk. Is Thistle widely regarded as a Marcille foil? Because if not then why. They are so inchresting. funky little mages.

Favorite relationship

Hmmm okay so like obviously Thistle & Marcille, but also as seen in my story idea I want to explore more of Thistle & Laios bc their interactions were fun, soo... I'll just say the Dungeon Lord quartet as a whole. I like when people draw art of them all together. Let them bond through shared trauma. And also all of them have tried to kill at least one other person there at some point. It's great. They should go on brunch dates.

Favorite headcanon

This post about Thistle's goal to eat a meal with Delgal fundamentally rewired my brain

[blackjack-15]

this 80s romcom lighting outside is hysterical oh my land

"wanna see the restaurant?"

"there are about 10 things in here that could kill you" 11, counting Syd

and among all this chaos he has one pertinent question:

"why didn't you call me?!" "i should have called you!"

this is going age like milk when syd sees who else is here!

syd was right last episode that carmy should have called her; carmy's right this episode that syd should have called him they're great at knowing they're a partnership. right now, they're not sure what that actually means, however, and it's causing massive friction, miscommunication, and stress

wow claire great time to introduce yourself there. like a bucket of cold water. she didn't really need to is the weird thing? nat was already talking to her, already greeted her? most people would have been like mm let me take a step back, maybe even come back later. but not claire! no she strides in like the elephant in the room and does a dance

oh ho. syd's face when claire says her name. that's a whole look

"this is my friend, claire" most honest he's been about this whole arrested development situationship

"sorry to interrupt, you all seem really busy" mm. no kidding.

"i'm sydney, it's really nice to meet you, i'm also sorry that you're here" SYD I LOVE YOU

she explains what she means and all but like. what a choice of dialogue, huh? and carmy's face. holy eff this is amazing

"interesting" oh richie. and nat's face when he says that -- the Wheels are Turning. direct comparison to his "ooooh" from last ep.

also i do love carmy's noticeably softer with Richie here. he knows richie really is just trying to help, and -- more than that -- knows that nothing else is gonna get done tonight

OH. INCHRESTING.

he tells everyone great job and to go home -- syd's rolled eyes here are a Pleasure -- and then when syd does that? carmy's reaction?

"what?" "i'm saying good night!"

very reminiscent of carmy's "what are you doing" when syd's quitting in S1E7. hmm i wonder why there's a bit of betrayal there.

this. this is beautiful. and he watches her go, too. beautiful direction, dialogue, etc etc

richie and nat are having similar problems to syd and richie last season. looking like we're gonna have a similar blow up. nat please keep the knives away from richie's ass, he's already a cheek down

the camera pan and hold on "carm/syd menu review" and then back to carmy and claire? i think that's the least subtle thing in the show, and we've seen richie's behavior + syd's temper almost literally bite him in the ass

"we're very fast" the subtlety is just...any more subtle and we'd have neon lights going. this is enjoyable because holy crap the telegraphing is Blatant

also this is some of the worst flirting i've ever seen. we're back to the total lack of chemistry and the two of them talking like 8th graders.

"i did that." "i know you did, and now you have to go" i'm still amazed that this is all text? none of this is implied? the writers are normally a little more subtle, so like...this is on purpose.

and the predictable kiss! you knew it was gonna happen, and they don't care. carmy going in with the same hand thing claire did earlier? either i can see the future or they're flashing the cliche, high-school nature of relationship with big flashing signs

and i can't see the future.

as a final note? i'm just gonna say. carmy is inexperienced, etc etc, yaddah yaddah. his actor on the other hand, is very much not. well done there sir.

[kirk]

andy am i allowed to yell about peterick brainrot in your askbox? im not waiting for an answer.

i. am so not. normsl about patrick showing pete the bass notes. how did he know pete was lost?? could he hear it? the way he turns towards pete, shakes the neck of his guitar a little to get his attention, but he doesn't even need to, because the minute he turns pete's coming over, the way pete knows patrick is showing him. they've must have done it a million times during rehearsals. like this is such a little thing that's nbd but it's driving me literally insane???

BFHJUIDKJNG love that you didnt wait for an answer cause like if you HAD i would have resorted to begging on my knees for you to yell at me about peterick. its what i enjoy oh so the most

BUT YEAH THATS EXACTLYYYYY why that moment makes me insane, not just the act of patrick showing him the chords but the fact patrick Knew he either wasnt playing and/or wasnt playing correct AND obviously struggling enough that patrick called him over :,-))) PLUS also patrick smile afterwards... he's just been so happy this tour and pete is Definitely a factor in that !!!

also i will exchange with you a peterick meltdown ive been having like all day cause i was rewatching some of the stardust like promotional interviews etc and i was watching the siriusxm mini game they did where they had to guess what songs of theirs were playing backwards and theresss sooooo much in there, like when pete guesses thnks fr th mmrs and then is discussing how babyface worked on it with them, he is trying to remember a movie they saw when they found out about babyface and he turns to patrick while trying to remember the movie like. oh so you guys went to see it together or at least watched it with just each other otherwise andy wouldve been able to help too. inchresting. like i initially thought maybe they went as a group to the premier but the movie is from 2001... so x AND THEN theres the "pep in your answer" thing and its just. so good to see this silly flirty energy continued with literally every riff with patrick on the tour. i wuv them. AND THEN!!! theres a moment of cryptophasia i swear no one talked about!!!! where patricks talking about other side and he says "i wanted something that spelled out the kind of journey that people are gonna go on with this album and then pete jumps in "of SIGHT" and then patrick AND pete both say in the same fucking inflection at the exact same time "and SOUND" like. you both are crazy and fruity. fuck off NHJIOGLKSJM

[captain-amadeus]

Eustis finding magical artifacts on his outings (I get off topic and talk about the cats for most of this)

It is very inchresting to think about Eustis going on outings to find magical artifacts because he has an interest in that kind of stuff. It wouldn't make sense for him to go out hunting in a full suit of armor since he'd stick out like a sore thumb. He wears that armor and sets out to find [a pondering orb he can't even use himself].

Even with his new lackies, Eustis would probs still search for artifacts himself because he wants to have them first. If they're too dangerous then maybe he'd bring Greylock along since he has a lot of useful knowledge on things. In return, he'd let Greylock study the artifact if they manage to nab it.

That would be funny for them to make this long journey, be gone for 3 weeks, while Ivy and Slickwell are left ruling the kingdom in their absence. They both get a break from Eustis, but only Ivy sort of misses him in a 'prefers husband to be at home instead of collecting enchanted forks that makes user get food poisoning' way. Hates him, but the curse of they can not be far from each other for too long remains. Ivy probably asks questions about Greylock to Slickwell since he knows him and she doesn't see him a lot (ignore the last part if it's going to be a full time thing but Greylock double dealing with kings is what brain defaults to) and Slickwell is like, 'A real stinker, he tried changing my name to Lickswell one time.' and he's not wrong, but that was Greylock's way of flirting :333333

Back to Eustinky, either he's able to do a bit of magic or he just hoards artifacts so that he has all the cool stuff. Maybe he'd find some use to the artifacts because most of them can be used by non-magic users. I can only imagine how complicated it would be to have Greylock on his side, though it'd most likely be from him not wanting to serve King Magnus and/or wanting more liberty on what he does with his magic. Cedric said it well himself when he commented on how Greylock was more of a jester than a sorcerer. And although he's always been a silly lalala, I think there's a side of him that wants to be silly on his own accord instead of on the whim of a king. Well this time he HAS to make the king laugh or else he'll become the joke wink wink nudge nudge insert Greylock when Eustis gif

Still like the idea of Greylock coming and going as he pleases. It is very Greylock of him to dangle a shiny object in front of Eustis and put it on a high shelf then leave. Doesn't try to be all smart about it though he's just being goofy (Eustis isn't though he has to get it off the shelf). He's also not a slickrider like Lickswell so Eustis even considering hiring him as a royal sorcerer feels out of place. Greylock will not compliment him as much as Slicky does, will lack loyalty towards him, he is the :333333 of sorcerers. (Maybe Greylock has his own Jester's Privilege; being able to be brutally honest, except the sword is always 5 feet away from his neck at times)

Maybe he works full/part time because Slickwell is there as well. His test dummy. The pin was fun to watch and now they'll get to test more items, what fun. Oh and they can kiss but Greylock shocks Slickwell at least once mid kiss.

Extra note: Ivy jewelry I hope that the jewelry holds value like being family heirlooms and/or magical artifacts or they are just normal jewelry that she wears. Black pearls are definitely a symbol of wealth though. Stylish too she's so cool I love Ivy sm /p /g

[marvus-xoloto]

I was looking at the background art for volume 11 again bc like. The room is the eyes to the soul and all that. Haha definitely not back on my hyperfixed game.

Anyway, I'm overanalyzing mallek's background art benath the cut.

GOD I always forget how much of a slob he is. Mallek self shippers are so strong. From left to right:

The SEVERAL husk towers, now being either discarded or repurposed. So Mallek does buy / reroute new tech pretty frequently. Note how his couch is falling apart: he does not care for the finer things regarding comfort, only his hobby.

WAIT LMAO NOTE WHAT APPEARS TO BE TISSUES ON THE COUCH?? AND SOCKS ALL OVER??? Either the man is crying in this room or.... 😳😳😳

On that note why are there socks on his floating shelves. Mallek doesn't do laundry confirmed: the hoodie he gives you must be musky as hell.

Not only does he hoverboard, he LONGBOARDS. Very cool B)

Swim trunks on the floor implies Mallek knows how to swim, and he likely swims in the sewer thing beneath his hive.

His workspace and shelves are actually reasonably tidy?? Wait a second....

Amogus......

Some sort of grubs on the floor in the pile of trash by his coon- likely game grubs or food, I'm guessing, since they're white. OR?? Mallek terrible father confirmed?? /j

I'm sorry but I would not get in that musty ass crusty slime coon. So much bacteria that the coon itself is growing legs so it can clean itself.

His limo! It's important to note that this limo background gets reused in Marvus's route, but Mallek's came first.

Note the camera above the TV and gamer controller (which is so hilarious: a joystick and one button. It's 100% a minecraft controller then). Could this imply that Mallek is a streamer?? He's always come across as rather private to me (side note: steaming in his coparatively tidy limo really hits my funny bone). Comprimise: Mallek is a streamer with one of those AI sprites instead of his face, ykwim?? Idk what they're called.

Mallek either canonically drinks alcohol, or the drinks just come with the limo.

He's drinking that same juice that Xefros does. For the life of me, I can't remember what it is/does, but iirc isn't it supposed to be good for psychic ability? Mallek is implied not to be psychic, however. Maybe it's just troll monster. Idr....

LMFAO i noted this when I deep dived into Marvus's limo, but I love the chair by the mini fridge having TWO seatbelts and what appears to be a booster seat?? Manlet Marvus move over, it's Manlet Malleks turn lmao.

SHAG RUG!!! So disgusting, you know that thing has dirt and crumbs in it.

More slobbery -_-'

So desperate for clean silverware that he pulled the whole drawer out. My man you are RICH just hire a cleaning service. Please.

He does not have a kitchen table. It's kind of implied he either sits in one of those (rocking??? lmfao) chairs or eats while sitting on the floor (on the random yellow mat).

I noted this detail a few years ago, but it's my favorite: Mallek keeps houseplants (possibly implied to be recently watered?).

Mallek keeps fruit in his hive, but it looks like he doesn't actually eat it. I wonder if it's wax fruit.

I'm sorry but looking at this image, I can not imagine Mallek actually cooks. He eats cereal and gets delivery and he's gotten grub sauce EVERYWHERE. There is no stove in his kitchen. Hell, no microwave either.

WHOSE LUSUSES ARE THOSE?? Kinda cute ngl. Does this imply ceruleans can also have semi aquaric and/or water loving lususes?

Speaking of parallels: so it's not just purplebloods who litter.

Other bluebloods come down here, I wonder if they're friends with mallek?? Also note the cerulean sign being tagged in indigo. Inchresting...

The graffiti reads "suck my nook" and the yellow caution sign reads "do not block." In case you were curious.

I like the idea that mallek comes down here when he can't sleep: you can see that light gets filtered, so I wonder if he could be safe from the sun down here? Irradation nonwithstanding...

That's all! I am insane, so I enjoy deep diving into stuff like this.

[kidrat]

dean transfag moments masterpost

(part 1 - seasons one through five)

'my boobs' in s1e1 as his answer to if anything about him is real (bonus he is being slammed over a car by a police officer at this moment)

'do I look like Paris Hilton?' (s1e5) this one should be self explanatory

automatically wearing the towel Like That round his head in s1e8 even tho his hair is short. i know what you are

AND in s1e10, sleeping shirtless but with the blanket clutched over his chest a la female love interest post sex scene

s1e13, His relationship with Cassie ending because he 'came out' as a Hunter and then promptly fucked off. the vibes r like,,,, they were girlfriends and Dean freaked out because he didn't think she'd be into the real him. also u know they were butch/femme.

[image description: Sam looking distraught. The subtitles read ‘But you can’t just fill up that hole with whoever you want to.’ End description]

making Sam third wheel in s2e3 while he does shots w the bad boy whose life he just saved. in general his whole Buffy/Faith thing with Gordon. the question of whether he's 'like you' (Gordon) or like sam. but also. The phrasing here ^^^ as Sam accuses Dean of following Gordon around because of his dead daddy issues. Wow.

the only men who would introduce themselves with their star sign (s2e7) are slags, fags, and egg repressor partners of cool bisexual women. dean is or has been all three.

'mmm, Daphne, love her!' (while talking about scooby doo, in s2e11) who TALKS like that! PLEASE work on your heterosexual man impression, this is so far into parody that it's camp

'you are kind of butch, I think you're overcompensating' << from Sam, same episode, when Dean asks why people keep assuming they're gay. what have i been SAYING!

S4e1 he references ‘my perky nipples’ as the answer to what makes him so special. Exactly what I would have done. No notes.

Look. I am not going to include every Castiel interaction or we’d be here all day. But, same ep as above, Castiel saying he thought Dean would be able to comprehend his real form/voice was verrryyy inchresting

Ok, Jesus, I thought ‘my boobs’ was bad but that is still within the realms of cis boy joke. On the other hand, find me a cis boy who not only uses the word ‘hymen’ but refers to their own???? (S4e5)

S4e14 a siren who has so far only appeared as female strippers ensnares Dean as some guy who thinks Dean’s cool and shares his music taste.

Totally eclipsed by ^^^ but even the fact he spent his time in a strip club talking with his new boy best friend about led zeppelin

Normal Guy Dean in s4e17 casually chatting about project runway?????

THEY COPIED HIS OUTFIT OFF A FUCKING KEN DOLL???

s5e5 the anecdote about a girlfriend making him try on her silky panties* and him kinda liking it.

I lied I will include the occasional Cas moment: Same ep Dean's nightmare-scenario-future Cas being an aggressively heterosexual slut . But also present-day-Dean’s initial joy at hearing that Cas is still around and you ‘can’t get rid of him’. Scream

(Do you think nightmare-scenario-future Cas and nightmare-scenario-future Dean ever let the streams cross during the biweekly spiritual mmfffff sevensome)

s5e7 Dean becomes an old man and immediately decides fuck it, time to lounge about in a short robe

ok this i can't explain but the silly dancing he does when he's young again. old timey corny yet self aware careless tboy swag

it feels like cheating to even put Dean's obvious mancrush on 'Dr Sexy' (s5e8) on here but like. im not gonna not put it on

And finally, that in his weakest moment, mourning every significant relationship he had, we are shown how bad it’s gotten when Dean succumbs to the lamest most out of character lifestyle possible: bland, monogamous heterosexuality

*having to use that word makes me wanna throw up. ur welcome

[mirobami]

Imagine y/n pretty much acting like a house pet, like doing what they ask of them and stuff but their not actually a house pet and is a decent gambler, idk random thought

↳ gambler s/o acts like a housepet

♥ GENRE: fluff.

♥ CHARACTER(S): m. ikishima, m. honebami

♥ SYNOPSIS: in request!

♥ NOTE: Inchresting, I didn’t know who you wanted, so I decided to do Miroslava and Midari! Let’s get started!

━ MIROSLAVA HONEBAMI ; 

The thing about you was that whenever you were ordered to do something, you happily obliged to do so

You were treated like a housepet, but what made other people curious as to why you were doing all of this was the fact that you did not have the mark of a Mittens or a Fido around your neck

Miroslava had found out about you because so many people were talking about the fact that you were a housepet, but for some reason, no one could beat you

Instead of deciding to go with the rumors, she went to you to see if it was true

And it wasn't true. The only thing that was true was that you were a good gambler, seeing as you had just beaten a guy after he thought you were easy to go against

She was now intrigued by you and asking herself why you decided to act like a housepet when people don't even like that status

When Miroslava asks you why, she accepts it completely and now she decides that she wants to be closer to you and before you know it, now you're friends with Miroslava Honebami herself

However, she feels like there's something more behind it, so within time, she'll try to figure out the reason

━ MIDARI IKISHIMA ; 

When she finds out about you acting like a housepet when you really aren’t, she’s conflicted about you

Usually people are desperate to stop being a housepet and they would do anything in order to get out of the state they were living in

However, you did the opposite of that and when she actually saw you in person, she understands why no one has actually turned you into a genuine housepet

You were gambling with someone else, a small smile on your face as the person before you looked at their cards panicked

It was clear that you knew how to get yourself out of trouble in case something bad happened to you and she loved that about you

Now she wants to get in cohorts with you and that's exactly what she does, she makes sure to get closer to you with the offering of a gamble

During the gamble, she's asking questions and everything and in the end, she's more interested by you than before

Now you've got Midari on your side and she wants to see how long you can go without being swallowed by the school's hierarchy

It won't be long before she finds out what the truth is behind you

[deltaruminations]

OK so what i was actually up to looking through the samples (here's the actual comprehensive sheet) was verifying the use of Giygas soundfonts across UTDR. i should have done this in the music post in the first place but what can i say im not a respectable analyst im a fucking Gaster Guy for christ's sake (i'll be honest i totally forgot the sample sheet even existed until today)

so anyway:

in Deltarune so far, it looks like Giygas soundfonts are used only in ANOTHER HIM ("Giygas Static")

in Undertale, Giygas soundfonts are limited only to Amalgam ("Giygas Breath," "Giygas Static," "Giygas 3") and the Barrier ("Giygas Breath").

i don't think the Barrier sfx is relevant to anything i'm thinking about but i figured i should mention it for completeness. (i'm guessing it's a genuine instance of Yeah This Just Sounds Right For This Scene. even IF giygas samples are now "reserved" for whatever reason as of DR, that may not have been the case back then. it still may not be the case in the future!)

otherwise yeah, despite EB soundfonts being all over both games, Giygas soundfonts in particular are almost exclusively limited to ANOTHER HIM and Amalgam (which share the same "Giygas Static" soundfont, in fact). whether or not that constitutes a Connection or what that connection means is debatable but it does so far seem to be an intentional choice.

here are some other odds and ends from bouncing around the Music Zone today. these observations are pretty disjointed and probably not super interesting? i'm ambivalent about most of this as Worthwhile Data but i figure i might as well make note of it

mus_st_him.ogg uses the Chrono Trigger "piano." this isn't inherently super interesting. it's been identified in 3 other in-game UT tracks (Uwa!! So Temperate♫ ★, Reunited, Battle Against a True Hero) and one unused track (Bereavement). i don't think there's supposed to be like a pattern or anything there lol. many others have brought up Chrono Trigger more generally as a source of inspiration for tfox and raised the possibility of references to it (beyond music i mean) in Deltarune. given CT's frankly legendary status in RPG history it's not unthinkable to put it up on the Potentially Lore-Relevant Sound Design Choices pedestal alongside EarthBound but i don't wanna grasp too much at those straws right now lol

slightly more interesting is that this specific soundfont is only confirmed to be present once in Deltarune (so far), in ANOTHER HIM. given that this track is basically a straight up remix/re-imagining of mus_st_him.ogg it isn't really surprising that it uses the same soundfont, but i think it's a neat detail all the same.

also interesting is that the Chrono Trigger "piano" seems to be "reserved" now in DR, though none of the other Obviously Gastery Songs use it either. Darkness Falls uses Earthbound "Mellow Piano" (used one other time so far in that game, in Big Shot) and man.ogg uses SGM "Piano 3" (seemingly just an otherwise normal, all-purpose soundfont used in various places). honestly the CT piano might have just been brought back for that mus_st_him.ogg callback specifically and then shelved lol

oh except. the thing about "confirmed" instances. one of the sheet's contributors thinks it might be very quietly playing a countermelody around 0:33 in THE HOLY, which.......... veRY VERY INCHREsting,,,,, but also i don't want to get too invested in that if it hasn't been confirmed. it's pretty hard to hear but i can kind of detect something just before the choral voice kicks in again around 0:35. idk what to do with this honestly. i think the Man motif Possibly being used in THE HOLY is interesting enough without having to obsess this much over a tiny detail most people will never notice but w/e

Chrono Trigger soundfonts in general seem to be used much more sparingly in Deltarune. the "str" (string) is used in Powers Combined and ANOTHER HIM. moss_fanfare is composed entirely of 4 CT soundfonts for that nostalgic snes rpg achievement sound LOL. again i don't think this Means anything (probably just a stylistic/aesthetic choice more than anything.) just making a note of it

i also decided to double check for the G Sequence in Here We Are & Amalgam because why not. i haven't seen many claims thrown out about it around the Inter's Nets (at this point, i think if it were meaningfully present there'd be like 7 years' worth of duplicated Reddit posts about it lol) and yeah, i also don't hear it myself or really see it in any of the fanmade transcriptions i've found. Here We Are is clearly Alphy's motif more or less head to toe (which yeah. of course it is. true lab is About Her). Amalgam doesn't use any recognizable motifs as far as i can tell, which makes sense if we consider it's probably not supposed to sound familiar or grounded in the UT world (even in like a bad way), it's supposed to be completely alien and disorienting.

there are still some things about those songs that are rattling around my dome but given the fact that i'm Extremely Biased in favor of my own interpretations i'm worried about teetering too far into the Reading Into It Too Much Zone. idk why i'm so interested in this suddenly in the first place when we already have plenty of reasons to link G with the true lab (aside from him having been. u know. a royal scientist). i just really like these songs lmao

anyway noting this stuff for the sake of thoroughness but yeah i don't think it's worth thinking too hard on it tbh

Amalgam in particular is a pretty high-octane execution of the same techniques used in mus_st_him.ogg (lack of tonal center & resolution) but there kind of isn't any reason to get all weird about that, there are clear mechanical purposes to it. those techniques were used here because they elicit unease, tension, confusion, etc. and they're shared across both tracks because both tracks are intended to make us feel those ways, not because there's necessarily a thematic connection between them

i want so bad to make wild leaps about the parallel harmonies in both songs but again i think this is probably a disorientation tactic (makes it hard to distinguish the key) more than anything else

the piano the PIANO in Here We Are. the melody (sorry gonna butcher some Terms again here) from 0:45 - 1:28 is clearly (to my ear) riffing on Alphys's motif in the counter-melody but the shakeup from 1:28 onward, when the counter-melody ends, is. idk. nothing in that part of the fan arrangement i've been referencing seems to obviously match the Ideal progression of either the G Sequence or the Man variation and i'm not going to stretch too far on it. but yeah i think the idea of that bit being some form of G Piano is conceptually very interesting. it's just not really evident at this point as far as i'm concerned

as a note: Waltz of Seccom Masada predates Undertale's release by at least a year or two so it's not impossible that tfox could have had plans for it in UTDR by that point. do i think it's likely that it shows up at all in UT? no not really lol but it's not impossible i guess

Here We Are uses... the Mario Paint dog soundfont... I never would have noticed this otherwise but yeah you can hear it subtly barking under the 0:45-1:28 melody. i choose to interpret this as God bemoaning these crimes against his Creation

[wanderingwomanwondering]

I noticed a few numbers - 3, 18, & 27 - that stood out in the 506 dialogue through repetition or specificity. Let the overanalyzing begin!

The number 3. They note mitchell’s triple homicide within the ep in the dialogue at least twice and once in print, on Meynard’s computer. Since mitchell is parallel to eddie, I thought the triple homicide might be meaningful to eddie’s story. We’re dealing with heart themes this season/ep so I think the number 3 is about the hearts eddie thinks he’s broken over the years: sh*nnon, chris, and a*a. In eddie’s mind all three people have suffered in one way or another due to his “congenital heart failure”/emotional unavailability. Also, season 3 as a whole gave us the tsunami arc, eddie’s grief arc and his anger toward buck for not being there for him, eddie begins which gave us the will off-screen, and buck’s closure with abby in the finale.

The number 18. The show stated multiple times that mitchell was in prison for 18 years. I thought this might correspond to a meaningful ep number in the series and when I checked…lo and behold “buck actually” (208) is the 18th ep of the series. In that ep we met thomas & mitchell, the GAY couple who got a whole beautiful GAY backstory and everything. 208!Mitchell was the one who passed away first and Thomas followed wherever he led. They “only ever wanted to go together”. Who else do we know who feel compelled to follow one another into possible oblivion? Yep! But Buddie is about life not death. Buddie is happening y’all!! This is not a drill!!

The number 27. In the ambulance with 506!Mitchell, eddie mocks mitchell’s “27-step breakout plan”. Because the ambulance conversation with mitchell is a window into eddie’s head and we know eddie’s hiding inside himself/ keeping his distance, the desire/ plan to breakout is really important just in its own right. At the same time, eddie is mocking mitchell’s desire for freedom and his own desire by extension. Death row inmates don’t get to leave their prison. And neither does eddie. He’s condemned himself to solitary confinement and maybe to an emotional “death” of sorts. To life without full connection to/ expression of his own heart for his own sake. As for the number 27 itself, it felt too specific to not matter. Turns out the 27th episode of the series is “Careful What You Wish For” (217). Eddie was looking for a sign about how to move forward in his romantic life for chris and for himself. He started to trust sh*nnon again. He began to think that his emotional breakout plan was taking a second chance with sh*nnon, but ultimately she wanted a divorce and died shortly thereafter. It’s huge that eddie was so open and expressive of his feelings when he proposed to her. I think it matters though that he broke out of his emotional prison in ep 27 and got destroyed. I think that fact makes him hesitant to express his needs and feelings even now in s5. Also, just as a fun aside: This is also the ep where we got eddie proposing to sh*nnon with a molten chocolate metaphor drawn from a call the 118 got in which, among other things, buck almost falls into the chocolate! 👀 Eddie makes the most hilariously awkward metaphor during the proposal: “Actually life is like a vat of molten chocolate. Sometimes you fall into it, it drags you down, but it’s warm and it’s sweet.” I think it’s inchresting that eddie *stopped* buck from falling in, from being dragged down. Still it’s even more inchresting that eddie implicitly connected buck to his chosen life/relationship metaphor AT ALL during his proposal. Methinks eddie has some romantic desires that he’s not dealing with. ‘s’all I’m sayin’.

So um yeah, this isht seems relevant af. Go Buddie go!! Also, my last braincell is over and done so i may just be nuts…I don’t FEEL nuts tho 👀

[sheepfulsheepyardinspace]

I posted 1,677 times in 2021

61 posts created (4%)

1616 posts reblogged (96%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 26.5 posts.

I added 4,551 tags in 2021

#sw - 1208 posts

#star wars - 849 posts

#space meme - 685 posts

#sw art - 529 posts

#darth anakin - 312 posts

#swtcw - 287 posts

#swtm - 255 posts

#ahsoka tano - 145 posts

#jedi - 144 posts

#mando - 137 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#will never convince me. becaus everything about padme’s character is that she is someone at 110% all of the time and that is classic anakin

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

[owen lars voice]: mr kenobi. mr kenobi please stop sobbing into my vaporators. there's a perfectly good patch of sand that u can lie facedown in. yeah. any other patch of desert that isnt my front door. please kenobi––yeah of course anakin called you that. that's ur fucking name. christ. god. please get off my lawn

1881 notes • Posted 2021-04-19 03:45:09 GMT

#4

yo nothing will EVER be as batshit in star wars as whatever the fuck was up with darth maul. no questions no answers. so he's split in half & falls down into a never-ending portal. ok, cool. following so far. & tHEN. not only does he miraculously SURVIVE THAT (???)––meanwhile, SOME sith have to have metal organs stuffed into their shellacked shells of life support slash body armor but maul gets straight up shishkebabed through all the important places in COMPLETE SEPARATE HALVES, & can just roll with it. ok. huh.––but THEN. he gets miraculously zoomed away from naboo like st. john's body flying through the winds to santiago de compostela all the way to a garbage dump ten feet underground on an entirely DIFFERENT PLANET, which. ok. inchresting. but NOT ONLY THAT, but maul SOMEHOW accumulates eight extra legs (8!!!! 4+4=8!!!! approximately six (6!!!!) more legs than he requires!!!!) to become some weird landfill mechanical spider amalgam with surprisingly great healthcare despite, y'know, the garbage dump situation. & AFTER TEN LONG YEARS OF LIVING IN A LITERAL HOLE, his long-lost brother (one of TWO long-lost brothers, may i point out) somehow FINDS him on this rando planet that is entirely garbage dump, in a hole, with eight legs, scrawling KENOBI!!!! on the wall in honest to god blood. ok so. one might think: well, where could we possibly go from here? perhaps a rehabilitation center? maury, to deal with the long-lost brother situation? a petting zoo? no. instead, darth maul spends a three-day weekend with a witch who does some bright green toxic joker sludge magic & is then raring to go and build a criminal empire with no after effects re: the vivisection, other then the whole frothing at the mouth KENOBI!!!!!! thing. did i fever dream this? maybe. possibly. what the absolute fuck

2384 notes • Posted 2021-05-13 01:08:46 GMT

#3

people keep saying "jedi r found family!!!" like these people chose each other. no. the infinitely more correct & funny thing is that the jedi order is made up of people who all grew up around each other from birth till death and all the awkward stages in between. this means that every single order member is simultaneously your best friend from preschool, your preschool teacher, that rando neighbor whose name u do not remember, your grandfather, your roommate, ur worst enemy from middle school, that group project member who u want to strangle, ur asshole math teacher, ur super cool older cousin, ur dad, ur son, ur brother, & ur grandfather. at the same time. why else do u think they’re all so bitchy

3040 notes • Posted 2021-07-25 05:38:15 GMT

#2

star wars: the clone wars drives me fucking nuts in a most magnificent way because it’s completely apeshit but also has to aggressively maintain the status quo. u’ve heard of “anakin can’t ever meet general grievous because of one throw away line in rots” but that bar is so low it’s in the center of the earth. nobody knows palpatine’s the sith lord until the final few minutes of rots, so goddamn it all no one will EVER know palpatine’s the sith lord in swtcw!!! palpatine could get on a twitch livestream and eat live babies while cackling maniacally and, miraculously, no one would notice. anakin has a brief, five-second blackout where he cameos as Thee darth vader while partying on mortis but as long as he’s mysteriously brainwashed at the end of the day it doesn’t count, right, dave? every single character not explicitly shown in rots has to be either a) killed b) disappeared into the void or c) personally launched into the sun by sheev palpatine. there’s not a man in a galaxy far, far away that can’t somehow fall prey to this looney tunes logic and/or phineas and ferb unbustable summer hijinks insanity. yoda’s gotta fuck off into his swamp vacay in shame while also somehow being a beloved pillar of the community so he has arcs like “clearly cannot read the room, feat. anakin” and “once again fails to comprehend the impact of trauma, feat. anakin” and “‘friends, are we not?’ feat. anakin”. here, in gffa circa swtcw era, Status Quo Is God. obi-wan could actually physically watch with his own eyes anakin descend into peak vadersanity, paint himself with blood, and declare himself sith lord supreme emperor of all bad things master of destruction & somehow still walk away with the conclusion that Anakin Is Stable And Doing Well! Better Than Great, Actually! anakin and padmé could fall through the roof of the jedi temple while having sex and shouting their marriage vows & it would turn out every single jedi had been sucked into the vacuum of space & conveniently missed the show. also, jar jar is there. welcome to groundhog day, space wizard style.

4425 notes • Posted 2021-06-17 12:12:10 GMT

#1

say whatchu will about the official jedi doctrine of Only Beige Tones and, believe me, i will. but the jedi really did rock the fuck out of beige. mace windu? who else can so eloquently say Don’t Fuck With Me in Premiere Pantone 15-1214 TCX Warm Sand™? can anybody else but shaak ti strut out in Entirely terracotta color palette yet still radiate Pure Working Single Mom Kick Ass Energy for millions of her clone sons? and who can forget obi-wan, who manages to be perfectly slutty—yet his v-necks are chastity-height and general style is mid-2000s suburban house demo? panache. pure, perfectly beige swag

6657 notes • Posted 2021-03-23 00:52:19 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[shenyori]

Can you do some "sibling" headcanons for Xiao and Qiqi? (With that I mean Xiao and Qiqi acting like their are siblings/seeing each other as sibling, despite not being siblings.)

note: honestly what an inchresting ask, especially lore-wise. might be ooc but i tried staying true to both of their characters! thank you for the xiao ask mainly bc i just love writing about xiao;; hopefully i answered it right tho! JASDHSDJFCHS

༉‧₊˚✧

˗ˏˋ Xiao and Qiqi having a sibling-like relationship ˎˊ˗

✧ Most of their first meetings would be when Xiao stumbles upon a lost Qiqi or a confused Qiqi being stuck somewhere due to an order.

✧ Xiao would be aloof towards Qiqi but he would watch over her from afar, as he’s trying to be careful to not hurt her. He definitely would help a lost and confused Qiqi as it’s known that orders sometimes confuse her.

✧ Xiao guiding her from afar is also a way of protecting her from his karma.

✧ Like Qiqi’s promise to the traveller, she tries her best to remember Xiao and orders herself to remember him. This would be why she has a voiceline towards Xiao that asks if they met before.

✧  I don’t think Xiao would be the ‘sweet-type’ but rather the ‘mature’ and ‘protective type’ instead as he is the guardian yaksha after all. He would help and advise Qiqi as to what to do or help her along the way once she’s lost.

✧ When they hang out or meet, Qiqi would give him medicines that she asked from Dr. Baizhu even though he already stated that mortal medicine can’t help him.

✧ Xiao would also be a mentor-type to Qiqi as well as Ganyu. He would teach her how to do things by herself. In order not to forget this, Qiqi would write it in her notebook.

✧ From time to time, Xiao would tell Qiqi she is doing a good job and should continue it as we’ve seen Xiao is the type of person to let people correct their own mistakes at their own pace, making him a patient person (as per interpretation of him appearing on Ganyu’s story.)

༉‧₊˚✧

[staysuki]

Hi hi👋🏼 How have you been today ?!

I’m back at it again with my incessant asks of Slc💃🏻

To start off,

I am intrigued 🔎 Jae worrying about Y/n attending this party with eonnie 👁 So it’s confirmed that eonnie will be there🤔 This makes me doubt that it’s eonnie who’s in cahoots with 😏Felix😏 BUT we haven’t seen any chats between the two thieves this time so it’s hard to say, maybe the mystery person has told Felix they were going and I’m rambling on a moot point!

On another note!

I’m quite proud of Lia for handling the whole situation with Jake so smoothly, although it may be hard for her (who’s to say it’s not hard to be rejected by your crush 🤧) It’s refreshing to see that go so well 👏🏼

And Seungmin ? Focusing on his school work instead of going to the party ? I have lingering feelings that this is more suspicious than it seems 👀 Or is he taking his punishment from his hyung seriously AGH it’s hard to say, I must say though....I see that little connection with the mystery person, they mentioned they were still thinking about going and here’s Seungmin trying to figure out if he’ll go 😩

Bestie I’m still leaning towards Wonpil but...🧍🏻‍♀️I’ll have to hold all this info for future parts and revise at a later date 🧐 And it’s interesting that Jake and Wonpil and encouraging Seungmin to go to the party when they’ve scolded him multiple times already for his less than desirable behaviour 👀

#teamhyunjin👁👄👁

i'm good, thank you! hope you're well too, glad to hear from you! ♥️

your asks are always welcome! 🤧 they're not incessant at all, pls send more JSHWJSHSJ

the "😏felix😏" threw me out PLS. and yes, the party is indeed where things will go down, maybe we'll learn more about this thieving partners-in-crime or perhaps, like their confidence in felix, they'd be able to hide their tracks with the way felix is good at sneaking. who knows 🙈 parties are wild huh, maybe it'll be so crowded that they won't even see each other much.

and yeah, lia handled that rejection well. good sense of camaraderie probably from someone who's had a lot of experience with dating or perhaps she didn't really like jake too deeply in the first place (i mean, it hasn't even been a month 🙈)

hmmm seungmin huh 😏 inchresting. he's also been a bit passive with his friend group recently, maybe because he's busy with something else? hmmm~

also yes, wonpil encouraging seungmin to go to the party, maybe it's because seungmin showed his support in jake's showcase (in a tsundere way) and wonpil is rewarding him for being a good brother 🙈 or maybe there's some hidden agenda to it~

in the first place, we don't really know whether this partnership is just between two people. maybe there's someone else working behind the scenes or perhaps someone else they're secretly in contact with. felix is the "broker" and also the one who steals the artwork from time to time (because he's good at sneaking) the mystery person also seems to have a hand in stealing from time to time BUT we never really got the confirmation on whether or not they're also the appraiser, after all, they'd need to have a good eye for art to do that.

[fairycosmos]

I honestly think the concept of cancel culture is more toxic to fans than actual celebs lmaooo like ofc we need to hold public figures accountable but this like justice streak makes some people so desperate to call them out for anything and everything without fact checking if it’s even true half the time like bro,,, get a hobby maybe. If a celebrity makes u that angry just don’t engage with their content. But on the other hand I don’t feel bad for the celebs cause they’re fine lol

inchresting.....inchresting.......i agree that the actual vitriolic environment of always waiting for someone to fuck up and jumping on things without critical thought to prove a point does more harm to the fans than the celebs. the celebs are absolutely always fine and it's basically just a foot note in their lives they can take a 5 star holiday to ignore. these people are extremely privileged and it takes a lot to actually knock them off the pedestal they're on - being half accountable is something most of them have never had to deal with. what ive noticed is that cancel culture becomes most toxic to fans when it's used as like a competition between stans. suddenly the issue at hand isn't racism or culture appropation or whatever else - it's my favourite millionaire isn't as bad as your favourite millionaire and i will fight tooth and nail and waste real hours of my life proving this because i have projected onto this person so much that criticism of them feels like an attack on my identity 😃 i agree i mean not 2 sound 80 years but i think if kids got 1 actual tangible hobby again they'd be a lot less stressed like......it's not healthy to be THAT invested in a stranger after all. but it is what it is i guess

[unproduciblesmackdown]

watched the end of some guy’s amnesia: rebirth playthrough and i have some boring thoughts @halloweenhavoc have u finished the game i feel like you have more of a grasp on all this stuff than i do lmfao what with having actually played it and also probably remembering machine for pigs better

i really did not like fully piece together either the lore of the Main Story of the game nor the broader Amnesia Universe Lore lmfao but i was interested in the latter especially, but re: the former, i did like having all these other Known People associated with the protag whose fates we could all find out and shit

i’m like, sort of underwhelmed, but that’s b/c even though i was like “okay so just b/c this is a frictional-produced amnesia sequel a decade later doesn’t mean you need to hype it up like it’s gonna blow your mind just coz atdd was That big a deal” doesn’t mean i still wasn’t partially like oh but what if it is like mindblowing horror game tho......it felt a lot more like soma than atdd which isn’t in itself bad b/c soma rules but when i’m expecting it to be more like atdd it just makes things kinda bemusing and hard to recalibrate.....it was a good game though lol just like the whole time trying to figure out what the experience is gonna be i guess

anyways so like in the direction frictional’s games have gone it def feels like they’re more into Game Environments (those ruled in this game....) and being very like Thematic Story-Centric.....atdd was very stripped down and they sure got creative with that and it was as effective as it was but yeah it feels like now that they have the clout from that and the game production experience and presumably more resources and stuff that they’re progressing in This Direction which is not as atdd-esque lmao like good for them if this is the creative vision, follow those dreams and stuff

did not feel at all invested in any of this baby lore lmfaooo like it was very abstract and also i don’t care. but 10/10 for breastfeeding gameplay

i did like the Other World lore like. this is where alexander is from, Maybe?? i remember he’s mentioned as an apostate from [somewhere else] but like, is that somewhere else in another dimension or just another Region in this world lmao i don’t know. out here Inventing the amnesia potion vitae harvesting strategy, and then it’s Something Else he does that is considered heinous and they just banish him to earth lmfaooo like our problem now......and who is alexander’s wife lmfao. in atdd bad ending, when alexander portals back, does he get to come back to the shitty place where nothing’s going on but eternal vitae harvest i guess? sucks. in atdd sorta-neutral-ending, when you toss agrippa’s head through the portal and then agrippa asks [someone, i forget who....the student? weyer? or whoever??] to Help Daniel, does everyone get to go to this crappy world or are there other better dimensions lmao....also i forget how this The Other World got so shitty in the first place. something something they flew too close to the sun with their technology and it got fucked up, i forget what The Gate even is........i do like this origin story for what the fuck is up with the shadow lmfao. that like, it’s just some other alchemical Invention expressly to fuck up the vitae system?? which is sort of counter to the idea that it’s simply a Guardian of any orbs.....but then also, there was some sort of note or memory that seemed to imply that having fucked up whatever Gate they fucked up created something that sounded like maybe it was the shadow?? or was it just something Else fucked up and b/c it was like “uh oh something shitty is happening here now” i just Assumed it was the shadow.....idfk. but idk maybe since Orbs are Other World Tech For Portals the shadow is just like, Other World Tech Ruiner and if you handle one improperly the shadow will like, sense orb-jostling Lol and be On It....i don’t knowwww

i gotta admit i did love the lore tying to atdd lmfao like maybe this game would’ve been better off not really being tied to atdd but i’m still like oh yep i’m a sucker for cameos / lore about these atdd people places and things.....herbert, alexander, daniel, brennenburg, and someone else i forget who was like “i’m the first human to get to this place but i don’t have A Traveller’s Whatever so i have to die here,” rip to him.....kinda funny that vitae-harvesting is like, so Industrialized in the other world with this factory and mass-produced as it were, which is Fucked Up, and alexander got shot to earth for some mysterious terrible thing and had to invite some rando with an orb to his castle and then get his help torturing other randos with medieval instruments like. banging rocks together over there. also i don’t get what the harvesters job was? they were sure Harvesting but if the vitae is just getting Sucked thru tubes why are these guys going around breathing it in also. just like, stray air-vitae filtering system?? idk

also what was going on time-wise with this weird accelerated pregnancy. i don’t think i get Why tasi got amnesia in the first place. coincidence i guess??? and why...did she end up back in the plane wreckage. was that just where she got dropped off after they were all like. taken from Our World into the Other World and then....back into our world?? i guess??? i’m just not clear on the Timeline Of Events and how everyone got split up with some people dying and shit....was everyone getting attacked by ghuls i guess. there was a crapload of them in that one place, wasn’t there.....i also forget Where things happened lmfaooo like shit was this in Earth or The Other World.....i guess the latter it was always like, “high tech” with that art deco design shit and green light and stuff.....god i don’t know. like i already forget why richard was like, held captive and tortured. just on evil principle??? augh lmfao

also it was certainly Interesting that people turn into monsters around here with some like, magic + corruption deal going on......felt like the Lore in atdd was sort of vague but that it could Maybe tie into that sort of idea....frictional games sure will like, Metaphorically have the Self and the Non-Self But Which Is Tied To Your Self in all its stories, atdd, soma, rebirth......daniel having this past self he’s now detached from but re-learning of his past exploits.......soma copy/pasting consciousnesses.......uhhh also when it was talking about the ideal Vitae Collecting Cycle being fear, amnesia, and then Hope, and about who was the best candidates for that, i was really thinking that like, we’d learn tasi was being put through a [Hope] sequence, basically

also (rachel if ur reading this lmfao) i remember this pre-release Audio Tape that wasn’t in the gameplay that i think was like, the doctor doing an experiment on a Monster to confirm it had regenerative properties?? i thought we were gonna get a whole fucked up subplot dealing with that guy lmfao but nah just at the end......i guess soma’s promotional stuff was similar, they had all these Files and Videos and stuff which was relevant to the Lore / story but which wasn’t like, flatout in the game......i guess at some point the doctor must’ve been like, experimenting on a crew member who was sort of in the process of Turning or w/e. hank or someone i guess.....UHHH i did like “talking” to so many monsters lmfaooo like leon and crap. wild, tragic, etc.......

RIGHT and i think frictional is really creative in its like, Game Mechanics, like how relatively recently we learned that that whole thing about being told that Low Sanity makes you easier to detect in atdd, but that wasn’t true and was just put in the game to put the player more on edge? i mean, daniel keeling over for a moment if sanity gets too low is probably unhelpful in a chase but. and like, here the “sanity” thing was neat, i liked the Sound lol, i liked the flashing images and how that was like, Relevant, but also it seems like you can’t ever die in this game?? basically, ish?? which i think is neat. like, you don’t really Need to.....said it last time how it feels like the player just is still going to react as Urgently if they’re being chased by the monster lmfaooo

idk there was something other neat / creative element i think i wanted to point out as Cool but i forget (HAHA...manesima.....) i dunno the 0.0001% chance any of you are Coincidentally into amnesia at all and know what all is being talked about here and have thoughts....feel free to send me an ask or whatever.......would be inchrested in hearing other takes on it etc

OH and it didn’t feel like machine for pigs was involved at all lmfao which makes sense since it wasn’t actually produced by frictional but now i’m really struggling to remember the Lore there and if it could Conceivably tie in with descent/rebirth-verse.......oswald’s soul got actually split with Evil Orb-Corrupted Self (which!!!! i forgot there’s even the implication that maybe orb-proximity fucks you up. didn’t seem that relevant here. here magic empress fountain water fucks you up) and Amnesia’d Good (Normal-er) Self and there’s the giant machine which is gonna.....consume the world to protect it from self-destructing in another way......or, that was the reason given to oswald anyways, i remember he like sacrifices his kids to it to save them from [his visions of ww1 being an impending thing] and he doesn’t find that out till the end......his evil self tricked his good self into firing up the machine......i forget where the pig men come from or what their point is, and the machine is like, another Factory Line Vitae Harvesting thing, right?? what’s the vitae For in this case....i sure don’t fuckin know. i forget what oswald does at the end as well to like, fix things, i remember feeling sad about it even though he was a horny weirdo.....i really forget what the full picture was there or what the Orb Involvement was. anyways. idk

would be fun to see more frictional games but it seems like they’re not too interested in doing something as atdd-esque again lol, soma seems more like What Frictional Really Wants To Do, which isn’t a bad thing cuz soma rules and like. objectively i guess soma is the better game, i’m not at all mad at anyone arguing soma is better lmfao, i just sure cherish atdd and it sure is the one that made the whole [subsequent horror game defining] splash lmfao. OH YEAH and i liked they threw in another moment where someone’s been alive for ages and you unplug them and it’s like what the fuck. and i guess you do that but even Harder in the one Rebirth ending where you shadow-infect everything and all the people in the vitae-pods die......which like, it Was def creepy having all those vitae pods lmfao. conceptually fucked up.....uh yeah that’s it i guess. was a sucker for the atdd-lore-fanservice stuff lol. thought it was good but wasn’t like atdd 2.0 which is both Totally Fine and also A Bit Disappointing Of Course lol. now i’m thinking about soma some more though which is Worthy cuz that game rules and i love its story / concepts so much. and i love that you keep fisting sphincters to Save until you have to fist your forearm off. we’ve all been there. and i love the “we have the better view. :)” audio log from someone on the surface. and how the gradual reveal of the [lady you talk to throughout the game who guides you along]’s story. and the Ending. and the gradual reveal of Just What Is Going On Around Here

anyways yeah atdd rules soma rules i thought this game was good too but def is like okay you’d rather make soma than atdd and that is valid

thots????????????????

[peachdoxie]

Okay so I’m like way late in sharing my liveblog of chapter 13, but I read it earlier and took notes and here they are! Man, what a doozy of a chapter! I have a lot of things to say.

Conjoined fabrials require a careful division of the gemstone—and the spren inside. 

Like we knew this already but hearing about it directly is like. Yikes.

Other types of spren do not split as evenly, as easily, or at all. 

Gimme the lore, Branderson

Shallan had to deal with Veil’s alcohol abuse. Again. 

Yikes

He was using that time to go ride horses. 

The paranoid part of me thinks something else is going on, but also Adolin is still allowed to have interests, especially if he’s grown closer with Dalinar’s Ryshadium after losing Sureblood in Words of Radiance, as the chapter later describes.

Shallan found herself alone—and for the first time in weeks, she didn’t have a role to play.

Inchresting.

The deal is set and arranged. The spren will come.

wat

Seven years ago now—and if that timeline was correct, she must have begun seeing Pattern as a young child. Long before Jasnah had first encountered her spren.

I feel like this is important but idk why. It sort of implies that the Cryptics were the first spren to start forming Nahel bonds in the current era, but, again, why? What are the implications?

She couldn’t see those memories; didn’t want to see them. As she shied away from them, something dark shifted inside her, growing stronger. Formless. Shallan didn’t want to be the person who had done those things. That… that person could not… not be loved…

Oof but also not true

Memory loss was apparently common to these cases, but the rest of what Shallan experienced seemed distinctly different. Importantly, she wasn’t experiencing continued memory loss. So maybe she was fine. She’d stabilized.

I have the feeling Shallan does, in fact, have some significant memory losses that she’s either unaware of or so in denial about she doesn’t realize she’s in denial of them.

Besides, these fabrials did the work of a dozen people.

lmao Roshar is undergoing industrialization which is probably a bad thing

When she became Veil, the colors in the room… muted. The colors didn’t change, but her perception shifted.

Neat detail. I wonder how that would interact with the various Heightenings of Nalthis.

His pet chicken, the green one.

IT’S BIRB TIME!!!!!

“Of course, with your powers nothing is permanent, is it? You deal exclusively in the ephemeral.”

That’s kind of a recurring issue in Shallan’s life, isn’t it, the lack of permanence?

His chicken held its prey with one foot, eating almost like a person did with their hands. The thing was so strange, so alien. It stood upright, like no other beast Shallan had studied. When it chirped at Mraize, it sounded almost like it was talking, and she swore she could occasionally make out words. It was like a tiny parody of a person.

Lmao “alien.” Shallan, you have no idea how right you are. Also, I’m going to guess the bird may actually be talking to Mraize since it’s a fucking aviar

Ask a better question. “Nalathis,” Radiant said. “Scadarial. What are they?”

“Nalthis. Scadrial.” He spoke the words with a different accent. “Where are they. That’s an excellent question, Radiant. Suffice it to say they are places in Shadesmar where our Stormlight—so easily captured and transported—would be a valuable commodity.”

Okay sure just fucking namedrop the other planets in the cosmere again why don’t you

A more perfect gemstone could contain the Light long enough to go offworld, but there is still the Connection problem. This little flaw has caused untold trouble. And the one who unlocks the secret would have untold power.

dear fucking hell, Mraize.

tbh I don’t even know how to react to this revelation. It’s so simple and yet so ambitious, and it would have significant impacts not just on Roshar, but on the whole of the cosmere. Not to mention: Investiture on Roshar is renewable because when it’s used, it returns to the Spiritual Realm until it’s brought back into the Physical by highstorms or a perpendicularity. What would happen if Mraize found a way to take Honor’s Investiture and have it be used somewhere else in the cosmere outside of the Rosharan system? Would that unbalance the Shards even more?

just an absolute what the fuck. there are so many unknown Realmatic ramifications for this. what the fuck.

“I already have,” Mraize said, making a fist. “Though putting the plan into motion will be difficult. I have a job for you.”

Great, Mraize already knows how to do this incredibly ridiculous Realmatic bullshit. This is going to be bad if he gets it up and running, even if Mraize himself isn’t “evil.” It would radically change everything, and there are many bad people who would abuse that change.

“I have news for you,” Shallan said. “Sja-anat contacted me while I was away. She agreed to your terms, and is sending one of her spren to the tower, where it will investigate your members for a possible bond.”

Ah, so this is who Shallan was communicating with earlier. But how did Sja-anat use a spanreed? And what kind of spren will she send, and how has it been corrupted?

Also, Shallan and Mraize at least know that Glys was corrupted by Sja-anat. I wonder who else holds this knowledge.

“I cannot betray this secret,” Mraize said. “Let’s just say that Lightweavers fascinate me, and leave it at that. And you should not fear if I did keep someone close to you. Such a person could be an… aid in times of need. Iyatil did the same for me.”

*tosses another piece of evidence onto the theory I saw someone make that Shallan, in a very repressed persona, is actually Mraize’s spy*

“Immortality, in part. He thought he could become like the Heralds. In his quest, he discovered a secret. He had Voidlight before the Everstorm—he carried it from Braize, the place you call Damnation. He was testing the movement of Light between worlds. And one close to him might have answers. At any rate, we couldn’t risk Ialai or the Sons of Honor recovering these secrets.”

I honestly don’t know what to make of this but it seems important so

“Oh, we know where he is,” Mraize said. “He has asked for—and been granted—asylum in a city no other Ghostblood has been able to enter.”

“A place you can’t enter?” Shallan asked. “Where is security that tight?”

“The fortress named Lasting Integrity,” Mraize said. “Home and capital city of the honorspren in Shadesmar.”

OH SURE BRANDON, JUST DROP ANOTHER FUCKING BOMBSHELL IN THIS CHAPTER, I CAN DEFINITELY HANDLE IT

at least my question of “why the fuck is SHALLAN going to Lasting Integrity” is answered

“Oh, you will. And once you successfully return from this mission, your reward will be—as always—something for which you hunger. Answers. All of them.”

So like, first of all I’m skeptical that Shallan will actually succeed, so that’s one thing. And second, what’s to say that Brando will just have Shallan learn things off the page and we don’t know the answers? Either way, I eagerly await how this plot line will play out. Whatever’s gonna happen, it’s gonna involve some hella cosmere Lore.

Mraize had never been willing to speak of that, but she had to think they’d been grooming her—and her family—for over a decade.

He knew the truth about Shallan’s past. There were holes in her childhood memories. If they did what he asked, Mraize would fill them.

And maybe then, at long last, Veil could force Shallan to become complete.

The word “grooming” stands out to me here. What, exactly, were they grooming her for?

***

Anyway. Wow. What a fucking chapter. So little action, and yet so much just changed. Rhythm of War is taking on a very different look now that there’s Lore at stake.