#that turned him into a ‘beast’ according to society’s understanding of it.

[atopvisenyashill]

one day i will lay out all the typical parts of batb stories INCLUDING east of the sun west of the moon variants and how it relates to brienne and jaime so people stop trying to act like that isn’t exactly what they are

[yuesya]

I see you've taken after the Nasuverse quite well, making so many alternate versions of your main heroine :)

This latest one actually reminds me a bit of Zero from Drakengard 3. Both of them have similar backstories, being sold into slavery and suffering a cruel betrayal at the end of it. Both have a devil may care attitude towards murder and do it on a whim or as a reflexive response. Both also share similar appearances with their stark white hair and skin.

Moreover, since Shiki probably wasn't raised as a proper young lady like her canon counterpart and being more open about her visceral desires she'd likely have a more crass vocabulary. Once agian, quite similarly to her Drakengard counterpart.

Although I am a bit befuddled about Jujutsu society's response to Shiki since it seems kind of... muted. Yes, Shiki is a special grade curse user who definitely killed her fair share of sorcerers to earn that title. However, I don't think the sorcerers would let her go around committing whatever atrocities she wanted without offering some resistance, they certainly didn't with Geto.

On that topic, Geto and Satoru would also definitely take an interest in her for a variety of reasons. Geto would likely be thrilled to have another special grade helping achieve his genocidal ambitions, especially one as murderous as Shiki. Whereas Gojo would've likely encountered her one way or another since he is already on the look out for a homicidal special grade curse user.

Although given what little we know from the AU so far it's likely Shiki would reject them both. Shiki would probably want nothing to do with Geto's dream since she'd see no difference between sorcerers and "monkeys." She would also be uninterested in making the world a better place.

As for Satoru she would probably mix with him as well as oil does with water, meaning not at all given their tense interactions in a different AU. This would likely culminate in a battle between the two leading to the infamous [REDACTED] incident, which leads to both of them developing a mutual understanding to stay out of each other's way.

There are so many AUs haha. It feels like a new one crops up whenever I turn around...

Interesting parallels to Zero! And fitting, in some ways. Araya doesn't strike me as someone who would take an active parental role for Shiki; he'd probably decide to observe her 'natural behaviors' instead. Remember how in zenith of stars Shiki experiences some struggles with her desire to 'be good' versus her instinct to kill? How she initially tried to claw out her own eyes because she recognized that humans aren't supposed to visualize death?

In this 'verse, Shiki has no such restraints tempering her. She was never taught the difference between 'right' and 'wrong.' There's only Araya, who watches her silently no matter what she does.

I haven't sorted out timeline details, but Shiki would escape from Araya sometime while Geto is at large, which means that most of the jujutsu headquarters' attention is focused on Geto as the major threat. Shiki gets mistaken for one of Geto's compatriots multiple times. Geto attempts to recruit her and fails, but he doesn't particularly mind. Shiki has killed many non-sorcerers according to her whims, after all. He probably tries to direct her towards non-sorcerers as best as he can from the sidelines.

Shiki comes into prominence after Geto's death, and that's when people start realizing that this girl is a lot more dangerous than she seems at first glance. There are multiple sorcerers sent after her -all are killed. They need to cut their losses, and their last resort is Gojo Satoru-

But what if Gojo tries to recruit her to his side? The girl is like a wild beast that can't be controlled; worse than Tsukumo ever was. What kind of damage would she cause? What if Gojo succeeded in taming her? Which probably then leads into the attempt to bribe Shiki out of Japan with one of Sukuna's fingers.

I haven't made up my mind on how the meeting between Shiki and Satoru would go, but lots of collateral damage sounds like it would be on the right track haha.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Genbu - Day 149

Race: Avatar

Arcana: Temperance

Alignment: Light-Chaos

December 19th, 2024 (Published Dec. 20th)

Chinese Mythology has quite a lot of groups of mythologic figures- pantheons of gods, groups of demons, and unique companies surrounding several of these gods and demons- but none stick out quite as much in pop-culture than the Four Divine Beasts (also called the Four Symbols). No relation to Breath of the Wild. These creatures, representing the cardinal directions, each have their own unique and fascinating roles to play in the mythological ecosystem of China. While all of the four divine beasts are very interesting and fun in their own right, today we're going to be shining a special spotlight on one in particular: the Black Tortoise of the North, Genbu.

By themselves, from what I know, the four divine beasts don't have much- most of their stories and tales are related primarily to each other and how they each fulfill different roles compared to each other. However, we do know quite a bit about them separately, and a lot about the unit they form as well, so while this'll be a shorter upload, it'll be pretty concise, too. Genbu, the Black Tortoise, is the Beast that protects the North, spanning several northern constellations, using seven of the traditionally recognized constellations in modern society; for instance, the snake's head takes up Saggitarius, while the turtoise's shell is formed by several other constellations, being Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pegasus. In appearance, according to the constellation, he is a great tortoise with a black shell intertwined with a snake, though it's sometimes left ambiguous as to if the snake is his body or if he's simply connected to the snake.

Interestingly, Genbu's alternative spelling to his name- Xuan Wu- is also a shared name with a god named Xuanwu, with the two having a strange relationship where sometimes Genbu is Xuanwu and other times they're different figures, because Mythology hates being easy to understand. This does tie in to a small legend that I can retell here, though, about Genbu- one relating to him and Xuanwu. From what I can tell in this story, though it appears to be rather obscure and I can't even back it up with any primary sources, Xuanwu was a great and powerful god who tried to wash away his sins one day by cutting out his entrails. These entrails turned into a great tortoise and a snake, being an obvious allusion to Genbu, and after a while he managed to earn their respect, turning them into his trustworthy and faithful guardians for the north.

And, well, that's about it. His design in SMT is also incredibly deceptively simple, being a very faithful recreation of the tortoise and snake constellation, though I do like how dragon-esque the snake looks. The shell is black, and everything checks out for the Black Tortoise of the north. A pretty good design for a pretty unique demon.

[jiskblr]

The Color of Spite: The Strength of Black Mana

Man, this post is so incredibly wrong. I don't know who they are, but despite being given a grant to write about Magic somehow (according to their blog title), and then writing this, they do not understand Black at all.

I mean, you could probably guess they were going to get things badly wrong when they started with the story of Baby Liliana to illustrate Black, and despite the color of her card in Magic Origins Baby Liliana is not Black. She is, at best, Orzhov; probably she's nearly mono-White.

Liliana becomes Black when she sees that White failed her. Morality and proper conduct and love for her family didn't save Josu and so she abandons it. Liliana had hope, and lost it. Instead she has power. Sometimes it's a better replacement; sometimes it's worse.

And for basically any human who is Black-aligned, this is reminiscent! People mostly do not turn their back on society's mores - and human society's mores are always, always White - unless that society fails them. It lets their brother die or oppresses them or left everyone around them in poverty or kept lying to them or left them marinating in unsolvable despair, and they decide that, in fact, screw the rules, I'm going to choose what I want and what limits I will accept.

While white and green are more amenable to finding hope and holding it aloft as a banner, black claws hope desperately to its chest with shredded, bloody fingernails. Every ounce of hope black has, it tore by itself from the clutches of an uncaring world.

No, that's anthropomorphizing. Imposing a human, White view on things. (Because humans are White more than we are any of the other four. This wasn't just a quirk of how early sets filled out the creature types.)

The Black view is Nothing will stop me, not even me. Out of hope? Doesn't matter. Depressed as hell? Doesn't matter. Those are just obstacles to your goals and your power like any external obstacle. And Black knows what to do with obstacles to your goals: remove them, at any cost.

Anyone who's been depressed knows anything that relies on hope is fragile. You can either accept that you have run out of ability to care, or you can power through it. Where hope fails, ambition - raw focused need - carries you forward.

Determination is a good heroic/chivalric interpretation of Black. It's sanding off the rough edges, rounding it toward White, much like reading Red as courage, but it's not wrong.

But the true strength of Black is spite.

Spite. Nothing else their creator knew could grow in isolation, endure helplessness, and motivate even when all else was lost. Determination had to be earned, hope could be lost, love made you both weak and strong... But the urge to spit in the eye of the heavens, to rage against those who had done you wrong, to strike at those you loathed even as you fell into death-- it was destructive, yes, but the great beasts of her army were always meant to destroy. Spite could be spun into obsession, sharpened by every trial, growing only more dangerous as other things were lost.

(source)

Spite is what makes Liliana defeat Nicol Bolas; she realizes that there is something she values more than eternity, and it's not letting that fucker win. She'd rather die inconveniencing him than serve. (And, of course, Gideon saves her, and she returns the favor. As Tywin Lannister, a very Black man in every aspect of his outlook, would say: Black pays its debts.)

Spite is what opposes cosmic horror; we will go down fighting and hurt it however we can, because fuck you that's why.

Spite, like Black, is eternal. Spite can carry a lich through a thousand years of planning for a revenge that will be forgotten by everyone else but the target. Spite knows no limits but those it chooses to accept.

And, like Black in general, spite is destructive. It can be turned to constructive uses; "doing a good job just to spite the haters who thought I couldn't" is a very wide-spread experience. But spite is not healthy, and it is the proverbial knife with a blade for a handle.

"Yeah. So?", Black replies, "Do you care about being healthy, or do you care about victory?"

And, to be fair, Black sometimes decides "...Actually I pick being healthy. This time." Black will never look down on someone for making a choice, as long as they really genuinely contemplated the alternative and decided not to because they didn't like the result.

Black will look down on you for refusing to choose - as Rush says, you still have made a choice, and Black will consider you a coward or a fool for pretending you haven't. It will look down on you for accepting the status quo because it is the status quo, or accepting an outcome because "that's the way it's supposed to be", or because you're afraid of contemplating What Would The Neighbors Think.

It will not look down on you for deciding that, actually, you do care what these neighbors think, and that cost is greater than the reward for doing the thing that shocks them. It will not look down on you for deciding that the status quo, just for today, is good enough. Or that you care about people who care about morality and for their sake will refuse to break their code.

(Another Lannister story - Jaime Lannister in Feast for Crows, who spends the whole book sorting out a mess in the army and negotiating the surrender of Riverrun, which he has sworn not to fight, without ever breaking his word or oaths, despite everyone else believing he would never bother to consider either of those binding on him. Because Brienne of Tarth cares, and he cares about her opinion of him, and would rather have it honestly than try to deceive her. See also, Davos Seaworth.)

The greatest sin, to Black, is not to play. Black is what pushes people to use "NPC" as the term of the highest disrespect. You have values! Take action for them! Red says 'fuck around and find out'. Black says 'Look at you want and go for it!'

But maybe you want less the strength of Black and more the positive side.

And for that, you want atomized individualism and the modern world.

Because, see, in any Western country before about 1950 and a lot of non-Western countries today, people were locked in to what their families, or priests, or villages wanted them to be. There was no way out.

And it sucked, for lots of them. Not all, never all, but lots, probably most.

And then we popularized the car and the highway, and the cities grew, and now if it sucks, you could hit da bricks. Go somewhere else, be your own person.

Find people who like things you like, and care about what you care about, and care about your family only to the extent you want to.

People can be what they want, want what they want, and it is a triumph of Black above White, Black above Green, Black above everyone.

People are live players, determining their own destiny.

And that's what Black heaven looks like.

Abundant, rich, enjoying what we can and avoiding what we dislike. Forming communities of like-minded people, not communities by default.

(And how did it get rich? Also Black - because a number of selfish men determined the easiest way to get a billion dollars was to have someone else give you one dollar, one billion times, and the easiest way to do that was to sell them things worth $25 to them for $26. But that's a longer story.)

Anyway, that's the story of Black at its best. Spite, and Individualism, and the healing, constructive power of Getting What You Want.

[lesuccube]

➚ 𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐊 𝐃 : ᴀᴜ-ᴄᴛᴏʙᴇʀ — ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴜɴᴛ

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 — dancing with danger .

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 — no malware detected

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 — not beta'd , constructive criticism is welcomed. reblogs and comments are appreciated .

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 — 0.8k

according to aristotle, humans are social animals, that we thrive best in the company of others. while that may prove true to some, it wasn't to you. the only thing this phrase would describe you as perfectly was an animal. running on pure instinct and adrenaline. an untamed beast.

a wolf in sheep's clothing? no. a more accurate representation of you would be a black mamba. blending into the night, hiding in places the light doesn't shine, the shadows became your home. it's your job to but at the same time, you liked your isolation.

far away from nosy people, from people that talked too much, that took up too much space and didn't know when enough was enough. you hated that, you hated them. and your handler took advantage of that.

taken in by a mysterious man, he raised you learning how to fight, self defense, martial arts, to kill and maim with your bare hands. he also taught you how to fight with every weapon known to mankind, even something like a spoon. now, why would you as a child let yourself be taken in by such a person? because as much as you loved being alone, living with him where you had a roof over your head instead of sleeping in parking garages, food on the table three times a day instead of scavenging for scraps, a shower instead of stinking, the works.

growing up, you were detached from your emotions. you were extremely apathetic and unfeeling. he knew that and took advantage of it to do his work. now, being an assassin wasn't all that bad. most of the time, your assignments consisted of cleaning society of very bad people and you relished in doing it, after all your services weren't cheap. and some days, you were sent to chase after regular people with regular lives. normal people who's worst crimes was probably arguing with others. but as stated before, you were unfeeling. robotic even. you don't care about all that jazz.

until jake lockley. your next assignment. the target on his back? your handler never explained except for the fact that someone really high up wanted him gone to get back at his own handler? whatever that meant.

but see, the thing was, he knew how to fight back. and he never backed down from one either. and the longer you chased him, the more you seemed to be captivated by him. all those witty spanish comebacks, all the subtle Itouches when he dodged your blows and every single close call that sent you both toppling over each other… they all made your heart go crazy for some unknown reason.

for someone so isolated from the world, you sure craved his company. and that's what boggled you the most; you just can't seem to understand your attraction towards him, unable to distinguish it from the innate loathing you held for each and every one of your assignments.

maybe that should've been your warning but you were never the type to listen to anyone but your gut anyways, and your gut tells you that you either liked him or hated him and it continues to perplex you so. so on one fateful encounter after the other, you managed to pull him under you after a hard blow to the head.

you pointed the tip of your dagger to his throat, a snarl on your lips as you breathed heavily, agonizing bruises blooming underneath your layer of clothing. "i'll cut your throat! that'll shut you up!" you rasped, threat half empty even with your weapon ready to slit him bloody open.

with ragged breaths, jake looks up at you, nose bloody and his own lips curled into a small smirk. "you're beautiful…" he whispers and those two words was enough to send your heart ablaze and your tummy churning with thousands of butterflies. your cheeks heated at the simple compliment, breaking through your murderous intent, turning you, a cold-blooded assassin into a mess like a teenage girl that just got her crush to notice her.

in your mind, you think you'll never be able to finish this assignment. jake will forever play with you this cat and mouse game, a neverending chase that tiptoed the border of love and murder, bloodied fists and bloody hearts. both your claws ready to tear each other open to reach into the depths of your chests and swap hearts in your carnal desire to be with one another.

there is beauty in violence where love is the center of it all. one soul so alone in the world and the other trying to find its place away from the shadows of those before him. there is beauty in violence in the way you would continue to rush after each other, hoping to be the first to touch and feel the other underneath fingertips and desiring gazes. there is beauty in violence the way jake will always be ready to receive you no matter how bloody you two will end up afterwards.

[mortalkombartwistedreflectionau]

Mirror Moloch/TR Moloch

The fifth plane of the Netherrealm is where a powerful race known as the Oni inhabit. They were sent there by Lucifer a long time ago, to take care of torturing the mortals with enough darkness in their souls to go there after death. To encourage them to fulfill their work, he recommended the Oni to feed off the flesh of those wicked souls, whose bodies would reform in the fifth plane after death over and over again, turning them being devoured just into part of their damnation. With time, the Oni discovered methods to alter the body and mind of those they tortured permanently, receiving many of them as fellow Oni once their conversion was complete to keep expanding their numbers.

Moloch was an Oni Beast, a kind of Oni known for their size and strength. Even among his kind, Moloch displayed a power and ferocity like no other, managing to destroy any opponent in his way. He started being known by the title of Oni Destroyer, feared and respected enough for only a few of the most powerful Oni daring to challenge him.

One day, Moloch was wandering through the fifth plane when he found a particular mortal being tortured, Drahmin. The little skinny man called his attention. His transformation into an Oni seemed complete, and he thought he was already making a lot of noise with his screams. He convinced his fellow Oni to stop Drahmin’s torture, and, since he didn’t really have anything else to do, he explained Drahmin he would be an Oni from then on.

Moloch also found being alongside Drahmin fun, probably for how contrasting the little man and him were as a duo. That’s why he agreed to guide Drahmin and help him adapt to his new home in the fifth plane. In the process he found Drahmin to be quite a great buddy! They had a lot of fun together, whether it was by assisting in tortures or challenging others to fights, becoming quite a fearful duo.

When Drahmin decided to try to collaborate with Shinnok's Brotherhood, Moloch followed his friend simply because he trusted him. He visited the first four planes sometimes alongside the other Oni who followed Drahmin. He watched the life the demons there lived, and initially couldn’t understand it. Giving those with darkness in their souls possibility for a second chance or just imprisonment instead of eternal torture? Dedicating themselves to build a more organized society rather than just torturing? He didn’t even hate it, but it was just strange… and yet, as time went on, he couldn’t deny it was nice in many ways, especially after seeing that people collaborating made for a more comfortable life than the one anyone could have in such a terrible environment as the fifth plane.

Moloch and the other Oni who followed Drahmin eventually saw what he had seen. They decide to bring change a chance, by stopping torturing the mortals who happened to appear in their territory and trying to organize a more similar society to those of the four planes. Given that there were still many Oni who refused to change their ways, it was quite a difficult and slow process, and one which was interrupted when they had to escape their plane to avoid Cetrion and her followers.

Now collaborating with the Brotherhood more than ever while fighting Cetrion’s followers, Moloch and his fellow Oni more often than not have to hold back their brutality against their foes. It’s quite annoying, but according to their allies it is an essential part of changing the ways of the Netherrealm, the very thing they had agreed to do. Hopefully, time will help Moloch and the rest to keep adapting and changing.

[a-la-campanella]

Journal On Penacony • The Sound and the Fury (Page 1/7)

Finished the 2.0 Penacony main story a while ago, and I'm now rewatching the cutscenes from a streamer's VOD. This is meant to be more like a very public journal with some speculations, not a comprehensive summary. Bullet-pointed notes for myself, with key points in bold, and of course, spoilers. I will not warn you twice.

Side note: I alternate with pronouns between the player(s), The Trailblazer, and Stelle. Take it or leave it.

The Sound and the Fury, which is the name of this Trailblaze Mission chapter, is a reference to a novel by the American author William Faulkner. I haven't read it, but I've heard that there are a number of parallels between Penacony and some motifs in the novel.

Pom-Pom introduces us to memoria, and we get a throwaway comment about the Memory Zone. The Memory Zone sounds like something related to Fuli and the Remembrance, and the Forgotten Hall/Memory of Chaos...

The Trailblaze and the Star Rail are what connected Penacony to the rest of the universe; and with the Express leaving Penacony, three Trailblazers stayed behind on the prison turned hotel. They were Tiernan (the guard), Legwork (the mechanic), and Razalina (the surveyor).

Some people have theorized that Misha might be the grandson or a descendent of one of these Trailblazers, and I'm inclined to agree. Of the three, he would likely be related to Legwork, as he's described as being "skilled at fixing a variety of machines" (Character Details).

Interastral Peace Broadcast update! I highly recommend listening to these for anyone who likes worldbuilding, just treat it like in-game current events. Most of what they said here isn't directly relevant to the main story, but the collaboration between the IPC and the Garden of Recollection is particularly interesting... I wonder what's happened since the events of Gold and Gears?

Also, Emperor Rubert I lore! I expect it to more relevant as we continue to get involved with members of Genius Society... I'm looking at you, Polka.

Dan Heng chooses to stay on the Express—totally understandable. Bro gotta celebrate Lunar New Year. And you know, we need someone to stay watch on the Express. He'll come find us eventually, he shows up in White Night after all.

It also doesn't help that Dan Heng took center stage for the Luofu and now there's not much mystery to him anymore. His story isn't complete per say, but all that's left to explore for him is the time between him leaving the Luofu and joining the Express, and the future. It'll probably be the backseat on lore for him until we head back to the Luofu.

Okay, the cutscene before the jump? Every time before we jump, there's a focus on the chessboard. According to this lovely reddit post, it's from a game that ended in a tie—and I think it's a direct reference to Jingliu's line, "This is a chess game between Aeons." Stelle, then, might be the black rook, because that's the piece we get a zoom-in on; though it's also possible she's a pawn, or not even on the board at all. Or the piece is the Astral Express (faction)? Questions, questions...

It also doesn't really matter how the game ends, because (1) when the Universe reaches its end everything will restart anyways and (2) the rules can be broken and new pieces can appear out of nowhere. Aeons don't have to play by normal rules (see: Mythus).

Flash: Acheron (moving backwards), Firefly, Robin, Acheron again (still moving backwards but closer to Stelle this time). This isn't the first time we've glimpsed into a/the future; the other time it happened was when we protected March from the Doomsday Beast on Herta Space Station.

The implications for seeing into the future seem pretty fucking big, but as it stands, I'm not sure how relevant that is right now. It's about the journey, not the destination; what matters isn't how the Universe ends, but what we do until we reach that point.

Blink and we're in the Dreamscape version of what becomes our guest room. No clue how we got there or if we're even really there.* (I'll expand on this in a bit.)

Acheron sighs, then says, "Not another one...." The other person she's talking about might be Black Swan...? I don't think it could be anyone else. She barely knows anyone else, even.

She also tells us we'll forget everything when we wake up, which is bull fucking shit when you see some of the dialogue options.

Okay, this might go pretty fucking meta (any ORV fans?), but Acheron's ability hear our "thoughts" might be similar to how we read the text stating the character's voicelines. Or to put in ORV terms, it's kind of like Kim Dokja reading the Wall. And HSR does go meta on character dialogue, they've given color to select words (e.g. Kafka's golden text, Acheron's red text), and alternative readings to other words.

*It doesn't make much sense to see the other characters in the dreamscape when this dream isn't being shared with them, and they're all people that (assuming we haven't arrived on Penacony yet), neither Acheron nor Stelle should know who they are -> they shouldn't appear in her dreamscape. Like, you don't just imagine whole ass people. Acheron calls them shadows, but they're all memories of conversations that have happened.

I saw a theory (no clue who said it, I think I read it first in a Reddit comment, but I thought it was interesting) that we've rewinded time on Penacony, and Acheron seems to be somewhat aware of this. In the first iteration, Duke Inferno may have successfully destroyed Penacony. In the second, Duke Inferno is slain by Acheron before that can happen, but the Memory Zone boss might've fucked us over. We'd be on the third iteration, then, and Acheron allowed the Memory Zone boss to kill Firefly. There's not much merit to this to be honest beyond some wacky voicelines, but I still think it's worth lingering on.

To be in the Memory Zone like this, I feel like it would imply that this is a memory, and these events would've had to have happened in the linear past. Acheron told us this is Penacony's "welcome", but I don't think that's the case. There's some time fuckery going on for sure.

The doors that lead us to meeting Misha are different than the other doors we saw, and lack the lock-like motif.

Acheron makes no acknowledgement of Misha. Keep this in mind, okay?

"...have we met somewhere before?" Yeah, maybe in another branch of time. None of the dialogue options are absolute an yes/no answer. (Or maybe before Stelle was "born" on Herta Space Station, but I doubt that a little. If that was the case, I think the Stellaron Hunters would be more aware of Acheron.)

If you play Stelle, the red text says "she stood shoulder to shoulder with me", and if you play Caelus, it says "he crossed blades with me". The former is a reference to her Nameless friend Frebass, mentioned in the new relic set Pioneer Diver of Dead Waters. Not sure about the other guy. These could also be taken as parallels to HI3 between Mei and Kiana/Kevin.

Her red text questions are so fucking wack, y'all. Inception reference: Would you wish to stay in the dream world? Elio/player meta: Would you wish to keep going, even if you knew how this story/game would/might end? Fourth wall break meta: Do you remember her?

Anyways, she does seem to be able to notice the different branches of time from different dialogue options; "countless versions of you[...] gave entirely different responses".

She tells us "in that monochrome world, there will be a glimpse of fleeting red, and when you make a choice, it will reappear before you once more..." The red, from what we can tell so far, is her red text. What we hear seems to change based on the choices/dialogue options we selected. If that's the red, then the monochrome world would be... the text you're reading? This really does remind me of ORV.

Then she kills Stelle. Well, not really. Death in a dream is one way to wake up from the dream in Inception, so that's Acheron's way of waking her up, huh.

Acheron looks like she's crying blood-tainted tears. And her eye looks kind of like the void in White Night, too...

Okay, Stelle goes with March to the front desk, and we remember meeting Misha. So what's that all about? We didn't forget jack shit.

March calls out to us, and she doesn't make any acknowledgement of Misha, which is out of character for her. If she saw we were chatting up a new friend, I get the impression she'd try to introduce herself. But she doesn't. Isn't that interesting?

[thelittlestancient]

Dawntrail spoilers under the readmore, obviously.

tl;dr MAMOOL JA LORE

I've loved what we've gotten of the Mamool Ja from ARR, where they're a tribal race that apparently isn't even acknowledged by the Grand Companies of Eorzea as a so-called "beast tribe." They're outsiders and a nuisance when they're not An Actual Problem and they're apparently barely a step above feral, slaves to biological instinct according to certain FATEs in La Noscea--and yet at the same time they're powerful enough to be L50 dungeon end bosses, threats to the budding Warrior of Light, an individual strong enough to give the Garlean Empire pause.

And now we get to see WHY this incredible dichotomy exists, with the Mamool Ja who come to Eorzea as sellswords deliberately downplaying their intelligence for greater profit, turning their narrative into one of cunning strategists.

Which is almost immediately turned around again with Gulool Ja Ja, who uses his cunning mind not to rule by force, but by wisdom. Not to lead his people, but to guide them.

We learn of the Blessed Siblings and their power, which has me absolutely SHAKING Square Enix because of the implications: do they indeed have TWO souls? If so, that would make them sixteen soul parts in one body, compared to WoL's nine (and compared to their single-headed siblings' eight). How does 16/28 soul parts compare to an Unsundered's 14/14?

Where are the Blessed Sisters?

And I love how hard Square Enix committed on them being lizards, with their near-complete lack of sexual dimorphism.

I'm profoundly curious about the social status of the Doppro, non-entities as far as the creation of Blessed Siblings are concerned: what do they bring to Mamool Ja society that the Hoobigo and the Boonewa don't? What has ensured their survival?

And the complexities of Gulool Ja Ja's ascension from Autarch to Dawnservant: 'proof' that Blessed Siblings are best suited to rule, while the traditionalists ignore how Gulool Ja Ja united Tural which has nothing to do with his being Blessed Siblings at all. No shows of strength, but rather grace: humility, diplomacy, a willingness to embrace the cultures of the people he sought to bring together and to show them how he would serve their needs.

But if he presses that point to the traditionalists, they'd just dig their heels in. Bakool Ja Ja and his place in the contest need to exist: the traditionalists of Mamook need their own champion, need to feel represented here, in order to accept the final results.

And Bakool Ja Ja himself: with the hindsight of later revelations, his early actions are no longer those of a bully with no more purpose than to get a rise from others, but an indication of the pain he's experienced in his own life. He's an angry young man lashing out at the world for the cruelty of his own corner of it, and the revelations about the depths of that cruelty, the actions he takes to bring an end to that, and the way he learns to make use of that rage to protect his people are made all the more convincing by what might just be the best performance by a VA of the entire expansion.

That's not even getting into Zoraal Ja's efforts to feel like he has a place in society. Not Blessed, so not of use to the traditionalists, yet that does not absolve him of the pressures of both firstborn and the first and only son of the Blessed. I'm frustrated that they chose to rehash Stormblood's Resonance with him; it's understandable that he leans into the yearning to have been born Blessed, but the technological aspects of his approach are stale, and I wish they had gone in a different direction here.

tl;dr I love Mamool Ja, please make them playable! I would Fantasia in a heartbeat and never look back.

Look don't I don't really care about whether or not you think Dawntrail as a whole is good or bad.

That's not interesting.

Instead talk abt what makes you go ABSOLUTELY FERAL from it (or ffxiv in general).

What is it that hits your brain in just the right way to make you fall into a never ending rabbit hole of madness and obsession. A rabbit hole from which you emerge from with endless and absolute knowledge about super niche subjects that may come up in conversations once or twice.

a character? Plot beat? Theme? Job rotations??? A dungeon with absolutely unhinged lore? A random ass sidequest that is somehow relevant still today and lives rent free in your brain???

Go wild w those plz, I need more of those.

[thebookishbruja]

Howl’s Moving Castle

Spoilers!!

So, I finished Howl’s Moving Castle (the novel) last night, and now I’ve been up since 4am going through the tags on tumblr. I saw someone say that in Howl’s Moving Castle, both Sophie and Howl are the beauty, and they both are the beast. It got me thinking.

This novel beautifully subverts two tropes: the Beauty and the Beast trope (girl goes to scary castle housing legendary monster and falls in love) AS WELL AS the Princess and the Frog trope (Wherein Sophie is the cursed and Howl is the princess longing for true love). 

Beauty and the Beast

So, I’ll be the first to admit that this trope isn’t normally for me. I absolutely understand its appeal. But it’s not for me. But this novel turns it on its head so delightfully I love it.

What is different about Howl’s Moving Castle is, first of all, the girl doesn’t go to the big scary castle against her will. She isn’t a tribute or sacrifice, and she doesn’t go there to free a kidnapped loved one. Nothing is coerced. 

This hat shop girl literally forces her way into the home of this terrifying beast (who kills girls and takes their hearts, mind you, oh and has a fire demon) because she wants to sit by the fire. Then she bullies him into letting her stay. It was hilarious as shit.

Secondly, he’s not a dick or emotionally abusive to her. He’s just annoying lmao. He just has normal flaws!! They are comedic in contrast to his reputation and appearances. This supposed terrifying man, this lothario who seduces women, is emotionally needy, melodramatic, vain, and he avoids his problems rather than confronting them. His house is messy, and it’s not even a castle, it’s an illusion. 

The descriptions of his tantrums are so fuckn funny and you just know...this comes from a place of experience and affection on the part of the author. And yes, in an interview, the author said that she didn’t need to invent Howl’s dramatics when he got a cold, that’s just what her husband (a medievalist/academic) acted like when he was sick. She was like...I just watched him and wrote it all down.

Another comment I saw in a tag of a tumblr post was someone saying...why do you guys like this guy (Howl)? He’s a mess!

Yes! And that’s the point! His fake castle, his hair dye, his fake reputation, it is all just a slightly heightened version of what we all are. We all project a front. We curate our image. (Can you IMAGINE how insufferable Howl would be if he had instagram???) We all have insecurities, and we all sometimes want more attention and validation than we get. 

Sometimes we all want to dramatically slink around the house going ‘oh woe is me, I need a bit of attention’. And so we smile when we see Howl just go for it lmao at least I do. Because of course, despite working overtime to seem more perfect than we are, we all just want to be loved for who we authentically are.

So then of course as Sophie gets to know the real Howl, she also finds out that he is kind. He undercharges poor people for spells, he takes in an orphan and an old lady looking for a rest, and he is very protective of his fire demon, and judges people based on how nice they are to Calcifer.

And again, that’s the whole point. We humans are bundles of kind, squishy hearts, as well as flaws. And we all work overtime putting up images, but in the end, we just want to love and be loved both for our good points, and our absurd, stupid, vulnerabilities and flaws. We want to find value in the soggy human condition.

The Princess and the Frog (where in Howl is the princess and Sophie is the frog)

So, Sophie is cursed into a shape that will (according to fairy tale villain logic) prevent her from finding love. And since the character is a girl, and this book has emotional intelligence, that shape is not a frog, it is an old woman. Women are still valued by society primarily for youth, fertility, and beauty, and are put out to the pasture of invisibility and irrelevance when we get our first crow’s feet. This ‘should’ have been (if Sophie bought into all that) the end of her life, so to speak.

But the absolutely amazing thing is, being an old woman turns out to be Sophie’s secret weapon, her path to self actualization. It gives her strength and courage. She is like...oh, old women can get away with just saying whatever they feel. Oh, people have to be nice to me. And she just gains all of this confidence. Maybe too much! Lol She gets pushier and nosier and more stubborn. 

Sophie has flaws too! But Howl falls in love with her too, and again in the theme of genuine love and inner beauty, he falls in love with her just like she is. He knows she is under a spell but he doesn’t know what she ‘really’ looks like. He just falls in love with who she is.

It’s like the polar opposite of the Little Mermaid (Disney version). In that movie, Ariel loses her voice, and the prince has to get to know her in the silence. In Howl’s Moving Castle, Sophie’s voice is amplified by her curse. She just comes tromping into his house, shouting at him. And he loves her for it.

Howl needs her honesty and her clear eyed assessments. He loves that she is protective of his found family (Calcifer and Michael). (They become her family too.) And, despite her complaining, she is very protective of Howl as well. She even goes to save the woman she thinks he loves, even though she is unbearably jealous.

And in the end, his love doesn’t break the spell. Sophie herself lets go of her ‘disguise’. Her elderly persona has become the armor that she wears to give her courage and strength. It is like assistance, or an aid to her personal growth, and when she grows strong enough on her own to make the choices she wants to make, (love Howl, embrace her magic, choose her own place in life) she lets go of it.

Another subversion to the Princess and the Frog is that Howl is the princess. I just love the gender fuckery of it all. Howl is the one who yearns for true love and relentlessly pursues it. It is Howl who wears jewelry, who primps, and who colors his hair. 

Men are told that if they enjoy anything associated with the feminine, then they are not men. I hate that. I want people to be able to express their gender however they see fit in their individual ways. So to have Howl be aggressively vain and embrace the trappings of femininity and for him to also be loved and the hero, Idk I just really like that. 

Sure, in the end, the fact that he rushes out to save her without doing his hair is a sign that he’s truly in love. But that’s just because he prioritized her wellbeing over his beauty routine that day to save her life. He doesn’t stop being Howl. You get the idea that he’s still gonna be traipsing around in dangly earrings and flashy suits for the foreseeable future. I’ve noticed that on tumblr, the bisexuals have embraced him and Sophie, which is right and good.

So yeah, I love the trope subversions and the idea that we can be messy, flawed, human beings and find humor, nobility, and love in that. All of us. Even princess wizards and even (if you can believe it) eldest daughters.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

I’m curious about Steve Rogers’ “dark side” and your thoughts on that in the MCU! I don’t recall seeing Cap’s dark side in the MCU tbh.

Hello! This is an excellent question and I hope you don't mind my answer being very salty. Because it is one of the things about the MCU that turns me into a bloodthirsty beast out for Marvel executive jugulars.

Now, the concept of Steve's "dark side" is introduced in Age of Ultron, in an exchange between Tony and Steve where Steve says that Tony hasn't "seen yet" Steve's dark side. It is obviously foreshadowing for Civil War, were, supposedly, we . . . see Steve's dark side.

Except we don't.

Except Marvel wants us to see Steve's choices in Civil War as driven by Steve's dark side.

Except they're not.

Nothing Steve does in Civil War is morally reprehensible, unless we agree that he should have just punched Tony in the face right away and that being polite for so long was in fact wrong of him. (This is mostly sarcasm with an edge of truth.)

So what is supposed to Steve's dark side? According to the creators' official version, Steve's . . . selfishness? In putting his own priorities (Bucky) before the group (the Avengers). He broke up the Avengers to pursue his personal interest. Right? Wrong, of course. The Avengers break up because Tony pursues a morally reprehensible line and Steve does not accept to follow him through it.

But hey. They tried to make a "balanced" conflict where both parties had some good points. They failed. But I guess they tried.

But! Not only the Avengers thing. Steve's dark side is also . . . preventing Tony to pursue his revenge over Bucky. Because that's what the excange in AoU foreshadows, right? The big conflict between the two characters in the scene.

Except Steve is doing the morally right thing in preventing a man from committing an extrajudicial murder of a person who was not accountable for the actions in question. (Actually even if Bucky was actually guilty of the crime, acting as judge, jury and executioner would still be wrong, although understandable. But Bucky was not accountable at all, and Tony knew that - Tony was aware of the conditions of Bucky's unaccountability.)

In fact, before the final fight they do reconcile, or at least they’re on their way to reconcile, before Tony decides that it’s his right to attempt to extrajudicially execute an innocent. So this is not even about the accords anymore, and, again, this is . . . you know . . . kinda on Tony. (The creators also confirmed that a large part of Tony’ motivation for murdering Bucky was to hurt Steve, which makes it worse.) Steve was just like. Um I don’t want my friend to be murdered.

So, what's Steve dark side? According to Marvel, his attachment to Bucky over his attachment to the Avengers. And this is the part that makes me bloodthirsty the most: it's homophobic af! Ironically, Marvel execs would die before purposely making Steve Rogers queer, and yet at the same time they managed to be homophobic to him. Spectacular.

The bond between Steve and Bucky, no matter what the MCU tries to say, it's obviously . . . ambiguous. It is a very strong and emotional bond between two men. Steve's attachment to the Avengers, on the other hand, is dramed as a familial bond, the Avengers being a "family" that Steve breaks up because of Bucky. So the ambiguously homoerotic bond destroys the familial bond. I don't need to say how same-sex relationship have been long accused to being destructive of the good, healthy familial bonds of our society!

In fact, the “nu-uh, no gayness here, nope nope nope” attitude of Disney towards Captain America wasn’t actually a thing yet when they were making the movie. (Civil War I mean). At some point, when the movie was almost finished, someone intervened and the movie was tweaked to make it ~less gay~. But at first the movie was being made purposely ambiguously gay! So it’s not just my fervid hysterical imagination. Steve and Bucky’s bond was intended to be, while not gay-gay because that doesn’t happen here, but kinda-gay.

So. The homoerotic bond is toxic and destructive of familial bonds. A man’s dark side is his attachment to another man. Yay. Fun.

At least that was the intention, because as you say there’s hardly ever something that can be called a “dark side” in Steve because whatever he fights for is a good cause. Bucky is an innocent who’s wrongly persecuted after being heavily victimized. Preventing him from being killed on sight for a crime he had not in fact committed at all is a good cause, even if they had no bond between them. Refusing to sign the “accords” is a good choice because the storyline was ridiculously, offensively written they made no fucking sense and also, you know, human rights. Stopping Tony from extrajudicially executing a man for actions the man was not accountable for is a good cause.

So, yeah. Bad writing plus bad writing equals a confusing mess.

[abrahamvanhelsings]

me when i send in a les mis ask to your fire emblem blog 👍

but fuck yeah!!! fellow russell crowe appreciator!!! could i get your thoughts on 'the confrontation' from the 2012 movie by any chance??

oh don't worry about it ill answer les mis asks anywhere lmao. and Especially if they're about this song because it is genuinely one of my favourite ones in the entire film, and that's not an exaggeration. it's fundamental to the audience's understanding of their characters, and in particular javert's: through the confrontation with javert we get an insight in his beliefs and troubles, and suddenly his motivations and his tension with valjean make so much more sense. the film version in particular i think recognises what this song can and is supposed to do and manages to enhance it.

first of all, what i really like about this version is the difference between valjean's/hugh jackman's and javert's/russell crowe's voices and their singing style. hugh jackman's voice is very polished, very clear, and relatively high in tone. it fits the character of valjean/madeleine, who is refined and learned and of good standing. in contrast, russell crowe's voice is of a much darker timbre, his singing a little brittle at the edges (good though!). their voices reflect their positions in the story and society: the convict turned gentleman and the ambitious policeman who came from nothing. their voices also compliment each other very well, and i also enjoy that, because they are so different, the characters' respective lines are easily distinguishable from one another.

the build-up is also insanely good. valjean pleading with javert at the beginning to give him more time sounds genuine and desperate - kudos to hugh jackman for adding a lot of subtlety there! then javert counters, ruthless and forbidding, and from there they launch into the 'duet' part of the song. i think that part is amazing just because of the way the two different melodies run counter to each other, but in the film version it's enhanced by the difference in their voices (as i said) and because the crescendo of the orchestra is really well-done. and most importantly, you can hear their singing get more emotional the nearer they get towards the end of the song, too - it really feels as if we're listening to them, all layers stripped and their souls bared at the end there.

and think leaving out valjean's last few lines so that javert's lines wherein he reveals his background stand alone was a great decision! they're put completely centre-stage, you can't miss them, and they're so important to crowe's characterisation of javert in this film that they need that attention. up to this point javert has been the cruel policeman dogging valjean's steps, but with this the audience suddenly understands why he acts and think the way he does, and why he has so little compassion for the poor and deprived (and valjean). he was born among the lowest of the low, and with hard work he managed to distance himself from that disgrace, to climb up to a respectful position in society without ever resorting to crime. he lives strictly according to the law and the word of the lord as he understands it. but nonetheless he can't ever change where he came from, and it haunts him. russell crowe puts a lot of anger and indignation in his voice (and face) here, which lets the message land very well, and then it's paired with good visuals too: javert telling valjean that he knows nothing of javert as he parries his weapon and redirects the blow, as if to imply that his background taught him tricks and strengths of a different kind than valjean's pure beast-like power.

anyway, finally, i think that the film has something that broadway can miss at times, which is more subtlety in the performance of the songs. the media of film lends itself to a lot more small details that simply won't work out well in a big theatre where the singer's voice has to reach all the corners of the room, and that's fine! but i absolutely prefer the fast-paced intensity of the film version of confrontation to the broader, more refined way it's often performed on stage, even if that is the original way to do it (tbf i have only seen vids, never had the privilege to go to a live show). this is going to make people want to crucify me, but for example i don't like the way peter qu/ast sings javert's songs. it's technically outstanding, of course, he is a good singer, but i personally just don't like his timbre or the way he sings/interprets javert's songs much. what can you do.

most importantly though im a huge valvert shipper and well the confrontation is their homoerotic bit and hugh jackman and russell crowe make great valvert material.

[dumb-of-ass-pure-of-heart]

I'm not going to block your comment, I'm actually just going to call you stupid for this because you're falling for the propoganda. I'm autistic, Harry Potter is fully my special interest and has been since I was a child. Grindelwald's sympathies with Jews and muggles are documented in the books and in Pottermore lore as central to his actions in what would turn into the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Him wanting to stop the Holocaust while also being a wizarding supremacist are two things that can and do coexist. As a seer, he saw the horrors and wanted to do something to stop what was happening. At first, he approached the situation by fostering his ideas with Dumbledore, in queer love. He wanted, effectively, establish an order in which wizarding society integrated with muggle society, bringing them out of the shadows in which wizards would have the authority to do whatever they wanted - including he & Dumbledore to rule.

So why do these two things co-exist if that's the case? At the time, when she was writing his character, she didn't know what he had done to be so evil. She had written a character who had killed a ton of people and tried to overthrow the wizarding world, for semi-mysterious reasons. (She did this with a lot of her writing of the last books, she had only planned out so far but she had writing deadlines to hit with the publishing company, this is well documented in her interviews if you can find them.) We knew something happened with the Deathly Hallows, and that it happened in the same timeframe of WWII. Over time, the narrative was changed. NO, she did NOT just fill in the blanks, she CHANGED the narrative. Grindelwald's motivations were not always known to be truly evil from the bottom of his heart. Up until she started airing her TERF ideology on Twitter, it was generally accepted in HP fandom that Grindelwald was a queer person who had been imprisoned after his outright magical power effected his mental processes to a point where he caused immense harm to his community in trying to achieve a goal that THE PUREBLOODS DID NOT LIKE. Dumbledore WORKED WITH THE GOVERNMENT to catch him.

His outright fascist belief was added in as a caveat to create more movies and generate more income. If you go looking around now, you'll see language around his motivations as "truly sinister the entire time". It's becoming more and more common in fandom culture to scrap entire histories in favor of revisionist shit like this.

These things co-exist because Jo Rowling didn't give enough of a shit to realize how dangerous that rhetoric is or even ask a Jew about it before doing it. Do you know how many Nazis say that we caused the Shoah ourselves? That we're the real fascists? That we want to rule the world? That if someone like Harry or Dumbledore don't stop us or our sympathizers, then we'll be the ones to kill them? That we want to rule over muggles? That we have some grand replacement plot?

I have divested from the franchise, but I still hold this knowledge as unfortunate as it is. While I was still a part of the fandom, any time I pointed out its horrific antisemitic imagery, reasonings, and real-world effects, someone would say almost exactly this. According to You, we can't know anything about anything, we're making things up, and we're malicious in our intents by speaking on these things. Why do you think Daniel has distanced himself so harshly from the franchise? Just in solidarity? He's a Jew, just like me. He knows. He was there.

Don't pretend you care about the truth if you're not willing to understand the history. You're speaking in dogwhistle, goyisch schmuck. Keep schtum and keep your anime avatar out of my notes.

Anyways remember that time that JK Rowling, who has never spoken to an indigenous American person in her whole life, was like "but what if the Natives had four schools and they were also bloodthirsty savages who started the residential schools with their fictional beings as their mascots and Christians weren't actually at fault" right at the time when we started getting some traction around getting recognition for the heinous crimes that were the mass graves of children, then went on to make a whole spin-off franchise in America using that """lore""" and rhetoric, where the one wizard guy who tried to stop the Holocaust from happening was villainized and played by Johnny Depp (who played Tonto in the Lone Ranger and said he was going to buy the Black Hills and Wounded Knee and "give it back to Lakota people" then never did that at all) and who she later defended as saying he wasn't a domestic abuser because she believed him over a woman who has since been proven to be telling the truth several times over?

The woman's a violent colonizer.

[loominggaia]

By accident either Sophie/abigal/ or both find out Evan is gay. What is the fallout?

I think there are a few different possibilities, depending on when and how they found out.

This might seem like a bit of a tangent here, but stay with me. I promise it comes full circle...

Sofia and Abigail were surprisingly accepting of Evan's lycanthropy. Even though lycanthropes are sentenced to death in their culture, it is considered a pitiable disease, and the victim is not blamed in most cases. Executing a lycanthrope is considered tragic but necessary for the good of public health.

Homosexuality, on the other hand...In Evangelite culture, this is also considered a disease. Lycanthropy is contracted from werewolf bites, but Evangelites believe that homosexuality is contracted by engaging in sexual activities with the same sex. It's something that people usually bring upon themselves, and therefore isn't pitiable in most cases.

Lycanthropes literally turn into bloodthirsty beasts that eat people, yet they are pitied and their disease is not always their fault, according to Evangelite society. Meanwhile gay people aren't hurting anyone, yet Evangelites persecute them for perceived crimes. This is because there is no distinction between "homosexual" and "sexual predator" in Evangelite culture. These two things are rolled into one disorder called "sexual deviancy". Evangelites believe that homosexuality is a disease that causes insatiable urges to prey on same-sex people, especially children or those otherwise weaker than the deviant.

Like lycanthropes, homosexuals are sentenced to death in Evangeline Kingdom because there is no "cure" for their disease. They are executed in the interest of public health all the same, because Evangelites believe it's inevitable that they will hurt someone and spread the disease just like a werewolf. But unlike the werewolf, they probably contracted their disease by sinning, and because of this they deserve the punishment.

Ironically, Evan actually did contract his lycanthropy on purpose and yet his family still pities him for it. He certainly didn't ask to be gay, and it's very possible that they would shun him for it because in their eyes, he probably contracted homosexuality by doing things he wasn't supposed to, and now he is a danger to society.

In addition, lycanthropy is much better understood by Evangelites than homosexuality. That's because it's an actual disease with actual medical science behind it, so you can pick up a text book and get accurate information about it.

Meanwhile homosexuality is not even a real disease. This is some bullshit that the Lindist House of Humanity made up, so the information surrounding it is wishy-washy, contradictory, and very taboo to learn about anyway.

All of this is to say that Sofia and Abigail know lycanthropy, they understand lycanthropy, and they feel confident about still keeping Evan in their lives despite this disease because they are armed with knowledge. They know and accept the risks. Homosexuality might be a different story though, because they don't really understand it, and their faith discourages them from learning about it. All they know is "gay = pedophile/rapist/evil scum".

Sofia was heartbroken when she found out about Evan's lycanthropy, but only because she was worried about him first and foremost, not about society. Lycanthropy is dangerous to others, but in Evangeline lands, no one is in more danger than the lycanthrope themselves. They are hunted and put down like animals.

If Evan told her he was attracted to other men, I think her own ignorance would make her even more upset. She would wonder how he got that way and how she failed him as a mother. She would not know how to keep him safe or how to keep others safe from him, so she would be more likely to shun him or turn him in to the authorities. She might reason that it was for "his own good".

As for Abigail, I'm pretty sure her first instinct would be to shun him. She loves Evan, but she has a husband and a teenage son and it wouldn't be worth the risk to her. So she would basically tell him "have a nice life, but have it far away from my family and don't contact us again. Ever."

That's all assuming Evan couldn't educate them though. Sofia and Abigail are both quite indoctrinated by their backwards culture, but they're also pretty intelligent and free-thinking as far as Evangelite women go. They don't always follow the rules. They've broken them for Evan in the past by lying for him, covering for him, and saving his life by buying Zareenite medicine on the black market. They aren't totally brainwashed like many Evangelites are. They might be willing to listen to his point of view, and over time, may just realize it's the truth.

After all, check out this piece of dialogue from Abigail in "Lost and Found":

Abigail squeezed [Evan's] hand and continued, “I promised I’d always love you, no matter what you were. Do you really think I love Evangeline’s stupid laws more than I love my baby brother? Why on Gaia would you ever think I’d turn you in to the Guard?”

I think that says it all. They would want to push him away at first, but if he could get through to them, I think they would grow even closer as a family.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[knives-and-narcissi]

Twelve-million more reasons Historia and Levi are part of the Endgame. With Pictures.

You can read the first post I made on this here:

10 reasons it would make narrative sense for Levi and Historia’s character arcs to end together.

(This is the mega-evolved version.)

Okay, I’m going to put this out there now, and before you judge me, please just read the posts. You don’t have to agree. This is just an idea. But it makes a stupid amount of sense, at least to me. So here's your fair warning (and now I'm being bold): If you don’t want to potentially be spoiled, Do Not Read On.

Here’s the Theory:

Historia Reiss will give birth to a half-Ackerman child, and together with Levi, from the ashes and ruins of the world Eren destroyed, they will welcome the dawn of a new age for humanity, where Ymir’s curse and the power of the Titans is extinct.

I know. I sound like some crazy, Rivahisu nut. Granted, I am, but I’m not mad enough to make a claim like this without a shit-ton of evidence, because it’s such a damn twist it feels like it can’t be true. But just humour me.

Here’s the theory, then we’ll look at why it makes sense and how it might have been foreshadowed. Please note: I have less clue how this will tie in to Eremika endgame, so I haven’t mentioned this as much, but obviously that will be the other very important side of this coin.

10 months ago (In Japan, full term pregnancy is counted as 10 months), at the banquet celebrating completion of the new railroad, Levi and Historia, having had 3 and a bit years to bond over their shared experiences and become close, may have gotten carried away together and shared one night of being a bit more than friends. She’s well into her 18th year at this point, just to clear that up. This resulted in Historia getting pregnant. Okay just stay with me; I know. I know. I sound crazy. But hear me out. So this pregnancy, contrary to the belief of the MPs and rest of the damn world, was the complete opposite of planned. Historia tells Levi, and Levi immediately panics. Because, to steal Kenny’s famous line, Levi thinks to himself ‘I can’t be some kid’s dad.’

 Levi does what he always does best, and shuts down into business mode, telling Historia she will need to cover it up somehow. Historia does as he asks, probably reluctantly, because she really has developed very deep feelings for him during the timeskip, and finds some farm hand to take the blame, likely saying she made a silly mistake with some random and the father doesn’t want anything to do with the child, and so she needs a father for the child not to be illegitimate. Which is her worst nightmare, because of course, that’s what she was. Levi watches the exchange hidden in that famous hood, feeling very conflicted, because although he cares about her, he thinks it best if no one knows that it was him that got the Queen pregnant, and of course, he’s duty bound, with a vow to fulfil, so he has no time to be worrying about a family. (Silly Levi!) 

How ironic this conversation would be if this theory were true. Remember, Historia was completely willing to eat Zeke if needed. Instead, she got pregnant, unplanned, nothing to do with any plot or selfish wishes, just the result of a spontaneous act of love by two people who’ve grown to care for one another a lot. ANYWAY.

Because we know Levi actually has a good heart, he feels immensely guilty for all of this; he's just a product of his upbringing and thinks he doesn’t know the first thing about families, so it's better for all involved if he not be. See where this is going? The old cursed history repeating? Making the same mistakes as our parents? Plus, Levi is bound by his duty. He is incredibly important to the military still, and he cannot just abandon this for any of his own selfish wishes. He’s supposed to be the one to vanquish the beast titan. 

Cue ten months of Historia looking hella depressed and hopeless, and Levi being even more of an asshole than usual to everyone, and not really wanting to say too much at all, as well as making some terrible workplace decisions (lol) poor boy be distracted.

Look at his face 😭

Yes Levi. A month. Which means Historia is now due and you’re still stuck with beardy, without a solution and pretty soon no reason for the MPs not to turn the mother of your child into a Titan.

That’s what that face is. I thought he looked a bit weird first time I read these panels 🤔 He didn’t know about the wine. We see that later. Anyway, I keep getting distracted, stop. I’ll come back to this.

But fear not; Levi will have a choice to make. 

So this is where it gets a bit more iffy for me, because I'm not sure how it would work, so this could be a way off, BUT. I believe it will come to light that the combination of Royal and Ackerman genes will somehow cancel out a person’s ability to turn into a titan and connection through paths, thus making them truly ‘free.’

The founding titan has the ability to change Eldian physiology, according to what Zeke learned from professor Xavier. 

EDIT: Okay so here’s where I’ve had to tweak this a bit in light of there latest chapter. So we just had Zeke in PATHS. With none other than our second resident genius, and as proclaimed by Eren, the saviour of humanity: Armin. What do our boys have a conversation about? Reproduction and the importance of the small moments in life - it’s these little moments which matter, regardless of the desire or need to recreate. Interesting how both the leaf and baseball link back to what their ideas of ‘family’ became. If Historia and Levi were to be in the same scenario in PATHS, what would their items be? What truly means family to them both? 

Perhaps Armin and Zeke realise what is needed to lift the curse of the titans - maybe a blueprint for genes which can cancel out the connection to PATHS and the founder? If only they had a child with a new type of Royal-Ackerman DNA which might fit the bill ... 

Here’s Levi’s moment. He, with Historia, has created such a child - completely by accident, because of one of those ‘moments’ that both Armin and Zeke mention - moments that are simply just about enjoying what you have with no sense of how it might relate to anything bigger - a real rarity for both of them, considering their roles and constantly being asked to think about the good of humanity as a whole. What a beautiful irony, that in the moment they chose to be selfish and, to use freckled Ymir’s own words, really live for themselves, they set a chain reaction in motion that would ultimately save humanity. 

Where does this leave Eren and Mikasa? Good question. I believe Eren will die once the curse is removed, because tragically he is the character that has been forced to choose humanity over his own personal relationships. As Isayama has said before, Eren is a victim of the story. Mikasa will be the last thing he sees, hence the original dream at the start of the manga, where he wakes up crying. Something like this. But probably a lot better. Yeah.

Out of the ashes of the old world, a new one will be built, but through Historia’s kindness and love, and Levi’s guilt and understanding of what was sacrificed in the past, society will not repeat the same mistakes. The final panel could be Jean holding his child, perhaps with Mikasa, if she ever manages to get over losing Eren. That would be vague enough so that Isayama was able to show it to us already without spoiling much. Or maybe Jean’s dead and it’s not him at all. I don’t know. 😭

Right. Okay. So now you’re going, sweet story, but uh, there’s no way Levi could be the father. He’s so much older. Isayama wouldn't write a moment of romance like that. Not with him and Historia. YOU’RE JUST CRAZY.

Well this is where it get’s interesting. LET ME SHOW YOU. It’s foreshadowed literally everywhere. Right under our noses.

There is so much symbolism.

Dedicate your heart to what? has been Levi’s question recently. What are they all fighting for? What is he fighting for? How will he give meaning to his dead comrades sacrifices? Is killing Zeke really the extent of it? Is vengeance the true meaning of their sacrifices? Or is it something a lot more hopeful?

The answer is shown to us in the opening credits. And the ending credits. Several times. 

Levi says so himself - he keeps messing fulfilling the vow up - why? Why is he so worried about killing Zeke? 

Eren has the same questions to consider. Which PATH is the right one to take - revenge and violence with the rumbling, or love ... with Mikasa. We are literally shown what their choices will be in two virtually identically designed panels, which I’ll show you. Tragically, Eren’s choice is taken from him. He is a victim to the story - he must chose the path that saves humanity. Levi and Eren have been bound together through the theme of choices, and taking the ones which leave you with the least regrets, throughout this entire manga.

The upcoming anime episodes literally plot out the timeline of Levi and Historia’s changing attitude to one another, and then Historia’s pregnancy, it’s just so cleverly subtle. Isayama even tells us when/ during what event her child was probably conceived by just dropping dates in from other, seemingly unrelated plot lines.

Zeke gives pointed comments to Levi constantly - every other line of his is either a different jab at Levi about Historia’s pregnancy, a veiled question, or a reminder that he’s under the pressure of a 10 month time limit to do something about him, or Historia will have to eat him once she’s given birth. We start to see Levi unravel because of this, and make mistakes over and over.

It’s in official art. It’s in the soundtrack. Its in music videos. There’s interviews from Isayama that, when read in light of these ideas, suddenly take on a whole new meaning.

Isayama even trolls us. He’s laughing in our faces, the madman. Like, gotchu 🤣 suckers. While we’re all on Reddit and Twitter like, ‘Levi’s character has become so stagnated! He’s making such poor choices or not giving anything to the plot at all. All that’s left for him now is to give up and die! Be at peace, your story is over.’ OOF. Or, ‘Historia has just been forgotten! She’s become such a pointless character. Isayama just got bored with her and sidelined her.’

I’m going to try and write stuff up in the rough categories below, but these might change. I’ll link them when I’m done, and then pin this post. I’m a bit of a rambler so heads up - this may take a while 😅

There’s also a ton of people I have to mention who have contributed to this - I didn’t spot it by myself. I’ll tag them in the finished post too.

Historia and Levi’s Miscalculation: A manga tale featuring the Jaeger Bros., Pt. 1

Historia and Levi’s Miscalculation: A manga tale featuring the Jaeger Bros., Pt. 2

Historia and Levi’s Miscalculation: A manga tale featuring the Jaeger Bros., Pt. 3

Ackerman-Royal Bloodline and Levi’s Choice Pt. 1

Levi’s Choice Pt. 2

Suns, Moons and Songs

Akatsuki No Requiem - Right theory, Wrong guy

The Farmer and The Cattle Farming Goddess, or WHAT’S IN A NAME.

Mistakes of our parents and breaking the cycle

Memories from the future & Levi’s Guilt

Watch this space. And hold on to your pants. If I’m right, I’m getting very drunk.

[theemptyskies]

So I was sitting, trying to work on a bit of art, when my mind took a left turn and was like "How would you turn Katara evil?". So over the course of three hours I wrote this. It's intended to set the ground work for what the rest of the story would be should I decide to continue it. Any future chapters would be much more detailed as that's where the bulk of the story truly begins. TWs: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Execution Style Murder, References to Early Childhood Trauma. I think that's all of them.

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Blood's Calling

Absolute Power Corupts Absolutely. It was a foolish thought which had once caused Katara to swear never to bloodbend again. It was a memory she could recalled clearly, as if she was reliving the moment. She remembered sensing Hama's veins and arteries, flowing like rivers throughout her body. She remembers desperately grasping those rivers, ripping the will of thier controller away. Forcing the old master to submit to her. It was her first taste of power. True power.

She was no longer the weak child who watched as her mother resigned herself to death. She was no longer the young teen who froze in shock as a Fire Navy vessel slammed through her villages wall. She could use this. She could prevent other young children from being orphaned. She could...

That night the thought stopped there. It wasn't the power that scared her. No aspect of waterbending has ever scared her. What terrified Katara, was that she enjoyed it. She enjoyed forcing Hama to release her friends, saving thier lives. She loved the control, knowing she would never be helpless again. It felt wrong at the time, relishing in such a thing. Subjugation was what the Fire Nation was fighting for. So she swore never to use it again.

____________________________________________

That promise was not long lived. Storming the Southern Raider vessel was an opportunity she never believed could be a possibility. How could she possibly turn away the opportunity to bring her mother justice. To stop whatever future, monsterous actions these beasts were sure to commit.

Under the light of the full moon, her blue eyes, darker than the ocean's deepest abyss, bore into the ship as she flew closer. Calling out with her bending, nearly the entire crew was swept out to sea. Boarding the vessel, she made quick work of the few men left on the deck before storming inside, water trailing behind her. Katara had almost forgotten the former Fire Prince was with her until he stopped a solder attempting to enter through a door they were passing.

As the captains door was blasted open, she gave him no time to retaliate. His blood called to Katara, and she answered. The fire in his hands flickered out immediately as she turned his body against him. Images of her mother's body, charred unrecognizable. A smell of burnt flesh seared into her mind. As the memories assaulted her, Katara was left feeling one desire permeating her being. She would make him suffer.

She cramped his hand immediately before dragging him around, slamming the appendage into the floor. Katara smiled slightly, savoring in the power she now held over her mother's killer. She forced the captains arms behind his back, contorting the joints to near dislocation. His blood was singing to her, and unlike the first time, she was not afraid to grasp it.

Zuko's questioning of the man broke through her rage. Lifting him to look her in the eye, she knew within a moment that it wasn't him. As if being snapped from a trance, she realized what she had done, nearly torturing an man who'd never wronged her. Quickly releasing him, Katara heard the identity of her target as she walked away.

____________________________________________

She believed that was the last time she'd ever bloodbend. She was wrong. Since that day, the urge to bloodbend was stronger than before. Every full moon, she could sense the steady pulses of her sleeping friends, like faint whispers begging her take control. She chose not to of course. Katara couldn't imagine subjecting them to such a power again.

Time passed, the war finally ended, Zuko ascended to the throne. On the surface, the world was at peace, or so it seemed. Her epiphany came a few months after the wars end. It was a couple hours past sundown on the night of a full moon. Once again the desire to bloodbend filled her senses, withholding sleep from her grasp. Katara's recent appointment as ambassador to the Southern Watertribe brought her to Caldera, assisting in negotiating a trade agreement between thier Nations.

With sleep alluding her, she decided to walk through the the main city, hoping the cool night air would help clear her mind. Passing an alley, she heard an odd noise. Stepping into the darkness and turning a corner around the building revealed a sight that made Katara's blood boil. Backed into a corner by a man wielding a knife was a young woman, a small child was hugging the back of her pant leg, large innocent eyes reflecting fear. Looking at the child, her mind flashed to another little girl, standing in an igloo, not knowing that was the last time she'd hear her mother's voice.

Katara wouldn't let that happen again. Grasping the man's blood, she lifted him into the air, sending him crashing against the wall.

"Take the girl and go." Katara's voice lacked the passion that it typically carried. Instead, a cold voice, sharper than any blade of ice came from her.

She didn't give the man a chance to rise as she seized him again. Katara brought him to his knees, arms bent behind his back, forcing him to look up at her. Drawing water from her pouch with her off hand, a large icicle hovered in the air.

"Please..." His voice quivered with fear. The same fear that was in the child's eyes mere moments ago. She directed a dark glare at the man.

"How many have begged you the same way your begging me..." It was a whisper, however the words cut through the air like a knife. She didn't give the creature a chance to respond. With a swift motion, the icicle flew threw the air. A sickening thunk echoed in the alley, as the ice slammed into the monster's heart.

A crack of thunder preceded a downpour during her walk back to the palace. A sense of detatchment settled over Katara. Of course she considered it to be more of an awakening. Despite thier efforts, ending the war, negotiating treaties, writing laws, people were still suffering at the hands of monsters impersonating people. The legal system is slow and flawed. It let's too many slip through, allowing them to continue thier torment.

'I will never, EVER, turn my back on people who need me!'

The memory echoed through her being. An oath she swore, resonating from the core of her being. The legal system failed repeatedly but she would not. Katara had power. The idea of what true power was is something Katara never understood until now. The ability to take dreams, desires, and force them into reality. She could change things. Bring justice to people who've suffered and protect children from the horrors that still plagued the world.

____________________________________________

A year passed and one thing became evident. Katara needed to get stronger. She'd made strides in eliminating the beasts that stalked and preyed upon the innocent. But it wasn't enough. There were too many for her to only take action once a month. Traditional waterbending was too loud to use against them. If she was caught, her friends wouldn't understand. She needed to do this, to protect the people. She needed bloodbending.

The training started much how Hama had described inventing the bending form. She started with small animals, which she mastered rather quickly unsurprisingly. The larger ones, like the tiger seals, proved to be a much bigger challenge, one she eventually completed. The lack of the moon's light was a difficult obstacle to overcome Yet as she stood before the kneeling moose lion, whining in pain as it failed to break from her will, she knew she was ready.

The next year was far more successful. With the growing population in her own tribe, Katara had to make sure the vermin were weeded out as soon as possible. Patrolling every night she was home allowed her to remove sixteen threats to her people. She found another twelve during her trip to the Northern Tribe, where she helped negotiate an alliance with them. The corruption there ran deep. Extra effort would be made during her next trip.

The Earth Kingdom is by far where Katara made the greatest impact. Twenty three criminals were slew in Omashu, another thirty one during her month long stay in Ba Sing Se and fifteen bandits who tried to ambush her during her travel between the major cities. It was an interesting observation, how quickly the eyes on these creatures shifted from arrogance to fear once they no longer held the power. Not unlike the one in the alley that first night. So many of those beasts have been removed by her, and she knows she protected countless people in the process. Katara knew she was doing the right thing, hearing children playing outside only reaffirmed her resolve.

Katara had only been back home for a few days when Aang landed at her village center. Running out of her igloo to greet him, she hesitated at his serious expression.

"Aang, it's good to see you."

"You too, Katara. I wish it was under better circumstances though." Katara tensed at his words as Sokka exited thier igloo behind her.

"Hey Aang. What's up?"

"Zuko needs our help. There's a group of rebels in the Fire Nation. According to his letter, they call themselves the New Ozai Society. They want to dethrone him and restart the war." Aang said. Katara didn't give any outward reaction to his statement. She hadn't been to the Fire Nation since that first night in the alley.

"We'll help. Come on Sokka." Katara immediately cut in as he finished speaking. Turning, she headed back inside the igloo, lost in thought as she began packing. Her neglect of the Nation was clear. How could she allow those scum to coalesce into such a threat. She would make up for it during this trip. She needed a way to learn who all was involved and where they met. Someone who could get inside thier ranks. Who wouldn't report her own involvement to Zuko or her friends. Her thoughts led her to one person who would be accepted by them with no problem. She wasn't happy about it, but it couldn't be helped. At the very least the visit would be interesting. After all, with all of Katara's travels, she had yet to see the inside of an asylum.

"Appa, Yip, Yip!" Aang called, begining thier journey across the sea.

___________________________________________

So, as you can see, the route I would take to make Katara a bad guy would be to take a core aspect of her character (in this case "I will never, EVER, turn my back in people who need me." Still one of my fav moments for her character btw.) And twist it into something dark. I took the helplessness surrounding her mother's death to foster a craving for control within her which connected to bloodbending. I tried to depict a steady dehumanization of criminals in her eyes through the time skips. I felt really awkward writing dialogue but hopefully you all enjoyed my take on a Darker Katara :)

[avatarofthebeholding]

Thoughts on the Vast’s “Great Beast”

Ok SO. MAG 174 gave an EXTREMELY thorough portrait of the Vast as an entity. Many of the themes/fears had been touched upon in earlier episodes, but one thing that hadn’t been that hit me like a ton of bricks was the “great beast” of the episode title being entirely made up of people.

This is going to be a LONG train of thought, and the first time I’ve used a readmore link, so just. Please bear with me; I promise there’s a point here.

The Vast, according to Jon, is “vertigo... the fear of falling.” (MAG 111)

Gerry’s additions to that are “agoraphobia, the dread of deep water,” and “[the fear] of our own insignificance before the universe.” He likens it to “losing yourself in too much space.” (MAG 111)

Antonia Hayley (MAG 51) and Jan Kilbride (MAG 106) both describe seeing parts of and/or feeling the presence of enormous creatures that made them realize the insignificance of their own lives. In their statements, the “great beast” is abstract - unknowable. 

Meanwhile, MAG 174′s great beast is revealed to be “an unending tapestry of suffering, contorted bodies,” people clinging desperately to each other and following impulses they do not fully comprehend the source of.

“Moving as one.”

Edward, the person from whom Jon pulls the part of MAG 174 involving the “tapestry of suffering, contorted” people who make up the great beast, says that “the shape that they create is a mystery to him.” He cannot comprehend or understand the whole he is part of.

That brings me to a conclusion I hadn’t thought about before: The Vast’s fear of insignificance isn’t only with respect to the universe. It can be with respect to the world - to the billions of other people each of us knows we share the planet with.

Think about it - can you really, truly comprehend the idea of everyone who coexists in the world right now? Of everyone who has ever existed, the skeletons beneath the ground in conjunction with the living?

Personally, I can’t. Comprehending the whole of humanity, truly comprehending it, seems just as impossible as comprehending the whole of the universe. Perhaps the scale is smaller, but it’s still larger than what the human brain is built to handle.

Why is the concept of “society” is so hard to reconcile with the flesh-and-blood people around you? It’s because the jump in scale from one person to a whole society of people “moving as one” is incomprehensible.

With a human context, the Vast gains even more depth than it had before:

The Vast is the fear that leads people to accept “the way things are” because they’re convinced that their voice is too insignificant to matter on it’s own. It’s the terror of feeling like if you fall - or are thrown out of - a system (be it a corporation, an organization, a school, or some other enormous entity that in the end is really just a bunch of people), you could keep falling forever, unable to do anything to change your surroundings.

In abandoning/being thrown free from the system - the great beast - you are free, but the dread of the insignificance of your individual existence begins to creep in.

The validation of other people who help uphold the establishment/status quo? Gone.

The feeling of being able to make an impact, being “part of something bigger”? Gone.

All you can do is fall, and it’s easy to lose yourself in the thought that what you think - what you feel - what you do - means nothing. That you are too small for any task you undertake to make an impact.

The Vast encompasses a fear of change rooted in the idea that there’s nothing an individual can do to change the ways of the world. Fear that has seeped so deeply into the fabric of people’s beings that it seems normal... “almost as routine as hunger” (MAG 2). A fear that encourages complacency, a human acceptance of twisting and turning into painful positions to make ourselves fit within harmful systems. An epidemic of numbness to the horrors inflicted upon people “on the ground” - the casualties - those the great beast tramples upon without even realizing.

In addition to the fear that the universe is too big to care about one soul, the Vast is the fear that society is too big to care about one soul.

It is the dread locked into this widespread idea: 

You must comply and fit the mold, because if you don’t, the world will stomp all over you.  You must be part of the great beast, no matter how much it hurts you and the toll it takes on other people, because the alternative is getting crushed underfoot.

This newly discovered aspect of the Vast is, to me, one of the most terrifying.