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divineerdrick · 2 months ago

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Homestuck Beyond Canon Upd8 for October 8, 2024

Here we are! This might be the end of the current story arc, and we'll finally get to see if Vriska successfully makes it out of this. I was also informed a while back that today is the one year anniversary of the HICU taking over the comic.

Before I jump in, I had a theory I wanted to put out there. I was thinking more about how Vriska was always destined to go down these two paths and what that might mean. Now we know she had different fates than the two we saw. In fact, we saw a third indirectly. We saw it when an Aradiabot from a doomed timeline where Gamzee snapped early revealed a surprise final piece of Doc Scratch's code. That reveal was a book Gamzee made in the blood of the other trolls. And Vriska's blood is in there.

But only two Vriskas are ever seen in the bubbles, probably because the Vriskas that survive to their creation are always the same. Do any Vriskas lost along the way matter? We don't really know. They might still be important, but the lion share of Vriska appears to be split into two fates.

Now, thinking back to the epilogues (I know that can be hard) Dirk describes the process of becoming a fully realized or ascended God Tier.

And some of you just saw where I'm going with this.

Dirk became a full God of Heart first because of how connected he was to his splinters. Rose followed as her continued explorations of fortune connected more and more of her deviating paths through Paradox Space. And Dave . . . well he got a very Dave ascension. Honestly with how well he handled the multiple version of himself running around, an Obama pep talk was likely more than what was needed.

But there's only two Vriskas that need to come together.

If Vriska can accept herself, the team on Candy C will have a fully realized and ascended Thief of Light on their side. One that has already exerted narrative control before! That might be enough to help fix a lot. And if Vriska has anything to say about it, and you know she will, things might really start moving.

News Upd8

We get a team post this time! They're mostly just excitedly gushing about the milestone and some of the things that have happened in the past year. But they also reminding us the first big flash is coming. I honestly can't wait!

James mentions that this is not originally what was planned and that they were just going to make a bunch of connected shorts originally. I still like stuff like that, but I'm glad they were able to get this going again.

There's a lot of thank yous from the team. But I still feel like I want to thank them for continuing this in such a wonderful way. This comic and this community has been really important to me for a while now, and I'm eternally grateful there are still "semi-official" things coming from it.

James does give us a bit of an outline on the progress for EOA1. It sounds like things are still early, but they're hoping to hit one of the "funny numbers". The next one will be 11/11 or one of the kid's birthdays. But 413 sounds like a good project deadline to me.

They're continuing with two upd8s this month, so I'll need to try to make sure I catch the next one in a more timely fashion.

Upd8

We've cut away from Vriska. As the news said, no more VN for us. We return to Candy Earth C and our stressed out adults.

Kanaya has left on her own for now. Her fury has not yet been satisfied it seems, with what Rose took as an implied threat from her. Also, I just noticed the subtle space symbol in Jade's shield. Nice touch!

Still a lot of justly tense and uncomfortable conversation going on. Jade really wants to fix things. She feels like she's the one to blame and she needs to make things right. But Rose doesn't particularly seem receptive. I don't think she wants Jade's help. Also, there's a mention of Rose losing her temper over a conversation about her mom. I think it's mostly meant as a little nod to how much older they all are and that things have happened that we never got to see. But I can't help but wonder how things went down.

Yeah, this is pretty painful. Jade really wants to do the right thing, but Rose has formed her own opinion of the best course of action. And now she's trying to convince Jade it doesn't involve her.

Hamster guy? I'm pretty sure I'd remember hamster guy so this has to be something new.

Honestly, Jade is sounding a bit more mature than Rose here. It's painful, but she's right. Reality has very little to do with a person's "truth." The only sensible path to change a person's perspective is usually the empathetic one where you focus on understanding where they're coming from. Even then, all you can usually accomplish is being someone they might turn to when an external event breaks the reality in their head.

Speaking of personal truth's, Jade has been feeling that so many of her friends haven't really cared about what's going on. That might have been a little true for Dave, but I think she got a completely wrong read on John. John very much cared, he just wasn't good at doing anything about it. That's one of the reasons he suffered from depression, one of the reasons he was always trying to fix something or do something important. But between the glimpses of her in the epilogues and the credits, I get the impression she was constantly trying to reach out to him. From her perspective, John's depression might have seemed to be apathy.

But big surprise the one that grew up so isolated is having the hardest time getting a read on people.

THE ART!!!

Urgh! Oh this is bad! Rose is just suppressing everything she's dealing with. Admittedly, there's a lot going on right now. But it sounds like she's not trying to process any of the stuff that's been occurring on this crazy version of Earth C. She especially can't seem to deal with Roxy, and that's apparently been causing more problems than we've seen.

I'm not sure I agree with Rose here. I don't believe an absolute truth has to be derived from authority. But then, to the best of my knowledge, I don't live in Paradox Space. It's hard to hold to the truth of observable reality when it can be so easily changed and manipulated.

Interesting . . . Rose has turned to her powers as a form of coping mechanism. As things get hard, she begins trying to sort out all the "meandering side-paths." The rote of it, the monotony, is soothing to her the way a "cozy game" is to me. And if she's successful, she gains insight and even something to look forward to.

Oh no! Rose has seen a future where Calliope will sacrifice herself to try and save everything! And worse it doesn't work! Things are apparently more dire than we thought, and that's with Jane running around in Condesce mode!

Huh! If I'm parsing that right, Rose is going to suffer a mortal wound but one that won't trigger the God Tier clock. Instead she'll have to recover like a normal person will. Ouch! This immortality really isn't all it's cracked up to be.

And the other shoe drops! The reason why Rose agreed to something like this, the reason she's been so cold and distant. While she's recovering from the bullet wound, Kanaya will be alone. With what she's done, Kanaya will have the impetus to seek independence. She hasn't seen the end result, but she believes Kanaya will have a more fulfilling life this way. She's been driving her wife away so this Kanaya won't be left in paralyzed mourning the way Meat Kanaya seems to be. That is a horribly dangerous game, and one almost guaranteed to backfire.

But apparently Rose doesn't think any of it matters. Like Dirk, she thinks this universe is irrelevant and doomed. She knows what John needed to do, and here John didn't do it. She's hasn't quite gotten to the optimistic point of nihilism, but the apparent lack of meaning is providing her with some relief.

Do I honestly need to say anything here!

Rose has been able to play the rain for a while now. But as her powers have matured, she's gotten better at it. Though this makes it sound not so much like she's playing it, as dancing to a tune beyond her control. But then, this Rose doesn't feel the need to control anything.

Can you imagine accidentally bumping head first into a figure of myth and legend?

Karkat and Kanaya have a bond that goes well beyond anything they ever developed with their human lovers. Even if Karkat's power wasn't literally over the bond of Blood, they've survived so much together it honestly wouldn't matter. And right now, Karkat's opinion of the humans that sat on the sidelines while their Troll friends needed them isn't exactly high.

COME ON!!!

Jane is still processing her conversation and some of things that came of it. Does Jane think she could have convinced more of her friends to stand with her? Does she think she could have saved Dirk from the fate he chose?

Also in a very real way she doesn't quite look human in that image. Even though I think this might be a human moment for her, she's made her visage, consciously or not, monstrous. The Condesce's crown is a collar around her neck.

Unfortunately she's decided that rather than learn from her mistakes, she might as well just plow on and build something new and better. She is a god after all.

Love how they're teasing out the reveal of what has come of Jake's epiphany.

I'm not posting that image. Even with my heavy use of spoiler tags, I'm not risking it.

Oh come on! You didn't make it a clean shot! Goddammit Jake!

Well that's one way to cut from that. I mean HOLY SHIT!!!

Jake appears to not be out of this yet. This almost feels like a callback to Vriska sitting on the beach after a failure. Can the big man recover from it?

And we end with Rose having just left Tavy and Yiffy with a letter and some snacks.

Wow! That was intense!

It legit seems like nothing, not even a bullet, is changing Jane's mind. And I mean, I know Jane is a god, but come on! Could Jake seriously not get a good clean shot off? Wow!

Y'know, honestly I can see it. Despite his awakening, he had to play it out like one of his movies. That was just enough time for Jane to realize what was going on and quickly dodge out of the way. Then, rather than quickly ending it, he had to quibble out an apology.

Honestly, I just don't think he was truly capable of doing it, so he sabotaged himself. He's just lucky that all the pummeling he's gone through has toughened him up enough that he might get another shot. That is if he doesn't get wiped out in whatever that cake-shaped, doomsday device she has in orbit does.

Fuck that was a ride. And a really tense one at that! Guess now we're waiting for next upd8 this month!

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kyrieeleisonelise · 11 months ago

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Ai + Nino vs Ruby +Kana

The narrative is clearly drawing a parallel between Nino and Ai’s relationship compared to Kana and Ruby. Both involve a hardworking and talented girl (Nino and Kana) feeling growing resentment and bitterness when they are outshone by a newcomer who’s somewhat troubled, but has something ‘special’ about them, and gets favoured by others. (Ai and Ruby).

But how similar is the relationship? Is Ruby and Kana’s friendship just as doomed as Ai and Nino’s?

While they are only meant to be playing roles, it’s clear that Kana does have genuine resentment and jealousy towards Ruby. The fall out between them is real.

It’s not touched on much, but it’s mentioned a few times that Ai was favoured by management- Ichigo saw her as a daughter. Similarly, Miyako is Ruby’s adoptive mother, so Ruby does get favoured in the group.

We are shown just like Nino, Kana is completely outshone by Ruby as an idol. Ruby has more fans and gets more opportunities. Nino and Kana went from main-players to just backup for their more popular member .

Nino is still fixated on Ai, feeling intensely jealous and hateful of her, but also greatly admiring her and putting her on a pedestal. Kana has been shown to relate to these feelings more and more.

The latest chapter with Kana playing Nino and Ruby playing Ai shows how the original confrontation plays out.

Nino starts by expressing how lucky Ai is, and how much more popular she is. Nino isn’t initially overtly hostile, but is clearly upset.

But Ai is very dismissive. It’s not clear if she’s being dense/doesn’t know how to handle the situation, but it comes across like she just doesn’t care. She doesn’t stop eating her ice cream even when Nino is clearly upset.

Nino gets increasingly frustrated and escalated and says some awful things to Ai, but Ai seems almost completely unbothered, not even breaking her smile. When we saw current-Nino a few chapters back, this event and the following fallout has clearly still deeply impacted her.

Nino simultaneously hates and is obsessed with Ai.

Nino is resentful for what she feels Ai took from her, but the fact she was unable to move her emotions a little makes Nino interpret Ai as this almost superhuman infallible being. She puts her on a pedestal.

Nino was never able to resolve her issues with Ai, because from her point of view, Nino hated and admired Ai to such an extreme degree, and Ai didn’t particularly care at all. She was just a detached being who was vaguely ‘trying to love her’ even if Nino was trying to hurt her.

But did Ai really not care? Was she as unbreakable as Nino thought she was? Was she so detached from others that nobody could hurt her?

Not according to Ruby’s interpretation of her reaction.

With the latest chapter, we have the benefit of hearing Kana’s interpretation of Nino’s character.

As Kana is playing Nino, she realises that Nino and Ai probably used to be friends.

It could of just been an ordinary fight between girls, but because of Ai’s emotional walls the argument was never resolved and turned into a much, much bigger rift. Nino wouldn’t of been so upset with Ai if she didn’t originally think of her as a friend. This chapter seems to imply that Nino wasn’t just jealous of Ai, but also incredibly hurt when she felt she couldn’t reach her in any way.

Nino was deeply wounded by Ai’s seeming indifference to her suffering and to her vitriol. Not only does she continue to hate Ai for hurting her, she also admires her for her skill/talent and see’s her as untouchable and unmovable.

I explored it a bit further in a previous post, but I think Ai’s handling on Nino’s emotions was due to her lack of social skills/minimising as a defence mechanism rather than indifference.

Will Kana and Ruby end the same way?

I don’t think so.

Although Kana is in a similar position to Nino in the recent arc and there have been a lot of parallels, she is a very different character. Nino was a rookie idol and probably much younger than Kana at the time of the argument (if she’s the same age as Ai, probably about 14?).

Kana is a young adult whose spent decades in show biz and has more life experience than most people her age. Even though Kana has insecurities and can be impulsive/hot-headed she has had to be resilient to last as long as she has in show biz.

Ruby is by no means the first person Kana has had to compete against or felt jealous of. Show business is full of competition. Akane is Kana’s main rival for example. Akane has arguably more for Kana to be jealous of; she’s more successful as an actress and she was dating the boy Kana liked.

Although she is jealous of Ruby, Kana has enough self-insight not to completely loose her mind to it like Nino.

The only reason she originally expressed her resentment was to help Ruby act (although I believe this was a little extreme and misguided).

Kana’s maturity compared to Nino is evident throughout this chapter with her insightful analysis of Nino’s feelings/her relationship with Ai.

Nino doesn’t have the foresight to see how Ai’s background in a children’s home has lead to her developing maladaptive coping strategies. Kana is also able to recognise to an extent how Ruby’s difficult past impacts her behaviour, and has empathy for her.

Importantly, it’s been established multiple times that Kana’s speciality is acting. Although she does feel jealous of Ruby, part of her knows that ultimately being an idol isn’t her dream. Being an actress is. Kana can never surpass Ruby as an idol, but I don’t think Kana’s true-calling is to be an idol. Even during her argument with Ruby, she specifies that she can’t surpass Ruby as an idol.

Compared to Ai and Nino, where Ai is portrayed as a ‘better’ version of Nino (At least of Nino’s ‘ condensed character-type’ she portrays as an idol).

And Ruby? Ruby is very different from Ai. I’ve mentioned it before in a previous post that Ruby does hide darker parts of herself to an extent, but Ruby is much more open emotionally than Ai.

Just compare their reactions to their friend telling them to die/disappear.

Ruby does not hide that she is deeply, deeply hurt by Kana. Unlike Nino, Kana is never left feeling that Ruby never cared about their friendship in the first place.

Ruby allows herself to be vulnerable more than Ai ever could. While Kana admires Ruby, she doesn’t put her on a pedestal, she knows she isn’t a the ‘ultimate invincible idol’.

During Ruby’s black-star era/rise to fame she was so fixated on revenge that her friendship with Kana and Mem fell on the wayside, but it was clear she still cared about them.

The lead up to Ruby and Kana’s argument is complete different. Instead of being on completely opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, they’re both emphasising with each other; Ruby is worried how her performance will impact Kana’s career, and Kana understand Ruby’s desperation to do well in the movie.

I don’t know if Kana and Ruby will make up in the next chapter or if this argument is going to continue on. Ruby doesn’t seem to be in the best mental state, so she may not be ready to make amends with Kana immediately.

I have a feeling the emotions of the characters is going to continue to run parallel to the emotions of who they’re playing in the script.

But ultimately, I don’t think Ruby and Kana are doomed to follow in Ai and Nino’s footsteps. They are both different people.

I also wonder if Nino and Ai’s relationship would of ended differently if Ai hadn’t been killed. I think Ai matured a lot from her argument with Nino (14) compared to when she had her babies (16). If she hadn’t died, maybe Ai could of matured enough to communicate with Nino and Nino could of matured enough to understand Ai.

This is pure speculation, but I think Ai’s death traumatised Nino to the extent she is frozen in time, unable to move past her childish view of Ai as the perfect idol. A former friend who you wished dead actually getting killed has to be pretty traumatic (and of course, there’s always the possibility of Nino being involved in Ai’s murder which is another can of worms/ )

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #kana arima #ruby hoshino #aqua hoshino #oshi no Ko analysis

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raidenenthusiast · 9 months ago

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obviously fu hua n otto's partnership is completely transactional on the surface but i really like to think about it in different emotional lights bc it's just so. yeah.

hua is an incredibly straight shooter, in part due to how long she's been alive, n she lives with this constant aching loneliness n the burden of immortality she must shoulder alone. regardless of whether she makes friends in her time in the current era, she knows she will always lose them eventually, doomed to outlive them and continue marching forward. her duty is most important to her, but that doesn't mean her heart is made of stone. although she's been alive for almost 50,000 years, she was only seventeen when she initially stopped aging.

n then u have otto. a flawed, corrupted, flippant mortal who only stumbled upon the means to prolong his life in hopes to eventually use the experience gained to return kallen to the world of the living. every word he speaks has a different, secret motive behind it, every deal he cuts hides an ultimatum. selfish n arrogant, juxtaposed against hua's selfless nature. his active attempts to bury his own feelings (unrelated to how successful they are) prove his dedication to his cause; a cause he would do anything to achieve. a cause he CHOSE.

although they have so many oppositions to each other, there's a lot of similarities, too. a long life that acts as a means to an end. a deep, unbearable loneliness n grief. loss at the hands of the honkai.

i think otto n fu hua's relationship is so interesting bc of how they interact with each other through their respective narratives. hua, the chosen celestial, the immortal heralded to guide humanity into their next phase of existence. vs otto, the false savior, self appointed and with selfish motives, imposing himself upon humanity in order to bring to them what he believes will be their salvation (kallen).

i also think despite hua's maturity n experience, otto can see beyond that. not for any positive reasons; i'm confident that her identity deep down being that of a lonely, vulnerable girl made it all the easier for him to rope her into his scheme. it comes down to his ability to assess the people around him and use them as he sees most beneficial.

but, despite everything behind a business transaction between these two, there was a moment in time in which fu hua trusted otto, in some way, as well as one in which otto respected fu hua.

parts of them are SO similar, but they're fundamentally different at their cores. hua has a duty to humanity, n otto has a duty to one human woman. mind u, he sees all of humanity in her, but that's not the point.

n ironically, everything otto did led to kiana n the others ultimately gaining the power to face finality n shatter the samsara. the intentions vs the outcome; otto saved kallen, but lost his life. hua fulfilled her duty, but lost her friends.

especially, when u think about the fact that, at the time of his defeat n death, kevin was the only known flamechaser still living. despite hua's memories being constantly muddled, the principle of being the only survivor on top of the fact that the very act required to protect the current era as duty dictates ends in MAKING yourself that sole survivor.

this started n ended in very different places n i'm just rambling now but i just really love n appreciate how fu hua reacts n contrasts with SO many different characters in this game. i love her.

#hi3 #fu hua #mika.txt

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malicious-fisheeves · 5 months ago

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Thoughts and Issues with the DLC

So I've made no secret I've issues with the DLC but in an effort to stop whinging and be less upset I've written up something a little more formal. To state first: if you enjoyed the DLC, by all means, I am glad. I'd much rather have people be happy than feel the way I do/did after beating the final DLC boss. And in talking w some people who did like the DLC story, I was softened a little bit in some regards.

However. Below the cut is ~3k words on my thoughts. I attempted some formatting but it might be a little disorganized. Needless to say, big dlc spoilers.

Marika:

I simultaneously appreciate Marika getting some much needed nuance back. Marika is complicated for a number of reasons. Her regime is oppressive and unrelentingly cruel, the Erdtree and its wars were incredibly brutal, and yet the DLC calls to mind that this is the outcome of her own people’s oppression, eg in that Marika was incapable of growing beyond the limited worldview transferred to her by living in a world wherein failed saints and ‘criminals’ were turned into meat goo. Cycle of violence and so on, but therein also lies some critique. Generally speaking, irl, such a thing is… basically impossible example wise, to think of off the top of my head. I suppose broadly one could perhaps liken it to the original Roman persecution of early Christians but that’s a fraught comparison for a number of reasons – wildly overblown for theological reasons, for one, and also makes an exemplar vs Roman generally crushing and enslaving ‘savages’. Also the current and historical violence committed via christian can by no means be rooted to mistreatment by Romans. So. It’s something I find interesting while also not jiving with 100%. Especially relating to what she’d end up doing to the Omen.

I think one can possibly point to a general corruption of goals, for Marika, by virtue of her godhood—once granted absolute power, she lost sight of her original goals of building a better world than the one she was born into. An empire of ruin built on top of a pile of corpses. Marika herself seems to come to this understanding and so sets in motion the events of the game—sending the Tarnished off, and shattering the ring—possibly incentivized by the death of Godwyn, or at least the understand of that her dominion was faulty.

Miquella:

Oh Miquella. Here’s the thing; I am by no means shocked or surprised that the question of Miquella’s charm/compulsion abilities would come into play for the DLC. I had a feeling that the NPC crew would be under Miq’s influence and that would be a source of conflict. I was not someone who thought ‘yay miq’s going to become god and fix everything.’ But the way in which this was accomplished felt not only like a dropping of the ball but a deliberate spiking of it at the ground.

In the base game, though we only rarely get information about Miquella, we have an understanding that he very much wants to do good. To create a new order not revolving around the oppression and subjugation of the masses. Miquella’s plans were already doomed in the sense his grand plans involved ‘what if I made my own Erdtree, but cooler’ and the fact the implications of certain items (the haligtree soldier ashes, the bewitching branches) indicate he has some ability to influence/control others, but this ability remained nebulous. St. Trina and sleep, the other half of his, again spoke to some interesting if troubling aspects, but also again spoke to a sort of attempted lighter touch in his approach. Someone confined to sleep forever can’t hurt you anymore, even if you basically doom them without killing them. When the DLC began with him shedding his flesh, his strength, his Great Rune and therefore ability to charm, I was very interested in how this all related. Except then he…. Becomes a God anyway? I’m still confused by this. Narratively, the game points towards him shedding these things to become a Perfect God, uninfluenced by things like love (which again, confuses me when he says that the new age will be guided by compassion, but I think the point here was to make the confusion The Point eg Miquella you can’t do both those things, sir) that might blind him or bias him. But Ranni also cast aside her Empyrean flesh… specifically so she could not become a God.

This wouldn’t bother me as much were it not for other issues, I think.

Miquella in the base game is defined by his compassion, outright bordering on naivety (hand in hand with his curse). He waters his new tree with his own blood rather than the blood of others. Elphael and the haligtree are specifically home to the unwanted and oppressed (namely misbegotten and alibnaurics)--he literally builds a secret treehouse. He forges the unalloyed Gold needle to save Malenia’s life. Of course there is a paradox here. To build his new order based on compassion, he has to betray the old. In the base game, originally I viewed this as a sort of corruption of his own goals ala Marika’s, by sending Malenia out to do this for him. She takes her army and conquers most of the continent save Leyndell and the Academy before getting defeat-by-tie’d with Radahn. Miquella does not want to do this but feels he has to, one might surmise. Given Malenia’s apparently reverence for him, we are led to believe that she did so because she really, really, believed in him, even if in doing so was at great personal cost.

And so the compulsion comes back into play in the DLC—just bend everyone else’s wills to your own as a God, is at least what I believe we’re supposed to take away. But this bothers me thematically in that why did Miquella not do this earlier? We kill Radahn and Mohg and suddenly game over, because Miquella brain-beams us into submission and we all prance around in perfect unending submissive euphoria. Why are we not only around long enough to stop it, but even able to? We (the Tarnished) have no influence on whether or not Miquella achieves godhood, unlike with the other ending options wherein we have quests to have NPCs fail or achieve their means by which they either create a mending ring or, in Ranni’s case, finally kill Marika for good and thereby have No Gods in the Lands Between. Even getting his great rune is just optional—if you don’t get grabbed twice, you don’t need to worry about the instant kill. So it all just feels a bit like a wet fart, especially given what happens after you kill him and Radahn. Which is a memory of when Miquella, pre godhood, asking Radahn to be his consort so that Miquella can achieve godhood and make the world better. You can’t even get ontop of the divine gate. It just feels so…. Nothing, in the end. We kill Miquella, and then that’s it, nothing. Nothing changes, no means by which to maybe try to make the world better. Annsbach tells us to be a lord of men and not gods but there’s no means by which to do so. Ranni’s ending takes us to the stars, the other endings have us become Lord Consort in various flavors, or we burn everything down. Elden Ring, to me, defined itself in some ways from Dark Souls and Bloodborne by having a certain hope where the others could be rather bleak. The DLC, giving you no means by which to make the world better, in any way, mostly going around just killing everyone and thing, and then returning to the sliding scale of ambiguously-good-ambiguously-bad-extremely-bad base-game endings. It’s just… it is something.

I also have more meta-textual critiques, which leads me to…

Mohg, Malenia, Radahn, or Incest et al.,

Mohg in the base game is defined by his evil. He bears on-its-face evil satanic imagery, growling and gurgling at you during his fight. He kidnaps and tortures war surgeons, the only one of which who survives relatively in-tact, Varre, is cast aside. Varre dies, begging for Mohg’s help, and Mohg could not care less, because Mohg is the self styled leader of a cult. He kidnaps Miquella with the hopes of raising him to godhood so he can establish his own dynasty. Albinaurics who come to him seeking assistance/shelter are also tortured. It speaks to a great evil. However, we also come to understand that Mohg is the opposite side of the coin as Morgott. Both were omen children of Marika, given the relative ‘mercy’ of not having their horns cut off and abandoned to their fate in the sewers beneath Leyndell. Morgott spends his whole life desperately wishing to be loved by the Erdtree and gets jack shit. Mohg abandons it, rightfully, but is violated by the Formless Mother and has his blood set on fire. Mohg’s tragedy actually serves better to illustrate how suffering makes no one a good person than Marika’s story in the DLC, in some ways, given that Mohg literally replaces the austere and thinly veiled cruelty of Marika and her Order with just outright violence and terror. And then the DLC goes ‘actually, Mohg was manipulated into being evil by Miquella for his elaborate plans for godhood!’

When I read this, I almost felt insulted.

Not only does it strip Mohg of his agency, making his evil the fault of someone else, it also completely demeans the original tragedy of the kidnapping. Miquella, trapped in a state of suspended animation, forever sleeping and therefore failing Everything he set out to do, because he was kidnapped by someone who he would’ve wanted to help? Mohg, kidnapping and abusing a person who abhors what was done to him and his people? This tragedy again spoke to the themes of Elden Ring. Having it so that someone who, while flawed, is shot in the foot by someone warped and corrupted by a life time of abuse suffered first by their mother and then by a greater cosmic deity? That the violence put upon by Mohg resulted in yet more needless suffering? Heart breaking.

Instead, the DLC makes it so Mohg is abused yet again, and this time it is far less meaningful.

Radahn’s story also frustrated me greatly. I am biased, as someone who went insane trying to piece together his motivations for the past 2 yrs and writing nearly 200,000 words about it, but during that time I came to the conclusion that the explicit point of his lack of motivation spoke to a sort of glory seeking that is why, while he had some apparently good personal qualities, also made him a war lord. In the base game, Radahn’s established as someone who cares about having a ‘good death’, who stopped the stars for Reasons, and learned gravity magic in-part to ride his favorite horse forever. However he also is the General of a large army, who at the very least in his absence have taken to stringing up corpses and setting people on fire. Grant it, it might be due to the Super Plague, but it’s just vague and unsaid enough it is entirely probably it was not Just That (nor makes it less horrific, burning plague victims caused by the Stupidest Fight Ever). He admires Godfrey, who served Marika in her genocidal wars. He tries to take Leyndell for reasons not known to the player, but one can surmise either A. he was trying to help Rykard (Rykard, who’s war in the Shattering was considered one of if not the Worst) B. he was just doing it for a laff (eg conquering for conquering sake, morally vacant and also abhorrent, but speaks to a glory hunting that says Something) and/or something to do with Godfrey. It speaks to, if nothing else, a Giant Ego.

So it felt really weird and out of left field to go. Yeah he and Miquella made a vow that Radahn would become his consort so he could ascend to godhood and establish the kindness brigade. Like, huh? Nowhere in the base game does Radahn, at any point, seem to especially care about being kind or helping the oppressed. There are certain elements that indicate he might not have sucked As Much, but by no means does that make him a good person (especially since he seems to hold some relationship with Rykard and Rykard is Extremely Awful to the albinaurics). Not only that, but again if we are to believe Mohg was not at fault for any of the evils he committed because Miquella forced him to be evil, then we cannot believe that anything about Radahn and Miquella’s relationship was consensual (not that any incestuous relationship can be but it adds another layer of coercion).

So they make this vow and Radahn later reneges. Maybe he realizes he’s been charmed and breaks it, somehow, but we don’t actually know. And so Miquella sic’s Malenia on him like a dog, dooming Caelid. Firstly, overall it just makes Radahn less compelling as someone who could’ve potentially been better but decided he loved war too much, doomed by the world he was born into to want something that destroyed him and everything he loved. Secondly, it just really hurts the construction of Miquella’s character as someone perhaps jaded and optimism crushed by a shitty world built by his mom (and also Malenia’s). But thirdly, and most importantly to me, it completely decimates one of the most powerful narratives themes to me in Elden ring.

The deliberate obfuscation of Why Radahn and Malenia fought in the first place was one of the most important pieces of the narrative to me. It spoke greatly to Elden Ring’s themes about war and violence. That there are no real winners, that it leads only to death and destruction. That whatever reason why they fought was not important enough to result in all the devastation. The point was that it was pointless. It spoke to both Malenia and Radahn’s weaknesses and showed how even great people (even people with good qualities) have those qualities ruined by war. The fight dooms both of them; Radahn becomes a zombie, Caelid is turned into a rotten hell hole. Malenia has to be dragged back to the Haligtree and without her brother, she basically just Waits To Die, now aimless. It is, again, tragic.

And again, in comes the DLC. It is now just a punishment for not wanting to marry your half brother. It turns Miquella into a childish abuser, and Malenia into basically just a dog Miquella can send out on other people, his original enforcer/tool to be discarded once she was at her usefulness's end before he even stripped himself of his love for godhood. It also becomes Extremely dark if you consider that Malenia knew of Miquella and Radahn’s vow and decided to go and kill Radahn anyway, but there’s also no way to say for certain. Speaking to Malenia and Miquella’s relationship, there is a part of me that wonders if she was originally supposed to be in Radahn’s shoes. It would still create issues, but others would at least be partly remedied. It would be bad and fucked up, but it'd feel way more cogent and meaningful. Their toxic and codependent relationship resulting in them both being at their worst would actually fucking say something. Giving Malenia and non-rot afflicted body, even if it means doing something incredibly fucked up to someone he already victimized? the sort of ruthless goal seeking that better speaks to how Miquella is flawed even as a god, because it’s impossible to be a Perfect or Good God?

Meta-textually it’s also just troubling to, yet again, only depict mlm relationships through coercion and incest. Fromsoft does not traffic in good or healthy relationships but the unhealthy heterosexual relationships are given much more depth and apparent care to its members at least somewhat. Marika and Radagon have a Whole Thing going on but its clear they’re equal players in their one million year psychic battle against one another. Radagon and Rennala had a loving relationship (though there are misogynistic elements of Rennala being So Crushed after Radagon left her, she at least was powerful and active at one time). Marika and Godfrey’s relationship is somewhat vague, but we do know Godfrey believed in her vision enough to give up many aspects of himself. Not healthy, but again Godfrey and Marika are both active agents in their relationship (and he does come back for her, even if either by feeling because he Has To or for other reasons it still says something about His character). Tanith and Rykard are on some Insane Shit but they are insane for each other in a mutual sense. Even the incestuous elements in both Miquella and Malenia’s relationship, and Lorian and Lothric’s in ds3, correctly points to incest arising from unhealthy family dynamics/life situations. Now we’ve re-contextualized Miquella’s kidnapping so that it edges dangerous close on 'victim of incest lying, actually, was manipulating everyone, should die.’ Like What Are We Doing Here, man.

By comparison, Mohg is completely stripped of almost all the elements of his narrative that made him interesting and compelling and Radahn is weirdly pigeon holed into being the victim of Miquella’s violence and coercion. Radahn is dragged back from the dead after an end to his suffering, and turned into Miquella’s new enforcer. Freyja says something to the effect that it’s ‘what Radahn would have wanted’ but given how the rest of Fromosft’s entire library of work operates I do not take the word of a single NPC as gospel. And then we kill him, and Miquella. Mohg’s body gets desecrated, the end.

To some points, one might say that Miquella viewed all these evils as a means to an end, and I can’t say you’d be wrong. To me, though, it feels like many of these actions needlessly muddle the narrative, speak to the worst impulses society has around coercion/abuse, and ruin a lot of the interesting character narratives of the base game. Cards on the table, I felt utterly crushed by the DLC, and am still feeling really raw. Partly because the flaws of the demigods being products of Marika and co., were fascinating and impactful. The changes made, to me, cheapen a lot and feel somewhat like Fromsoft was sort of spitting in my face for attempting to piece together all the item descriptions, dialog snippets, and environmental storytelling elements to make a hazy image of a group of people we don’t exactly get to know, or rather only get to know by their actions and the outcomes of such. I’m less upset than I was, but ultimately I still feel so sour.

#elden ring #elden ring dlc #elden ring sote #shadow of the erdtree #fishes rambles

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atopvisenyashill · 3 months ago

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house frey and the inheritance of the twins

obviously it's been suspected that Red Wedding 2.0 will be happening in part to whittle down the family tree enough so that a Good Frey (tm) can take over the Twins. i just wanted to lay everyone i thought was a candidate out and solidify an opinion here.

FIRST OF ALL, i like to group the freys in my head according to their mom’s houses (since, ya kno, they’re all freys lol). I’m not listing every single frey (it would be hard since you can't do subbullet points in tumblr anyway) but here's sort of a general overview of succession, with my format being Walder’s Wife House -> “Cadet” Branch Houses. also this is just how I organize all these people in my mind, so if it doesn't make sense just ignore it, it's not here, skip down to the green text-

Royce Freys -> Main Branch Royce Freys, [Vance Freys], Vale Freys, [Lannister Freys], Wylde Freys, [Haigh Freys]

Swann Freys -> they’re mostly dead or at Oldtown so I just lump all of the Swann Freys together

Crakehall Freys -> Main Branch Hosteen Freys, Braavosi Freys, Darry Freys, Waynwood Freys, Beesbury Freys, [House Vypren]

Blackwood Freys -> Lame Lothar Freys, Paege Freys, [House Brax]

Rosby Freys -> this one is easy because it's just Perwyn, Benfrey, Olyvar, and Roslin.

Farring Freys -> again, easy because none of them have kids so they're all one branch. This branch includes several of the maids presented to be wives for Robb/Edmure/Roose including Arwyn and Shirei, as well as Elmar, the boy who was briefly betrothed to Arya

brackets are female lines (as in, a daughter that married another house) so they’re not technically “Freys” tho i’m sure a lot of them would be willing to change their names for a shot at owning the Twins. Lannister Freys are in brackets bc altho they’re male line, I don’t think they’re in line for the Twins anymore bc the Crown gave them Riverrun (and they’re probably all gonna die before they can get back in the running for the Twins so they don’t count lol).

NOW. WHOMST DO I THINK IS LIKELY TO INHERIT? LET'S DIG IN-

Walda Frey - 2nd in line for the Twins currently

Please applaud the highest ranking person on this list. She is the direct descendant of Walder, of the main Royce Freys branch, being his great great granddaughter. It goes-

Walder -> first born son Stevron (dead) -> first born son Ryman (dead) -> first born son Edwyn (first in line, Evil Frey) -> Walda, as Edwyn’s only child.

As I laid out here, there are some obstacles she has to overcome but it’s not impossible that all this hubbub is leading up to Walda being able to keep the Twins from her pushy, grasping male relatives - we have a LOT of female heiresses at the end of ADWD and I do think that’s leading to something in the endgame. BUT. Considering all the doom following the Freys around, she could very well be an innocent victim of LSH and her Red Wedding 2.0 plan - she is still, after all, in the riverlands as a Frey which is the most dangerous place for a Frey to be.

Once again, rip to the sweet little angels caught up in the game of thrones by their parents (shireen, tommen & myrcella, sweetrobin, fat walda, and possibly, poor sweet walda frey the first). I think her odds don't look great here but I also can't (and don't want to!) ignore that we will have a lot of female heiresses at the ending and she may very well be one of them.

Perra Frey - 4th in line for the Twins currently

Another of the Main Brance Royce Freys, her line goes-

Walder -> first born son Stevron (dead) -> first born son Ryman (dead) -> third born son Petyr Pimple (dead) -> Perra

Very similar story to Walda except she doesn't even get any real narrative focus (Edwyn does in fact mention his daughter, and we even see Walda on page - we don't see Perra at all). I very much think Perra is a Disposable Frey and likely to die or be passed over. I still wanted to count her though (justice for Doomed Babies!)

Vale Freys - 5th through 8th in line for the Twins

I'm grouping them all together. The Vale Freys line goes like this-

Walder -> first born son Stevron (dead) -> third born son Walton Waynwood Frey -> Steffon, Fair Walda, and Bryan Hardyng Frey

Now this isn't the first Vale family (and Waynwood specifically) to marry into the Freys; Anya Waynwood knows how to matchmake for her house! But I refer to them as the "Vale Freys" specifically because they have two Vale women that marry into their line - Marsella Waynwood and Deanna Hardyng. Remember Anya raised Harry the Heir and Jocelyn Stark's daughters married a Waynwood. This Waynwood/Hardyng connection could mean nothing and I fully acknowledge that. However, the number of Vale ties with this line and the fact that Sansa is dealing with Waynwoods and Hardyngs right now does make me wonder if the ultimate Lord of the Crossing could come from this seemingly Disposable Frey line.

Mad Huntsman/Aegon Bloodborn Frey - 17th-ish in the line of succession currently

Aegon “the Bloodborn” Frey is around 17th in line (but isn’t really in line, because he’s an outlaw). He hasn’t been seen in the books, only listed in the appendices. He is of the Royce-Wylde Freys so his line goes like so-

Walder -> third born son Aenys Frey (dead as of TWOW) -> first born son Aegon Bloodborn

Yes, his brother is Rhaegar Frey of “Frey Pies” fame. He’s not otherwise noteworthy ie we have no idea why he’s called “the bloodborn.” HOWEVER. There is the mad huntsman theory that if true could push him to the front of the “who gets the twins” race, narratively.

if you’re not familiar with the mad huntsman theory (no shame, i completely memory holed that one until recently too) it’s the idea that the Mad Huntsman, one of the brotherhood without banners who is described as being a big strong man with a “weak chin” who joins after his wife and sister are raped by Lannister soldiers. he tries to alleviate the starvation around the Stoney Sept by bringing in sheep from far away with his hounds later on. He’s also described as “quarrelsome” which fits with being a son of Aenys, who is also described as cruel, with a weak chin (in fact the term “weak chin” is used quite frequently to describe Frey men!). We also know Aegon Bloodborn is an outlaw and therefore doesn’t live at the Twins. Once LSH (noted Frey hater) takes over the BWB, it’s notable that the Mad Huntsman is no longer traveling with the main group. The biggest hole here imo is that the Mad Huntsman has a sister and afaik not only does Aenys only have two sons (Rhaegar and Aegon), but there’s not a mysteriously missing or disowned Frey daughter he could have run off with. It COULD be a sister by law, however.

If he IS working with the brotherhood, and leaves specifically bc of lady stoneheart, that means he’s safely away from All Of That, AND he’s one of the highest in the line of succession (i mean, before being disowned for being an outlaw, but if he is known to have worked with the brotherhood, i do imagine in the endgame he’d be pardoned). Especially considering having that crazy “Aegon the Bloodborn Frey” name, that feels like a SET UP altho tbf the set up could be something completely different from “Aegon Frey inherits the Twins.” Being a grown man, a fighter, and potentially married Does also help just from a logistical standpoint - if someone decides to question his claim, well, he’s more than capable of hitting back.

Alesander Frey - 31st ish in line of succession

Alesander is a Braavosi Frey (so we're finally at point 3 in my family tree there), which are a subgroup of the Crakehall Freys. It goes-

Walder & 3rd wife Amarei Crakehall -> third born son Symond -> first born son Alesander

Yes, Symond, his father, was in a Frey Pie. But Alesander is still A Good Frey! Alesander is my favorite Frey because he is a singer and it’s his absence from the Red Wedding that alerts Cat to something being a off. Ryman just says he’s “away” and I find it interesting that even though he has no real relationship with the Starks (and therefore no emotional reasons to speak out against the Red Wedding, the way the Rosby Freys do), he does still speak out against it, likely for moral reasons. Speaks to a good sense of character that he’s willing to stand up to his family when literally dozens of his relatives are in on this plan.

HOWEVER. It’s not, as far as I’m aware, a BIG theory, but it IS one I’ve kicked around and I've seen a few others kick around that Alesander might be dead - you see, Arya cleans a dead body in the House of Black and White that is a mystery to us. I want to add the quote here-

One man had died at the feet of the Stranger, a single candle flickering above him. […] Before summoning the serving men to carry him away, she knelt and felt his face, tracing the line of his jaw, brushing her fingers across his cheeks and nose, touching his hair. Curly hair, and thick. A handsome face, unlined. He was young. She wondered what had brought him here to seek the gift of death. Dying bravos oft found their way to the House of Black and White, to hasten their ends, but this man had no wounds that she could find. The second body was that of an old woman. […] The corpses were laid out in the vault. The blind girl went to work in the dark, stripping the dead of boots and clothes and other possessions, emptying their purses and counting out their coins. […] On the handsome man she found four golden dragons out of Westeros. She was running the ball of her thumb across the most worn of them, trying to decide which king it showed, when she heard the door opening softly behind her.

It stood out to me because

arya notes most people don’t pray to westerosi gods in braavos but these two die at the foot of the Stranger

there’s a young man and an old woman, and we know alessander's mother is braavosi, betharios, so it could be his mother. the man is so noted to be a younger man, and that would match alessander's age as well

the man has four gold dragons on him - not a small amount of money, and westerosi money at that!

in my opinion here, if the face is being hidden from us through arya not knowing who it is, it will be plot relevant later. it’s only alesander who feels plot relevant and could also be in braavos at this time. it could be interesting if arya lands in the riverlands wearing the face of a stark friendly frey, or perhaps not wearing the face herself but recognizing parts of it in others and letting people know of alesander's fate.

why would they be here, likely having killed themselves? well...this is post red wedding, and alesander was specifically left out of the red wedding plot because they knew he'd have a moral argument against it, and symond seems to have been particularly involved in the red wedding plot. i think it could be interesting if they ehard of what their family did and committed suicide out of fear and shame.

anyways i hope alesander is alive because i think the set up for him is interesting and i want it to stay interesting and not tragic, hah.

Ami Darry Frey or Gatehouse Ami - 35th ish in line of succession

Another member of the Crakehall Frey Branch and someone we've actually met on page! Amerei or Gatehouse Ami's line goes-

Walder & 3rd wife Amarei Crakehall -> fifth born son Merrett (rest in piss) & Dariya Darry -> Ami

When we meet her through Jaime’s POV, she is engaged to Lancel Lannister so that the Lannisters can claim the Darry lands. Despite her engagement, Ami has a….reputation. She sleeps around a lot, and Lancel is not interested in her at all. She’s kind of wild, Jaime in general seems to find all the Darry Freys pretty unclassy, and I kind of love the idea that the Twins go from the completely classless Late Lord Walder to the equally but differently classless Gatehouse Ami. Let Ami Fuck Her Way Through The Riverlands!!!!

Walda Frey Bolton or Fat Walda - 36th ish in line of succession

Also known as Fat Walda, she is not only the same line as Ami but they are sisters! She’s a year to two years younger than Ami!

And listen, I love her but she’s doomed 😭 i hope ramsay suffers immensely for this one tho 😭😭😭😭

Perwyn Rosby Frey - 60th in line

Perwyn is the oldest member of the Rosby Frey branch (point five above!) His line goes-

Walder & 6th wife Bethany Rosy -> Perwyn.

He is one of the more obvious Good Freys; he is often placed in trusted positions such as guarding Catelyn, he is well liked by Daven Lannister, and seems to be close to his sister Roslin, perhaps even rooting for the Tullys to win out over the Lannisters. We get this line here:

Roslin's a pretty little thing, hardly stoatish at all. And fond of Edmure, queerly. Perwyn tells me [Roslin is] praying for a girl.

I really worry about Perwyn dying tho. Between Olyvar in Rosby, Roslin in Riverrun, and potentially Aegon in the BWB/eventually the Twins, I feel like Perwyn……..might be a death meant to hurt our feelings!

Olyvar Rosby Frey - 63rd ish in line

Younger brother of Perwyn, so also a Rosby Frey, something that is very important to Olyvar's story!

Despite being the most obvious Good Frey (he has to be dragged away from Robb’s side after Robb marries Jeyne), he’s not getting the Twins in my opinion, he’s getting Rosby’s holdings bc he’s Rosby’s ward - here's a good write up here. The gist of the "Olyvar is the Rosby Ward" theory is that the Rosby lands are currently up for grabs because Gyles Rosby died without a clear heir. It seems likely he wanted his lands to go to his unnamed ward but in AFFC, Cersei plans to seize them and give them to an ally. She runs into a brick wall here, as does Kevan before he dies, because the Rosby ward does not seem willing to play ball, even refusing to offer hospitiality to the Stokeworths. I think the fact that the Rosby ward seems determined to be a nuisance is the biggest indicator of this being Olyvar; he’s pissed off about Robb, and he’s showing it by refusing hospitality to any Lannister supporters. However, this could very well be set up for Olyvar inheriting a larger seat! Hard to say at this point!

Roslin Rosby Frey Tully - 82nd in line

She of many last names lmao. Another Rosby Frey (Bethany did something right as a mother i guess!!) who has recently married the heir to Riverrun, Edmure Tully.

She technically counts but I think her, Edmure, and their baby will eventually be safe in Riverrun. I’m aware this could be wishful thinking on my part but regardless, I’m not sure how likely it is that she and her baby inherits the Twins when they’re so wrapped up in the Riverrun story AND they're female line. It WOULD be funny though, if after all of Walder’s scheming and nonsense towards the Tullys, that the Twins is taken over by a cadet Tully branch of Roslin and Edmure's first born daughter.

Big Walder Frey - 54th in line

Now we get one (1) Bad Frey in our budding serial killer and kinslayer, Big Walder. He is from point 4, the Blackwood Freys. His line goes-

Walder & Alyssa Blackwood -> second son Jammos & Sallei Page -> first born son Big Walder.

I've always been fascinated by Big Walder and not just because of him murdering his cousin, Little Walder. I kind of love that he has his own coat of arms where he quarters the Frey's sigil with the houses of his grandmother and his mother. *Arya Voice* the woman is important too!

Big Walder, despite being a very minor character, does have a decent amount of narrative focus. He's appeared in four of the five books, being present at the Twins and sent to foster at Winterfell in AGOT, becoming a nuisance to Bran throughout ACOK, signing his name to Ramsay's false report that Theon burnt Winterfell in ASOS, and finally coming out with blood spattered clothing just after Little Walder is mysteriously murdered in ADWD. I think of all the Evil Freys, Big Walder seems the most "set up" as a potential inheritor of the Twins.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Thoughts? Potential contenders you think I've missed? In my opinion, I think Olyvar, Perwyn, Aegon, and Big Walder are probably the most likely inheritors although I would love if it was Roslin and Edmure's daughter or Gatehouse Ami.

#valyrianscrolls #house frey #house darry #house rosby #house crakehall #the twins #the riverlands #house blackwood #getting on my soap box #rani attempts meta #house paege #oh my god it's finally done #long post for ts

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ectogeo-rebubbles · 29 days ago

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Treat + anything garashir

Thanks for the ask! You get a scene from my soulmate AU fic where Sloan has tricked Julian into thinking Sloanshir = soulmates when really garashir = soulmates (garashir will end up together in the end but they aren’t allowed by the narrative to ever know for certain they are each other’s soulmate, due to me being evil). <3 In this flashback scene, Garak and Julian are discussing Romeo and Juliet. (Plus there’s a little angsty sentence at the end about Julian’s current mental state at the present-day point in the fic 😈)

Julian had been in a flirty mood the day they discussed Romeo and Juliet. He had rolled up the sleeves of his uniform, giving Garak the opportunity to glimpse the soulmark on his arm each time he lifted his fork or his mug to his lips. He was a little bit disappointed, then, when Garak held his gaze so steadfastly from across their regular table in the Replimat.

“I found the soulmate propaganda a bit too thick in this one,” Garak disdained. “Most Cardassians don’t have soulmarks, and I think that’s quite sensible of us. It’s a little bit absurd, to think that for any given person there’s only one other person who could ever be romantically compatible with them.”

Julian doubted Cardassians with soulmates were as uncommon as Garak claimed, but he could only correct one of his fallacies at a time.

“Well, yes, but that’s kind of the whole point. For all the cultural impact of the play as a tragic love story about soulmates, it’s actually more of a commentary on the senseless cycles of violence and revenge involved in feuds than a true romance.”

Julian took a sip from his mug but then didn’t lower it all the way back to the table. He made sure his arm was turned to show himself off as he fiddled with the mug.

Garak finally glanced down. Just for a second, just out of curiosity perhaps, but it still felt like a little victory.

“O swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon…” Garak quoted, eyes locked on Julian’s face again. “You can’t tell me that that is not about your human soulmarks, and the preposterous way they are both ever-changing and yet also, apparently, set in stone your whole life.”

“Oh, that line is most certainly alluding to soulmarks!” And now he felt subconscious about his own, so blatantly on display. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not soulmate propaganda! In fact, the whole play is so over-the-top and on the nose with its themes of fate and love at first sight that it almost comes across as a satire on the concept of soulmates.”

“Oh, please,” Garak said, rolling his eyes.

“Fine, maybe not satire,” he said, wondering how he’d ended up arguing in defense of an interpretation he didn’t even like, “but something more subversive than the surface reading as a tragic romance. Some scholars have interpreted it as implying that they were soulmates not because they were fated to love each other, but rather because they were each other’s perfect doom.”

Garak looked away from him for a moment. There was a pause before he said, “A compelling idea.”

“Very compelling… in fiction. But I don’t really buy it in reality. The preponderance of evidence doesn’t bear it out.”

“Perhaps for some, love and doom are one and the same.”

Julian hadn’t ceded ground to Garak’s melodrama, then.

Now, in his maudlin state, he thought of Sloan and wondered if there was something to it, this reframing of a soulmate as the one who would destroy you.

#asks #halloween ask game #ask game #garashir #hopefully this is garashir enough haha #my wips

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kojoty · 1 year ago

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You're Tex. You're the memory. Of a memory. Of a memory of a woman. How do you contend with that?

It's a shame that, as narratively rewarding and sound as the decision was and I get it (while still holding critiques less of the specific instance, and more in the grand schema of media presentation of woman-as-narrative-pain), that Tex had to End in order for Church to heal from some of his cycles of obsession and generationally inherited abuse. Because in a scenario where Epsilon's creation of Tex (Tex 2.0) survives, I mean--

You're the memory of a memory of a memory of a woman who has forcibly, against her will and consent had her legacy twisted and warped to create cycles and cycles and cycles of violence, obsession, abuse, death. You're the wife. You have memories of that. You're the greatest source of pain for a tormented man. You have memories of that. You're the tool. You have memories of that. You're the weapon pointed and barbed to perpetuate violence in your own name. But is it your name?

You're a ship of Theseus and you can't even trust the memories you do have, because you're the flashprint recreation of the memories of a sick man. Those memories die. And then you become the flashprint recreations of the memories of a man who is also just the memories of that sick man.

Nothing your context, your creation, your cradle is made of is from your own point of view. You're the secondary point of view from someone so inherently unreliable that he had to create a cult of personality around him just to make it true.

You are weaponized memories so potent they were laced with poison and pointed at your own daughter, your own teammate, your only focal point, once you know what you are, for what happens when that sick man is able to create someone who isn't just memory, but is still nonetheless molded and forced to behave in the context of them.

You know you're the greatest source of pain for someone who's entire existence was formed to shatter into more pain.

And how do you live with that? How do you become yourself? Do you keep the memories? Discard them?

It's a shame we didn't get to see Tex rip the narrative from the hands of the Church's to create something, someone new; Tex was always doomed to fail from the start, but not because she didn't have the strength or autonomy to do so. The tragedy of Tex is, so fundamentally, the fact that she was swept up into a current and denied, denied, denied to be anything but Galatea to Dr. Leonard Church's Pygmalion.

Even in my attempts to give her narrative autonomy, a spectre haunts her story, haunts her context, haunts the very fabric of her existence, and I just simply think she deserves to have ripped the narrative apart and release from her stagnant chrysalis into something wondrous and new and formed of her own desires. and get her pussy ate.

#rvb #agent texas

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codajaiden · 7 months ago

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I don't get the gist of Nightbow (Rainbow Steve x Nightmare) like, how does that work??

(warning I might rant so much y'all would explode, correct me if I'm wrong tho)

"enemies to lovers!" No. Lemme clear this up for you

Nightmare and Rainbow were created to kill each other, hate each other's guts, there is no conversation or part in SS or RQ where they went and be normal people talking to each other and stuff (not that I can think of anyways)

"for fun" I don't care if it's for fun, sure it's funny but like????? How is it y'all's favourite????

I'm someone who likes to go insane just watching plot, WHILE YES, STEVE SAGA WAS JUST A RANDOM STEVE SERIES AND WAS VERY RANDOM WHEN IT COMES TO PLOT, ITS SILLY, ITS RANDOM

But y'all are like "I can fix them", there is nothing to fix???? they are literally people wanting to kill each other and that is their goal.

Oh and let's not forget, I have my eyes on the people who write in Wattpad, don't think I have not seen their "freaky" writing at all.

It's not only Nightbow at least, I see the people here who ship Rainbow and Void together, same thing, but if we're talking SS then there was still no good interaction of them both to be on the level of actually being good friends. Still, Wattpad people are freaky about them too.

This can be implied to Favremyrainbow ig, but to me it's very bland and boring. I admit I did in fact ship them, but as time passed I just stopped because it was so cringe 💀💀

I don't want to be mean and rude when it comes to this but it bugs me every time.

Okay the only thing I can counter this is Alux x Petro.

Petro and Alux are basically Anna and Hanz in Frozen, gaslighting and manipulation exist but dynamic and trust are important. There is communication towards the two that leads into something in the plot.

Nightbow has none of that, they hate each other's guts. People say they can fix them, nah, with Palux you can make them worse (/j) HEJWJEJWJSJA

"Petro and Alux's entire dynamic is mainly built off of manipulation" YES but thats on Petro's side. Most people ship it due to it being tragic on Alux's side because everyone in this fandom likes doomed mlm i guess (I'm one of those people but again the plot reasons goes on for both of their dynamic)

"But he stabbed him" YES. I have not seen a single person who ships them currently its mainly a one sided ship. For alux its built off genuine love and care for Petro, knowing he's the only REAL connection in his life. The people who ship them (from what I've seen) mainly do it for tragedy and narrative purposes. no one is actually here WANTING alux to be stabbed and abused

And for Petro it adds much more conflict to his character if you add like any romance to him. like, loving the person your meant to kill and killing them anyways is a really interesting narrative plot idea. Its also really funny tbh but oh well.

Narratively it adds more to their characters as long as you dont romantize it and treat it like it'd be healthy especially at this point in the story.

This is literally doomed Yaoi (it's funny I wanna say that) and it works so well because of how they were narratively written this way towards each other. This cooked better than some enemy wanting to, excuse my language, have freaky SHIZ going on with the Hero 💀

Okay I'm done with my ranting I'm sorry for the people who like Nightbow but I'm sharing what I'm saying and y'all are gonna respect it and not be problematic. I feel like I should not be on the internet for a good while late and night this is how freaky I get when it's past midnight lmao

#favremysabre #steve saga #alux rising mentioned #nightbow #how does that ship even work????#feel free to block me because of this idc anymore #the fms fandom can get a bit too quirky and that would be my limit

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likethecolour · 4 months ago

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constantly thinking way too hard about these two doomed by the narrative sisters <3

story / literally everything else created by @northern-passage, i am simply going feral over my own silly little guys

(belmont family lore / facts / etc below the cut - nobody needs to read this i just need somewhere to ramble about them)

Mercy (neé Mercury Elaena Belmont) - currently 27 years old. left home at 12, spent 10 years training at the Black Iron stronghold before becoming a full-fledged hunter at 22. her father (Tallon) is out of the picture, and her relationship with her mother (Elaena) has always been strained and complicated.

Ever (neé Everest Tallon Belmont) - currently 20 years old. was 5 when Mercy left home. current whereabouts unknown. her father (Tallon) is out of the picture, but her relationship with her mother (Elaena) has always been protective and sheltered.

Mercy never wanted to leave home. it was a decision that she feels was made for her, when she was too young to fully understand what life as a hunter would entail. a small seed of resentment and hurt rooted itself within her years ago, and it's only blossomed as time has gone by. that's not to say she doesn't love her family, though. most of the time, the thought of them is the only thing that keeps her going. whether it's duty or loyalty or simply a desire to not be forgotten, Mercy still sends money home when she can. even if she had no choice in the matter, this is her life now and Mercy's going to support her family in the only way she can.

despite being born in Gael, Mercy’s never been quite sure if she could truly call herself Gaelish. there’s not much she remembers of it, after all, aside from storm-torn coasts and blurred faces through the window of a one-room home. the Black Iron stronghold was never really home either, but it did become something similar after 15 years away from her birthplace. Her mentors Jorah and Roderick became like family, though Mercy never forgot the one she left behind.

the Belmont family has a tendency to go prematurely grey. Ever has a few streaks in her hair, though nothing too extreme just yet. Mercy, on the other hand, had her hair go completely white due to the harsh conditions she was exposed to during her training.

Mercy's sun and star tattoo is a subtle reference to her mother and sister. Elaena used to call Mercy and Ever her "little stars", as she sang them to sleep with stories of the cosmos and the gods. the tattoo is a way to keep them close to her, even all these years later.

anyways. them </3

#digital art #clip studio paint #tnp hunter #oc: mercy belmont #oc: ever belmont #tnp fanart #the northern passage

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lady-gravity-129 · 10 days ago

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Spoilers under the cut

So, lots of stuff happened. Still currently sick but I’ll try my best to gather my thoughts.

First things first, I knew that Clown was allies with Ash. I called this months ago and I just feel so validated for that because it’s not exactly easy for my mind to make theories for a Minecraft series that has 3 different POVs lol

Next, the literal child playing with his sister then Spoke killing said sister 😭. Dude you didn’t have to hurt my heart like that.

Third, the overlapping of videos?? I can guarantee that the scenes Wemmbu is in will be in his next video. Idk, it just makes sense. I love when the POVs overlap like this, it really gives a sense of…idk…connection, continuity?

Fourth, THE FACT THE TAX DUO REUNION BEING FIRST SEEN IN SPOKE’S VIDEO AND NOT WEMMBU’S HAS ME CACKLING.

Lastly, on the list of civilizations Ash wants to take over. I don’t *think* the Farlands City was there which means Ash doesn’t know about it (yet) which means it’s not doomed by the narrative (YET KEYWORD YET)

That’s about all I can think of for now.

#unstable universe spoilers #unstable universe #unstableverse

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0l-unreliable · 6 months ago

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Feel free to be as long-winded or short as you want with this; but can you explain Homestuck to me? I've tried many times to get into it, but it confuses me and I just want it in layman's terms please 🙏

So in the most boiled down, simplified, BASIC terms: Homestuck is a coming of age, saving the world story that gets interrupted by the narrative, the creator (Hussie self inserts so much he's basically a main side character that the characters can and do reference), timeline bullshit, and the introduction and subsequent abandonment of new plots/characters. Though it's technically a comic, the text alone could fill probably 3-5 novels. I'd also like to say I ONLY read the original comic and I only read it 2 1/2 times in the past 10 years

Ok that stuff out of the way here's as fatless as I can serve: John and co. (Dave, rose and jade) Decide to play a game called 'sburb', unknowingly triggering both the beginning of their adventure and the end of their world, while they navigate getting into the game (like, physically, since their planet is being pelted by meteors) we're introduced to some weird fuckin grey dudes (the trolls, unplanned and frankly maybe unwanted at the point by me at least) we find out they went through this same 'game-that-ends-the-world' scenario but with 12 different kids instead of four, which made the whole thing more complicated and dramatic (and here we're also introduced to the blood caste system aka the fantasy racism system, there are 11-12 different blood colors with candy red being the rarest and the lowest/worst). They make it into the game and are left to wait while they figure shit out and this is when they start communicating with John and co, since they're technically not in the same timeline as the humans they can jump around and pick any point to talk to them (ex: a troll can click a button and talk to a version of John already in the game then five seconds later click another button and talk to a John that has never even heard of the game). Unfortunately this is when the timeline/doomed reality shenanigans start. I will not be untangling all that, sorry. They figure out that they (the trolls +John and co) have to make a NEW universe out of a special frog and make plans to all meet. Dave and Rose have already managed to get to the same place the trolls are (a random meteor) but John and Jade still must travel to get to them, which will take 3-4 years (this was probably because at this point everyone has been 13 for the past 3 real human years and hussie wanted a time skip). I cannot stress the weight of the next statement enough: some bullshit happens. You meet 12 NEW trolls that are basically the ancestors to the trolls we know and love/hate. To me they don't super have a point, but this is also where we learn that every person who died and every version from a 'doomed timeline' who died is in fact alive as ghost in bubbles of space-time and can interact both with other dead versions of themselves and the alive versions of themselves when they pass through. Like I said. Some bullshit happens. Then..oh and then...we get shot both into the future, the past, and an alternative timeline. This time, it's with the ancestors/guardians of John and co. This is were Dirk and Jake are. (And Roxy and Jane ofc) At this point I believe hussie has majorly checked out. This new group of humans (the 'Alphas', named after their timeline) don't get much in terms of story compared to the others, but what we do see it that while Jake and Jane live in the good ol' current time of 2016, Dirk and Roxy live far far FAR into the future. A future where a tyrannical troll has conquered Earth and flooded it in an attempt to expand her watery empire. They are the last two people alive, made from the genetic remains of their timelines Dave and Rose. Their only hope of survival is the game, luckily they get in, unluckily Hussie has Checked Out. They are in a dead game and must wait to either be attacked by the big bad (of which there are at least three I'm sorry but mentioning their whole deal is....daunting. remember this is all still simple) and/or be pulled to the OG group of trolls and humans. Eventually everyone gathers up, Hussie retcons some shit through John, they fight all bazillion big bads at once and BAM. make a new universe in which all TWENTY of them are gods. The end.

This is as simple as I can make it based on how I understood it/what I remember. It's not called the worlds longest webcomic for nothing. If you made it this far and still think you may want to try again to read but don't want to spend a large chunk of your life reading a textual nightmare, there are videos on YouTube that read it for you that have gotten pretty far, I have left A LOT out.

HS is a super confusing, badly written, reference heavy peice of work. I think ultimately it's about how YOU interpret things and where you stop reading. It seems random, and it is, but Hussie manages to round most things out, there's a lot of characters that explain a lot of things very often. Sometimes you don't know What The Hell is Happening until 5 acts and 3 intermissions later. That's fine.

Thanks for letting me yap. Feel free to ask about more anytime either in dms or through asks.

#ask response #explaining homestuck is like taking a stab at the gordion knot with one eye covered your hands tied behind your back #while someone screams at you and youre all on fire

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raayllum · 9 months ago

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Cube Hostage Exchange Theory: Ezran Edition

Cause I've been feeling this one and figured I may as well toss in the newest two cents.

This is something I've talked about before (X, X) but much more briefly, and with the theory still on the table for S6, I figured I'd cover more of my bases.

The usual caveats / disclaimers to get out of the way:

Cube Hostage Exchange Theory (CHET) is a TDP theory dating back from September 2020 (shortly after Through the Moon released) speculating that Rayla would be taken hostage in exchange for Callum freeing Aaravos by handing over the Key of Aaravos. It was based on ideas of 1) the key being important to Aaravos' plans, 2) the irony of Callum literally freeing Rayla while chaining himself further to Aaravos' will, and 3) that Callum would be a pawn in Aaravos' plans (deduced well before S4) due to this thematic ties to freedom.

The biggest assumption the theory made/makes is that the Key of Aaravos is something that Aaravos is actively seeking/wanting, or something he needs; this aspect of the theory is still (technically) pure speculation.

CHET may not happen in S6 due to the fact it beat for beat already basically happened in 5x08, just with Finnegrin swapping in for Aaravos as an instigator. This is partially due to the fact that the irony regarding chains and freedom (Rayla being freed by Callum chaining himself) also came to pass alongside the captive/loved one's life being threatened and Callum subsequently being willing to help said antagonist.

That being said, I still fully think a Variant will happen, if you will, whether that's due to Callum getting in over his head with the coins, or something more directly threatening Rayla.

This theory resides on the (canon) interpretation of Callum being willing to do anything to protect his two most important loved ones (Ezran, Rayla) even if that means helping Aaravos and/or putting the world in danger. This post itself is not going to debate or explain this interpretation, but if you are interested in learning more about it, I'd recommend this meta and this tag.

I still think Callum making a choice that risks subsequent possession / world ending behaviour is more likely to be for Rayla. This is for a few reasons: 1) they still have an ongoing relationship rift/conflict to heal, and this could be a way to do it; 2) we know thanks to 6x01 that Callum and Rayla are heading to the Starscraper alone with Ezran being back in Katolis, so there is just more opportunity; 3) more of the narrative legwork has been done with Rayla specifically, particularly in regards to the possession plotline in particular; 4) Ezran has never represented destruction to or for Callum, but Rayla has more overtly negative associations which would fit; 5) Rayla has had more scenes and lines with said Cube / Key of Aaravos throughout the 4 seasons its been displayed (1x04 multiple times, 1x05, 2x07, 3x08, 4x02, 4x03, 4x07) than Ezran has (noticeably only one in 4x07).

All that being said, let's talk about the way the narrative might work / the evidence we have at present for CHET happening, but Callum dooming the world for his brother instead. Otherwise known as CHET: EE (Ezran edition).

The Necessary Narrative Legwork

As stated, CHET: Ezran Edition would only, to me, have a strong enough narrative purpose to happen IF it served as the basis or conclusion for a reconciliation arc between Callum and Rayla (currently ongoing) or between Callum and Ezran. While the brothers are not currently fighting, that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

Season six might have to squeeze it — it would have to be in the latter half of the season, which might be too delayed for Aaravos' proper release, but who knows? — but it definitely seems like the brothers are hurtling towards some sort of conflict.

However, I think the way the conflict is framed / what it ends up being centred on. For example, if the brothers just fight over whether or not to free Runaan (as there are indications that they might), I don't think that by itself leads to a resolution like CHET: EE. But if the brothers fight over Runaan, and it makes Ezran feel like his brother isn't choosing him, and they part on bad terms... Now we're talking.

Now, S6 could have room for a broyals conflict. They could fit over Runaan, as noted, or even other issues in their relationship. This would lay the groundwork for something like a CHET: EE based reconciliation happening, provided there was conflict to resolve first.

I'd also like more scenes / lines concerning Ezran with the cube. Thus far, Ezran has been there in 3/4 seasons where we've seen the cube (S5 is the only season with zero appearances outside the 5x08 intro), but he's only commented on it in 4x07 with "Callum, put away your cube!" when it's glowing because the moon opal on the Bridge of Darkness.

Episodes such as 1x05 particularly feels like a missed opportunity, perhaps, if this was the direction they were going to take, given that Ezran easily could've stepped in during Callum and Rayla's miniature disagreement over it (the "it's a glow toy" + "this doesn't end well for you" foreshadowing is there in addition to Callum looking at the Star rune) to make a comment about it still being worthwhile / perhaps a fun toy. But if Ezran's hide and seek game motif (more evident when they were searching for the hidden prison) comes into play and is tethered further to the cube's game motif, that's alright by me.

So yeah, two key points I would need to happen could happen, largely:

The brothers having some kind of serious conflict wherein Callum prioritizing Ezran in this way could help reconcile it

Ezran having more screen time with / regarding the Cube and Aaravos in some manner

That's not to say there's no legwork already put in, though, for an EE, which is part of the reason why I'm making this post. So let's talk about the two biggest points in this edition's favour:

The Orphan Queen Connection

Despite not receiving the Key himself (which could be a parallel to the Sunfire siblings regarding Kim'Dael's collar), the EE has a significant point in its favour due to Ezran's associations with the Orphan Queen. He's been directly compared to her both in appearance and in personality, as he shares her ability to Truth Tell in the face of lies, narratively speaking:

I should have seen it before. Ha! Long ago, it was a human who saw through the Fallen Star’s schemes and helped Xadia put an end to them. You look so much like her.

I've written before about the parallels there seems to be when it comes to the Jailer and Callum, two clever human mages, and the Orphan Queen Ezran, two royals of a blood line tethered in some way to truth telling and Aaravos. This parallel connection of the Jailer and the Orphan Queen being involved in imprisoning Aaravos, and Callum and Ezran witnessing / failing to stop if not also being involved in his release would be an ironic layer.

There would be another additional layer if the Orphan Queen's use of the cube was what led to him being sealed away, and now the Key is being used to spare her descendant, his brother's, life three hundred years later.

Thus far we don't know much else about the Orphan Queen besides this, so I could see Ezran's role with the Key being to partially discover what it is or what it might do, and for Callum to figure out further how it works and how to use it, but we'll have to see. I think this piece of evidence would be stronger if both brothers had been very involved and interested with the Key thus far - a true piece of dual heritage for both of them - but given that it's been so much more in Callum's corner and much less in Ezran's, I think this aspect is probably what would need to be developed the most in S6 to work out.

That said, the strongest piece of evidence we have for an EE of CHET is namely the place where we first learn the cube is called the Key of Aaravos at all, which is in...

Harrow's Letter

Harrow's letter exists in story for a few reasons:

To resolve Harrow and Callum's arc with each other, particularly to affirm to Callum that he belonged within his family / as Harrow's son. This is folded into Harrow discussing his sons' bond and what he wants for both of them in addition to point 3 and 4

To largely tie up Callum's grief regarding Harrow, as while we still see bits and pieces of it (you can argue 2x08 and 4x03 touch on it), 2x06 is the last time Callum's specific grief about Harrow is discussed (at least for now)

To complement Viren's narrative of what happened with Harrow's own take on the same events, particularly to push forward and the name the Narrative of Love vs Narrative of Strength dichotomy (which S4 and S5 have spent a lot of time deconstructing further)

To explicitly introduce the concept of the Chains of History and Harrow's own desire for freedom, which is alluded to in early S1 but not fully developed, and therefore pave the way for him to show up in Callum's 2x08 dreams

To give us the info about the Key of Aaravos early enough we could sit with it, and also let the foreboding build

I do think the placement of the information about the Key is interesting, because the way it's presented perhaps fulfil more of our traditional expectations in the fantasy genre. Of course the protagonist happens to stumble across a neat, funky family heirloom with a tease for a cool power-up to come. It is, after all, the first time we hear the name Aaravos.

However, they very quickly (aka like 1.2 episodes later) give us the name of Aaravos, and we immediately know it's nothing good. The more negative associations with the cube are also added to in 2x08 with the dream imagery, which makes a lot more sense now that we know just how deep the ties between Aaravos and dark magic really go.

With this in mind, the most telling lines from the letter for an EE CHET is, I believe, this from Harrow:

But as a father, I have a selfish wish. For you and Ezran to be... free.

Now the letter itself talks about Freedom almost as much as it talks about Love, and indeed, love — specifically a Narrative of Love — is posited as something that can and will free you, in contrast to the Narrative of Strength bound by the chains of history. We also know Startouch stuff is associated with wishes, so that's another point. And Harrow's last words to Callum were "Take care of my brother." From a familial standpoint, there's more than enough permission / merit here to go ahead.

The letter introduces the Key and talks about the brothers. It talks about chains and love and freedom. And these are all things that would be very much literally present in in a Cube Hostage Exchange in which Ezran is the hostage or person the key is being handed over to save.

And while I think it could be a possibility on the table, because Callum absolutely would do this for his brother... I still think if we're gonna get a scenario like this, it's going to be Rayla, or it's going to be no one. And here's why.

The Other Side

You may have noticed throughout this that this edition of the theory depends on even more could haves than traditional CHET already does, and hasn't really talked about Ezran's personality or interplay with sacrifice as a theme. This is because that, without an external conflict pushing things forward, this display of devotion doesn't really affect Ezran much. He knows his brother loves him and has never doubted this; Ezran is very measured about sacrificing himself for what he believes in, but is also always willing to accept help and other people's aid. Ezran is sacrificial, largely adjacent to his crown and his childhood, but his arc itself is centred around concepts of power, duty, and justice over a core theme of sacrifice or even freedom.

Subsequently, Ezran likewise has not been associated heavily with chains, nor is Callum someone who has broken Ezran's cycles or chains, literally or metaphorically. Although Ezran is undeniably tethered to freedom because "a child is freer than a king" and him being briefly (meaningfully) in prison, freeing Ezran has never been a main plot concern Callum or Rayla has had to contend with. The closest they come are the boys working together to free Rayla in 1x04 with Bait, Callum and Rayla working together to get Ez out from the icy water in 1x06, and Soren freeing Ezran from prison (and getting him to his council) in 3x05... and that's about it. Nor is Ezran a big part of Callum's mage arc; they normally discuss things other than magic, Callum rarely uses magic to protect his brother (although S5 definitely had an uptick), and Ezran is pretty separated from notions of magic within Xadia outside of his ability to talk to animals. (It's kind of like how while Callum and Zym have a strong bond, Ezran has a more emphasized one and largely carries the human side of human-dragon reconciliation alongside Soren, whereas their siblings are more elf and magic focused.)

This might shift if/when freeing Harrow from a bird is a possibility, and that's not to say it couldn't be Ezran just on this basis — but that TDP usually prefers to include things at a lower stakes level or even as a joke, and then ramp it up continually until it reaches a breaking point. We can see this even in 6x01 with a scene of Soren leading a blind folded Opeli for comedic effect, only for blindfolds to clearly be important later on in S6 with Callum and the Celestial elves. Similarly, Callum freeing Rayla both literally and metaphorically was set up consistently and periodically throughout the first 4 seasons, to the degree I could predict some of the specifics in 5x08 even years ahead. Then, the show reaffirms this pattern as well as early on in S5 (5x01 in particular), so when it came to a head in 5x08, it felt natural and earned from a thematic standpoint.

Even if S6 went in hard with the Broyals having a fight in the back half, they would still have to drench Ezran in freedom associations to me to effectively get to where I feel like a CHET: EE would totally work. That's not to say there couldn't be over avenues there I'm not seeing now, or a thread I've missed that's been steadily building all along that S6 then makes evident, but this is largely where I've arrived with everything we currently know.

Conclusion

TLDR; Cube Hostage Exchange: Ezran Edition has merit largely due to the Orphan Queen parallel and Harrow's letter, but does not seem to have enough plot buildup at this time to make me lean in that direction. Instead, I still learn towards if there is going to be this scenario or a variant, it will either be for Rayla ( / her parents adjacently) or not at all.

#tdp broyals #broyals #ezran edition #cube hostage exchange theory #analysis series #s6 speculation #predictions #analysis #in the name of love #tdp #tdp meta #the dragon prince #i also forgot to talk about how harrow's narrative of love applies more to rayllum's bond in s2 #(in vulnerability in forgiveness) than it necessarily does to the broyals so there's that too

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anulithots · 2 months ago

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Am I back?

Nope. Still banned. (At home. Long story. I can access at school for a couple of minutes monday-thursday) This is a loophole, since I think the school forgot tumblr exists.

That being said, hello! Missed you all, and I love everything you all have been sending me.

(@sm-writes-chaos, thank you soooo much for the fanart)

Feel free to keep sending me things! I can see everything that I'm tagged in and asks and comments. (They get sent to my email.)

I may not be able to respond, but I always appreciate it! See me as benevolent internet being. Send me your stories, link click things, anime recs, anything and everything!

Current hyperfixations I'd love to ramble about:

Nightcord at 25 (the mizuki event I sob),

Kasane Teto (still new to vocaloid but she's my favorite),

Link Click (I have yet to rewatch the first season this month),

and silly horror things (I had a quick phase of watching video essays talk to me about horror/phycological exploration things)

and I"m always open to seeing things/talking about things in cellular biology <3

(Not so quick, sorry I ramble) Quick info:

Hello hello, my name's Noor, (they/them, fae/faer, it/its).

I have some semblance of a human-like flesh, but in reality I'm a conglomerate of stories and shadows, which I hoard like a dragon

I'm aspec and genderfluid. Where on the aroace spectrum? Yes. (Basically, I'm a queer platonic sap, hi)

Fandoms: Link Click, Kasane Teto, Nightcord at 25 and Project Sekai, Qualia the purple, Jujutsu Kaisen, Alien stage, the Girl from the Other Side, the Little Prince, Autodale/the dead sound short films.

Song artists: Eve, BaishaJAWS, Waisa Project, Marina and the Diamonds, Mitski, Yaelkore, Kasane teto, Ado, 告五天, Vaundy

I will ship queer platonically, fandoms are missing out on queer platonic ships THEY ARE SO WONDEROUS AKJDFKLSDLKFj

I favor themes and character development and overanalyze everything, to the point where my thoughts contain more of my existence than existence itself.

my responsibility avoidance has caught up to me yet I'm still here

Things I have a strange amount of information on: Biology (particularly apoptosis and caspases), the mycorrhizal system and trees, rhetorical devices and storytelling, marketing, editing, quantum physics, character analysis, random theoretical and phycological musings, spirituality but we don't talk about that, basically nothing practical whatsoever.

Least favorite things: chairs, shoes, grocery stores, the looming doom of being independent, grass lawns, the school system, apathy, being told to 'go to sleep at a reasonable time', executive dysfunction

Fun fact: My life's purpose is to turn the subjects I like (like biology) into stories (an episodic narrative about a caspase trying to find meaning in life before they destroy the cell and end it all).

Writing book recommendations: Story genius and word painting

I also make dolls

In other news, since large Anuli doll has been... ruined. I make a tiny one, I'll upload picutures on youtube at somepoint. NIce to see you all! If you wish to respond, feel free to tag me in a reblog!

@osbob-the-existent @starryeyeddarlings @sleepy-vix @sea-dwelling-wizard

Original is here <-- intro post. It's older.

Thank you to everyone who reads my ramblings and likes my stories, you all mean the world to me and I can't thank you enough. <3

The dearest, most wonderous people, otherwise known as the lotff tag list:

@waitingforthesunrise @sm-writes-chaos @holdmyteaplease @full-on-sam

@osbob-the-existent @awleeofficial

@clearcloudlesssky @gummybugg @sleepy-vix @starryeyeddarlings

@sea-dwelling-wizard @snowpoet123 @ashirisu

lmk if you'd like to be added or removed <3 🌿

Link Click Hyperfixation

Otherwise known as Cheng Xiaoshi, his sister, and his queer platonic bf all get traumatized as they break the space time continuum.

GIF by bishonenlover

What shall I say? The subtle buildup of Cheng Xiaoshi's backstory, the way it gets more and more tragic and nuanced as it parallels with those he possesses? The way he can adapt and strategize for the given situation (despite the fact that everyone sees him as just a silly), how he continues to wait for his parents, how he loves Lu Guang so much he would lose him just to respect his wishes, how his emotional connection with those he possesses overwhelms him and it's. so. tragic.

Lu Guang's adherence to the rules to the point where he's ripping at the seams, how he teases Cheng Xiaoshi even more than Cheng XIaoshi does to him (yes even with his stoic character. He's so silly... also season two), how he has the most queer platonic coded relationship with Cheng Xiaoshi ever?

Qiao Ling and her avoidance of uncomfortable feelings, the way she canonically called Cheng Xiaoshi her brother and is the only one able to connect with Xixi, how she's actually the only levelheaded character here? (Shee'sss sooo prettyyy I lovvee herrr)

Jujutsu Kaisen Hyperfixation

GIF by heycaz

As the name suggests, I am hyperfixated. I have also written essays analyzing these characters. Be very afraid. And/or come suffer with me /pos

Also also, for those who don't want to see any JJK smut, this blog should be safe for you! <3 I ship Satosugu but in a... transcend labels, queer platonic flavor sort of way. And I flipflop on itafushi. Either way they are soul mates and labels are just extra. Found family dynamics and everlasting friendships/comfort people are peak fiction for me.

Anuli's favorite stories

Favorite writeblrs and stories from tumblr

The Land of the Fallen Fairies

A character-centric commentary on the pursuit of happiness, told by tree fairies.

zine

Which one my characters are you? Uquiz (Includes Anuli, Kamari, and two other characters not mentioned.)

This has changed a lot. I'll write something here eventually.

#the land of the fallen fairies #link click #take care of yourself #noorie infodumps. be very afraid

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crescentfool · 1 year ago

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I noticed you're a Ryomina!!! How did you get into it? And do you have any good fanfics/doujinshi you can advice me to read? ANYTHING on Ryomina actually? I'm dying for anything about them!!! Thanks!!

yes!!! it's me!!! i'm ryomina fan (one of many)!!! thank you for visiting my askbox, i'll do my best to answer all of the questions because it always makes me happy to see that ryomina sparks joy for people! :D

...this got really long because i like linking to things, so i'm putting it under a read more (IM VERY NORMAL ABOUT THEM)

how did i get into it? i got into persona 3 around august 2021 through the movies- at the time my only experience with the persona series was with P5R / P5S / P5D. p3 was the one that interested me the most (i thought minato was very pretty + i caught wind that the themes of the game were very resonant with people). i picked the movies over the game because i'm a guy who plays games at a snails pace, haha.

admittedly, i did latch onto ryomina because of the scenes in the third and fourth movie (i have mentioned in the tags of this art i drew how much i felt like i was exploding and blasting off to the moon watching it).

but what really dug me into the ryomina hole (and what has kept me there) was thinking about how much ryoji encapsulates the themes of p3- and how interconnected his fate is with minato. i wrote some musings about their dynamic here, if you're interested!

tl;dr: what if we were both boys and we were mirror images of each other and i inherited your kindness and looks but god doomed our narrative even though we're soulmates

on ryomina fanworks recommendations:

regarding fics: i'm going to assume that you've probably read the fics that have the highest kudo ratings on them, so i won't really be listing those.

a personal favorite fic that i always hold close to my heart is Eurydice's Vow by crescentmoontea, which explores the idea of ryomina in p5r's third semester. this was the first fic i read about ryomina and it made me tear up lots...

i also think a lot about I Alone Await You by Nail_gun, literally scrumptious writing that captures the ryomina dynamic so so well. actually check out Nail_gun's other ryomina fics while you're at it too!

other fun fic i'm fond of: can't get my mind out of those memories (what were they?) by foxmulder_whereartthou. ryoji being homeless lives rent free in my head and it's all because of this fic. there's a bunch of other fun ryominas from the same author too (i still need to read them)

BkZa555 also has some fun AU scenarios if you're into that too, notably with Zagreus (P5-Setting, Ryoji focus) and The Definition of Insanity (TIME LOOP fuckery!), but they're currently ongoing.

these were some ones that came to my mind first- as i have the strongest recollection reading them. admittedly i haven't really been reading fic this year, so i don't have many recommendations from fic that came out this year. but if you're so inclined to let ryomina consume your soul, i definitely recommend giving the newer works in the ryomina tag a look-see and see if it strikes your fancy!

as a side note, i do have a few ryomina fics that i've bookmarked on my ao3 here, though i have to say that i'm not sure how well they hold up in terms of like... what i would seek out of a fic these days. but they made past me happy so i bookmarked them, LOL. it's kind of outdated (my collection of fic recs has my old username *disintegrates*).

regarding doujinshi: i have not read all the ryomina doujinshi available, but as a starting point, please take a look at this list from pandora-scans from livejournal!

notably, this is where you can find the strawberry-chan say good bye doujin- which features a small and cute comic from shuji sogabe (the p3/p4 manga artist), as well as other artists. the existence of this doujinshi is the funniest thing to me because it's like "HEY if you're wondering what the volume 8 cover is really gay it's because sogabe contributed to a ryomina doujin." this fact makes my head spin (positive). it explains a lot about the manga.

regarding persona side material:

i know you didn't ask for these but i thought that i mine as well list these too, since i feel that the side materials have some fun expansions on ryoji and minato's interactions. i haven't... watched/read all of these but, hey, i like to share these things!

for comic anthologies for the persona series (some of which have ryoji!). if you're interested in reading them, here's a scanlation index from maboroshi-no on tumblr. i don't think this is a comprehensive list, but i think it will be a great starting point!

for some translations of the persona 3 drama cds, check out imaginary-numbers on dreamwidth! ryoji and minato interactions can specifically be found in the persona 3 character drama cd vol. 1, and for the audio + english subs, you can watch this video on youtube:

youtube

and ohh the musical. ryoji singing and dancing gives me so much joy. i haven't watched the musical in it's entirety (only fragments), but here are some links that may be of interest to you:

Ao no Kakusei (The Blue Awakening), Sakuya version - playlist for the first p3 musical, translated by Phoenix Maiika.

Ao no Kakusei (The Blue Awakening), Kotone version - playlist for the femc version!! also translated by Phoenix Maiika on YouTube.

Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade (English Subtitles) - playlist by rumio!

P3 Weird Musical DVD & Soundtrack Booklet Scans by rumio_k - twitter thread that links to these funsies, if you don't have twitter, here's the publicly shared drive link.

god. these sure are a lot of links, huh? i hope you enjoy them- pick and choose whatever sounds most appealing! (if this overwhelmed you im sorry GKLHLDH i just like being very comprehensive in my answers about things so i got carried away).

and as a reminder, you (and anyone else reading) are always welcome to browse my tags/archive and reblog things from there anytime! i have... nearly 300 ryomina posts which, while mostly consists of art, has a few fics, meta, hcs, gifs, memes, and whatnot scattered about.

or browse the minato and ryoji tags too! there's.. nearly 1k minato. and 500 ish ryoji. and they're going to keep on growing because i can't stop being obsessed with archiving these things. god help me i am so deep in this hole called ryomina hell and now you're here too. welcome aboard!

there's always going to be a lot of fun ways to enjoy rotating ryomina around in one's brain, i think- they're a pairing with such fun symbolic imagery that is So Deep (to me) but ALSO they're immensely hilarious and weird guys (affectionate). so i love to share these things in hopes that it gives you joy too! they are the most couple ever (to me) (i'm biased)

thank you again for the ask! i hope it can satiate your need for more ryomina, and be a nice aide in exploring the p3 fanspace :)

#ohhh do i even main tag this #fuck it we ball i'll tag it #lizzy askbox #persona 3 #ryomina #ryoji mochizuki #minato arisato #i'm in a bit of a hiatus in terms of like.. looking at new ryomina stuff outside of fan art so i haven't seen Everything #but i would like to get back to it when i can be more cognizant and present to appreciate them #the grind to being a ryomina encyclopedia never stops!#my files and links are all messy i can hardly keep track of all the ryomina things... maybe i just need to make a neocities-#like cat's souyo archive (cat is an inspiration to me)#but FUCK man ryomina is so good. thank you for the follow and sending me this ask #i'm very sorry about the excessive length i can't help myself i'm very dedicated to wanting to know lots of things about them #i had a lot of fun answering this!#times like this make me want to return to like. my fic recommendation collection.. i gotta rehaul that stuff tbh #maybe after i've seen all the ryomina stuff i can make a ryomina iceberg based on what i've seen peple talk about (or not talk about)#it'll be a long while though. i feel like i've hardly scratched the surface even though i wouldn't call myself a casual enjoyer #ANYWAY BYE. no one ever apologize to me about being excessive because I AM very excessive and repetitive. LOL. have a good morning? evening

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