#the snake shed arc

[a-echo-of-gotham]

Waters of Youth: A shimmering sky blue liquid that swirls eternally, sitting in a small circular bottle. The muse becomes a child and loses all memories of adulthood

(do how long you want Mun Kore!!)

Tim gasps awake. His eyes blurry with tears and a ache in his chest.

He was just floating in the Eclipso. He used to be Dead. He isn't supposed to be alive.

Softly he stands up on wobbly legs. It looks like Gotham? But like a playhouse version? Weird.

He peaks under the clothes he is absolutely swimming in and gasps seeing no scales. No diamond?

He tightens the clothes and curls in the cloak as he walks around. His hand tight on his Kunai.

@humanity-forgot-me

[dreampearls]

while i personalyl think her short hair is cuter i do like that they gave her longer hair if only to further cement her theme of rebirth But more importantly. Most importantly. she is transgender

[amuseoffyre]

While poorly, I've been rewatching Deadloch again.

I've watched the show so many times and yet every single time I notice something new. Like the prevalence of snakes and snake imagery all the way through the whole thing from the opening scene. Even the cakes Ray is putting out are snakes.

Especially in Margaret's arc - she's always pointing out other people as the enemy and the threat and using snakes as an implicit threat, when it turns out she - the colonising white lady - is actually one of the dangers.

Something about Margaret - the living incarnation of entitled white colonial power - being bitten by a tiger snake on stolen land that she killed to keep, then dying on the grave of her ancestor who colonised the area, ending her family line just... perfect poetry.

It also delights me that for all that Margaret goes on about snakes as the unseen danger, Tammy wears a hoodie with snakes all over it and Faye redecorates the exterior wall of the community centre with a beautiful mural of a tiger snake.

Also reading about tiger snakes in Tasmanian lore - the snake recognised as a protector of the land & also tied with the flow of rivers. Interesting then that the murderers in the show meet their ends a) on an island denied to its rightful people and b) in a powerfully flowing river.

Bonus aaaaaa about the symbolism of a snake shedding its skin - renewal and rebirth and the way the show ends with a new sense of community for all the people finally able to be and live as themselves in Deadloch. Especially Tammy and Miranda both adorned in ochre, something they've been denied for years because of the Carruthers family.

I love the layers and layers that the writers have built into the storytelling. The more you watch, the more you see in it. A multi-textured tapestry which makes such a fantastic complete image that at first you might overlook the little details all the way through it.

In conclusion I love Deadloch with a fiery passion and can't wait to see what shenanigans they get up to in Darwin in S2

[incorrect-riordanverse]

Riordanverse Characters as quotes by people i know have said

dedicated to @lord-of-pterodactyls, i know you asked for friends in particular but i’m broadening it as even people i consider my nemeses (old ass philosophy teacher) are funny

Percy: i truly feel as if nothing will ever incapsulate my being as truly as the singing monsters water wubbox

Annabeth: *screaming from adjoining room* GET LOST APPLE MUSIC PRIVACY

Piper: *in bikini* i don’t like people with big boobs

Jason: *trying to compliment piper* your hair looks like dementia

Leo: *emerging from the stinky depths of his room after being in there for 16 hours straight and no showers with clothes from 5 days ago, red scabs all over his body and lips so dry it looks like a snake shedding its old skin by how crusty it is* guys on a scale from 1 to 10 how sexy do i look rn?

Hazel: *yeets her foot out and jiggles her toes menacingly at people she dislikes as an intimidation tactic because her toes are particularly hideous*

Frank: *after literally being targeted by a racial ‘joke’* worse than that, you white people eat spam

Grover: *pats air purifier* a good trusted friend

Nico: *drifts into hazel’s room* bro i ain’t even gonna lie, the holidays are better than the black plague *leaves room before she can question him further*

Reyna: *sleeptalking* stallion le meghan

Rachel: *pretending her coloured markers are vapes*

Thalia: *pointing at luke* my bro be the victim and the perpetrator

Tyson: *when talking about doing math* all i have are my fingers and a dream

Clarisse: *sees a sick person in bed* you’re looking pretty vulnerable *proceeds to ransack their room and steal their sheets like some gremlin*

Octavian: i am THE riddler *speaks in riddler voice and puts on devious little expression* what is... a curtain?

Will: *sees a dying person and looks pointedly at nico* and thats because they didnt take their cenovis vitamin c

Luke: i am constantly one snap away from either committing homicide or suicide

Apollo: *feeling face after new skincare routine* gosh my face feels as soft as a silicone tit

Meg: *pointing at apollo after redemption arc* YOU WON’T GO TO HEAVEN BECAUSE YOU ARE A COMMUNIST!

Magnus: *eating falafel* this is an orgasmic experience

Samirah: *substituting random words in english for arabic and not realising no one understands what she’s saying*

Alex: *laughing at the death threats she gets online after posting a meme about BTS in the military*

Blitz: *does something naughty* omg sorry im such a libra（＾ν＾）

Hearth: *walks into room* god is dead.

Carter: *walking into sadie’s room visibly upset with a box of cadbury favourites* here take them. if you don’t im going to eat them all. please, dont make me do this

Sadie: take a shit and be late to school or dont take the shit and be on time hell loop

Zia: my top artist on spotify this year will be xi jinping’s wife

Walt: *simply, appreciatively and completely without context* yeah, buddha is a pretty amazing guy

Anubis: i dislike being emo because i can only go as death note characters for halloween

Bast: *absolutely entranced by watching love island uk and is just repeating everything any person says back in a treacherous essex accent*

Bes: *walking into classroom full of young teens with an oversized ‘free james assange’ shirt* today i am a nice, trendy leftist. tomorrow, who knows?

[lunamond]

Now that episode 18 of Vinland Saga has aired I can finally talk about one of my absolute favorite character arcs in the farmland arc.

That being Ketil. He is introduced as a "fair" and "kind slavemaster". He doesn't mistreats his slaves, even offering the opportunity to gain back their freedom.

And you can see this in the audience reception of this character. Plenty of people seemed to like him and feel bad for him when he is confronted with challenges.

However, over the course of the season as he gets more screentime, it is revealed that :

Despite Ketil himself being fair to his slaves, his own underlings (farmhands and hired guards) actively mistreat and abuse these slaves. Which at worst shows that he doesn't actually cares about his slaves and at best that he is ignorant to the state of his own farm.

Ketil is scared of his own son (Thorgil). This at first glance might seem entirely reasonable and not Ketil's fault. However, considering that Ketil seems to also fail at raising Olmar it paints a pretty bleak picture of him as a father.

He doesn’t seem to subscribe to the violence craving ideology other norse men do, which by itself might be a point in his favor.

However, the storyline with the kids stealing his grain reveals Ketil is utterly incapable of backing up his beliefs, despite as the patriarch of the family and a wealthy landowner being in the unique position where he actually could implement and enforce his convictions.

Instead he watches woefully his social inferiors (Snake and Pater - his employees, Thorgil - his son, and his wife) decide the fate of these children, a decision that rightfully should be his to make. In the end all of his lamenting about the violence expected of norse men is revealed to being mere selfpity over his own disability to fully embody this social ideal.

This is brought home by one of the mist poignant sequences in the first cours of this season:

Ketil a slavemaster crying in the arms of an his own slave, Arnheid, complaining about his own suffering due to unjust expectations

The young boy he has just beaten brutally to uphold his own fragile image

Thorgil and other man indulging in an excess of food and drink (which is quite ironic considering that the boy was beaten for stealing food to survive)

All of this of course columnates in the most recent episode, when Ketil finally sheds the fragile facade of the generous, jovial Master.

The beating of Arnheid is ultimately the moment we see who Ketil has truely been all along. We seen him obsessed with his own prosperity, continuously seeking to expand it (Thorfinn and Einar's task) and jealously guarding it from outsiders via the guests. He continously buckles under social expectations of what a man is supposed to be and only uses his own distaste for violence to selfishly pet his own ego.

However, in the end he like every other norse men will use violence to hord his wealth (beating a child) and prop up his social standing (story about iron fist). Despite his supposed kindness to slaves like Thorfinn and Einar, he ultimately regards them as his own property.

All of these factors lead to him beating Arnheid, who he ultimately only sees as his posession.

[simplegenius042]

Music Monday

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @shallow-gravy @direwombat @derelictheretic @adelaidedrubman @g0dspeeed @nightbloodbix @carlosoliveiraa @corvosattano @cloudofbutterflies92 @chazz-anova @voidika @onehornedbeast @softtidesworld @minilev @titiagls @wrathfulrook @afarcryfrommymain @aceghosts @turbo-virgins @deputyash @purplehairsecretlair @florbelles @inafieldofdaisies @josephseedismyfather @josephslittledeputy @ladyoriza @megraen @skoll-sun-eater @snake-in-the-garden @starsandskies @thewanderer-000 @strafethesesinners @strangefable @la-grosse-patate and @shellibisshe + anyone else who is interested. Here's the taglist for those who wish to be continued to tagged or not.

Songs for Far Cry The Silver Chronicles, Life, Despair & Monsters and A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore. Music below the cut.

Vega, my Fallout 76 OC, is one of the "Residents" of Vault 76. Originally a settlement planner, she is now on a quest of revenge against the other residents of Vault 76 for "wrongfully" leaving her behind in the vault. Truthfully nobody wanted to deal with her bullshit and didn't want to wait on her when they had a job they'd been waiting 25 years to do, so they left her to sleep in (because she had a bit wee too much to drink during the night of Reclamation Day), thinking she'd catch up to them later. Vega did not take it likely. She also has a particularly concerning obsession with Vault 76's Overseer, viewing the older woman as her rival (even if the Overseer views Vega as merely a minor annoyance at best and always poking holes in Vega's delusions). This song pretty much sums up Vega's POV regarding the Overseer (and her fellow Vault 76's Residents).

"Oh, wherever you go You know I will follow you You know I will run to you Oh, the sun and the moon It don't matter what you do You know I will run to you

Can't believe in all this time I'm hurting for you But you feel like hold down The love you give it lift's so high I'm dying for it I'm dying for it And I can't let you go

Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Or you'll lose, or you'll lose Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Or you'll lose, or you'll lose

If you hide away I'll hunt you down And follow you to the end of the Earth My heart beats with yours My lungs breathe with yours You're a piece of me I can't hide away

Oh, I'm under your spell I'm making and I'm fading And nobody can see I'm your heartbeat You're part of me

Can't believe in all this time I'm hurting for you But you feel like hold down The love you give it lift's so high I'm dying for it I'm dying for it And I can't let you go

Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Or you'll lose, or you'll lose Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Hide away, hide away from me Or you'll lose, or you'll lose."

Have a lovely ship song between Mercy Omar-Seed and Carmina Rye (the former is the daughter of Silva Omar and Faith Seed, the latter the daughter of Nick and Kim Rye). While Old Dusk (the WIP of the New Dawn arc) can be quite bleak (not as bleak as Silva's Hope though) due to the circumstances, this relationship is one of the most heartwarming highlights that I've been developing.

"Let's go below zero and hide from the sun I'll love you forever where we'll have some fun Yes, let's hit the North Pole and live happily Please don't cry no tears now, it's Christmas, baby

My snowman and me, hey My snowman and me Baby

Don't cry snowman, don't you fear the sun Who'll carry me without legs to run, honey? Without legs to run, honey? Don't cry snowman, don't you shed a tear Who'll hear my secrets if you don't have ears, baby? If you don't have ears, baby?

I want you to know that I'm never leaving Because I'm Mrs. Snow, 'til death we'll be freezing Yeah, you are my home, my home for all seasons So come on let's go."

Imagine being amongst a group of individuals who have been brutally mutilated, experimented on or in general fucked over by the same short dude who's not only from another dimension and can travel through it to other worlds, but also runs a cult-like science organization dead-set on ruining humanity's life to help them "evolve" and laugh at their despair... well, that's the crux of Life, Despair & Monsters, a group of individuals, some of whom sure weren't the greatest (but still didn't deserve what happened to them), whose lives were negatively and irreversibly impacted by that of one Sir Enigma Malvolio and his Ruins of the Midnight Rise. All because he wanted to see how humans could cope with erratically spontaneous and disastrous change to their livelihoods.

"You say I'm craving hope in this darkness You say I'm just a joke, just a joke

Shivers my spine so much Swimming in the river styx too much They try to let go of us But the truth is... Once you're in then You're one of us

Truth is... Once you're in then You're one of us One of us Truth is once you're in then You're one of us

My darling in fire My darling rolls in fire You liar You say my darling rolls in fire, in fire You say my darling burns in fire You're a liar."

[pics-pizza-peace]

My Saw MLP AU Ship Headcanons

This post includes chainshipping, xrayshipping, and rustynailshipping headcanons/drabbles from my MLP AU(so far). I will be posting about the orhers soon as well.

@j1gsawz

Lawrence Gordon & Adam Stanheight(chainshipping):

Neither of them prefer to call each other by their first/full names after the bathroom trap(go figure), so they call each other by Stan(or Stanley) & Law.

Law idly wondering what Stan's wings smell like, before quickly shaking his head and thinking "who said that?? wtf--" while he's trying to focus on something else.

Stan thinking about the rumor he had heard when he was younger; that unicorn's horns are extra sensitive. He wouldn't know for sure, never having any real friends who happened to be unicorns.

Law recognizing & eventually accepting that he really does like Stan in a lot of ways, but also that the other might not necessarily like him Back in the same ways. They end up mostly just good friends/coworkers as Jigsaw Protégés.

Law can tell(one of his special/magic-sourced talents) when somepony else's feelings are true/false, but he would never use said 'trick' on his loved ones(Only occasionally w/patients, & only if it's a supply/demand/emergency situation. For personal reasons he doesn't feel it's right to use such a power on his family/friends, believes it's inherently selfish/wrong). He also has trouble finding out(and expressing) what his own true feelings often are, which makes this talent ironic for him in this AU.

Logan Nelson & Zep Hindle(xrayshipping):

Logan likes to study unconventional pets(not exotic, just strange choices), especially arachnids. He doesn't have the time to actually work with said animals(already has a time-consuming job), instead treats the study like a hobby/special interest. He doesn't like when other ponies freak out over a spider/snake/bug, and he's almost always the one to offer to take it outside.

Zep wants to do better(this shows in how far he's come from his personal experiences anyway, but for arc reasons he's still working through some other stuff), and be better to others. Especially fillies & foals! He never had a problem(or ultimately harmful intentions) w/young'ns, just an unhealthy infatuation w/fear which he experimented with in the past(never make it personal((unless necessary or untraceable)), one of John's basic rules when working w/him, as Logan already knows). This is apparent when they've both grown close enough for Logan to suggest Zep join him & his daughter for a tea party(or something similar) sometime. Needless to say he's overjoyed at the idea of proving(to himself, mostly) that he's changed for the better. The playdate goes swimmingly, and later they wonder what they were so worried about.

Logan enjoys meditating(or napping, especially near water) when he has the time to unwind. Zep doesn't get it at first, but it grows on him.

Zep at some point wonders aloud if the other might need his help w/anything trap-related, and Logan immediately assures him that he'd never let him get mixed up in such a job again. Even if Zep happened to feel up to the task, or really didn't mind. Logan knows that he'd help if push came to shove & there really were no other options, but he doesn't feel right putting his new friend in any potential danger.

Logan notices that Zep's wings are almost always unkempt/shedding frequently. The other eventually explains that he spends so much time locking his house up at night, that he's too tired to preen them before going to sleep. This routine doesn't help much with his sleep anyway, as he has frequent nightmares. When they've grown closer both problems are fixed rather quickly, needless to say. (Logan's not a pegasus but he knows the basics on their hygiene/care, being in the medical field and all. Zep hasn't had any pegasus friends in years. That mixed with his trauma had caused him to ignore his wings, and largely not use them at all over time)

Zep is fine with being closer friends w/Logan, until he realizes just how much he enjoys hearing his voice. He figures it's just a 'Him' thing, so he doesn't address it for a while. Logan finally notices how flustered he gets after a lengthy talk with him at some point. Zep tries to distract himself with work/study while he speaks sometimes, but eventually Logan insists on addressing it.

Scott Tibbs & Adam Stanheight(rustynailshipping):

Adam(while recovering & training under John & Amanda) hears about Scott's documentary from others, and it takes him a while to find a watchable copy. When he finally views the film, he's not too upset by it. He wonders how Scott's doing, that is, if he survived his little display of course.

Scott's still alive, he just has a big scar/dip on his right shoulder & isn't as strong a flyer aymore. He's also not as cocky/loud-mouthed as he was before the incident. Doesn't mind not being in a band anymore, and still enjoys music enough to consider trying something in a different direction. He knows that he messed up, and eventually wants to do better, he's just not so sure where to start with making real friends yet.

Adam soon decides(when he has time between errands/training) that he should pay Scott a little visit. He runs the idea by Amanda first, of course. The Protégés do value their privacy, after all...

It's autumn(first week of October) when Adam finds Scott working at a Halloween store, which makes for a great excuse to spook him a little at first.

He stays in the entrance near the counter, pretending to check the prices of silly-string & bags of synthetic webbing for a beat or two before raising his voice slightly. "Who's the 'Wuss-Puss' Now, buddy?" He laughs in his direction, checking to see if he had heard him, and notices the look on Scott's face. Like he'd seen a ghost. "Hey, uh sorry-- I'm just kidding, man... You okay?" The question makes his stomach turn. He tries a half-smile, but he already looks like he's gonna puke or scream. He's not entirely sure he should be glad to see Adam.

"I'm on break soon, we can talk then if you want... Anyway you need something?" He gestures to the masks & prop weapons on the wall behind him as he hands somepony else their change & thanks them. "Not really..." Adam mumbles before deciding to check out the costume makeup section of the store to kill some time.

A foal had just come in w/his mother, stumped on exactly which outfit he wanted this year. He hadn't thrown a fit, and he was very focused on choosing correctly for a good while. Finally the small colt had decided on a well-made dragon costume, but didn't know exactly which props would go best with the outfit.

Scott had made sure to dig around in the back for some yellow & orange streamers(for fire-breathing), and a princess pony doll(damsel in distress). His mother was very grateful, "Now you'll be ready if a Brave Knight shows up to the costume party!" she added cheerfully on their way out.

Adam watched carefully while Scott locked the register & counter, pocketing his keys and cigs. He brushed past the other dismissively. "Wanna smoke? I got a minute..." He pauses at the door for his old friend before stepping outside himself.

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

The Serpent, part 2

Prequel, part 1

It is two weeks before I come across the first of the enemy. The land has slowly died around me, the trees shedding their green, the air growing stale, the ground itself turned black with necrosis. My horse I abandoned long ago, in favour of riding the serpent coiled around my bones. It carries me with implacable evil, the roiling snake marching against the rotting slaughter.

I smile at Death when I see it on the horizon, the ink of my serpent spreading across my skin like pre-blood, swinging my blade like a child's toy. The revenants do not pause their ravaging, gulping down still-living flesh like I am not there. The serpent wishes to join them, to sample the vile death of the undead. 

With frenzied delight, I cleave through their bodies. My scythe slices them open like a butcher gutting fish. The blood splatters in a rainbow arc behind my blade. Three hundred years of memory soaks into my skin with the blood, and I smile. It is not a smile I have worn often. It is the smile of the broken, of the cursed. It is the smile of the Shatterer of Worlds. 

By the gods, I had missed it.

There is still a living child amongst the ruins of the fallen village. She stares at me with frightened eyes. For a moment I yearn to have her blood mingle with the undeads', but it passes. Tenderly, I coax her towards me, hoping to bring her to safety.

I suppose children have an innate instinct to shy from cursed things, for she flees deeper into the village. The serpent in me cares not for her, having caught scent of murder ahead. I let it pull me through the night, relentlessly moving towards the Lich-Queen's castle.

How do I know where it is? I cannot say. I suppose it is the serpent's doing. 

Nonetheless, I find myself at the Lich-Queen's gates in double-quick time. Darkness hangs about it like a mantle. Even I, with all the bloodshed I have seen, am shocked. Skulls hang on its walls like the flies that buzz in the air. 

In my heyday, I had killed thousands, shredded entire villages with my blades. But this woman, this Lich-Queen, has made me look like a child beside the weight of her death. 

The serpent has found its match.

Taglist:

@coffeeangelinabox, @dorky-pals, @calliecwrites, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @shukei-jiwa

@thewingedbaron, @pluppsauthor, @cowboybrunch, @wylloblr, @possiblyeldritch @ramwritblr, @urnumber1star, @fortunatetragedy, @bigwipscholar, @ratedn

@vampirelover890, @possiblylisle, @illarian-rambling, @the-ellia-west

@finicky-felix, @evilgabe29, @glitched-dawn, @rivenantiqnerd, @dragonhoardesfandoms

@drchenquill, @everythingismadeofchaos, @owldwagitoutofyou, @dimitrakies, @beloveddawn-blog

@riveriafalll, @the-golden-comet, @rascaroni, @trippingpossum (Anyone else who wants to get added can tell me in the comments, pm me, or send me an ask about it!)

[sepublic]

            Actually, there’s kind of a theme of Death in Thanks to Them, as I look at it?

         The narrative is haunted by the dead; The impact of Manny’s death and how Luz and Camila cope with it. Caleb and Evelyn, whose actions shadow the narrative. The climax in the graveyard. Luz and Hunter’s suicide-themed arcs; Luz undergoing a living death of sorts because of depression, the passion in her snuffed out. The magic as well, too! Hunter almost dying in his battle with Belos. Flapjack actually, legitimately dying, to bring him back and finding a new life within Hunter, even as Luz’s spirit is brought back by the love of her family. Belos himself, thought dead, reveals his survival and ‘comes back to life’ in the same graveyard.

         There’s just… so much it has to do with grief, and with the morbid tones of a Halloween-themed special. And the hopeful drive to keep going, to keep living, and the dark parallel this has in Belos, who refuses to die, is well past his lifespan, and stubbornly insists on his plans when everything has seemingly failed. Luz’s last video message bearing disturbing similarities to a suicide note.

          The atmosphere of the witch hunters and their many dead victims, paid tribute as some form of justice in the historical reenactment. There’s an OLD Gravesfield, and the only part of it we see is a graveyard; It’s dead too, even the setting has experienced death and rebirth. The corpses of animals, Belos lives on through the dead, and eventually the living. You could even argue that Masha lost their friendship with ‘Luz’, only for it to be ‘reborn’ with Vee!

         And then there’s the snake imagery. The ‘dead’ skin that Luz finds, is actually shed aside for the spiritual rebirth of a new, larger snake. Her returned association to snakes, the show reminding you of them, even as we discuss the palisman… The power of the dead skin as a memory, just as Manny’s memory is powerful. Snakes and Ouroborous, as a symbol of reincarnation, transformation, life and death?

         Camila also had her passion killed like her daughter, and it was brought back in the climax, wasn’t it? Drowning in her dream, Hunter drowning literally. Drowning was historically used by puritans to kill witches, so who knows how many bodies were once at the bottom of that lake, long-ago decomposed to nothing? Even Belos drowned, as a witch hunter himself, how karmic! But he also drowned Hunter, who had just embraced being a witch as his future.

        It’s just. Man. There’s this recurring theme of the dead, still having a life of their own to influence the world. And the living being ‘dead’ inside. And the dead coming back to life. Death being the start of a new life. Continuing to live, against all odds, coming back from death.

[a-echo-of-gotham]

C'mon kid. Try to connect to Hal... use eachother as something to lean on and keep sane. -🪭

Mmmm.

Mk.

Uh. U̵̧̧͈̳̖̪̭͈̜̰̜͛̔̈̉̏̈́̌͝n̷̨͎̺̮̘̺͚͓͚̔́̅͒̿͂̋̓̉̐͜c̶͗̑̃͊̃̚͘ͅļ̷̧̨̹̘͖̻̝͔̐͌͐͆̄̀͑̎̈́̆̂̓͑e̴̖̣͇̲͗̾͌̀̀̈͗͒̎̏̊̚̚͠ ̵̖͈̖̭͉̫̗̭̥͒̆H̷̢̼̲̹͖̖̙̥̥̗̬̱͈̋̈̀̇̅͗͜a̸̡̯̜̲͔͓͐̿́͊́̑͛̈̄͛̓̊́͘͝l̶̟̑̆͒̍͝͝?̴̘̙̃̒̍̎

(Uncle Hal?)

Ẅ̶̨̛̦̟̙̤̺̙͔͙͈̻̥́̉͊̅̉͒̒͆̓̔͗̕̕h̵̫͑̈́͌̒̑̾̅̂̂̒͝à̵̛̛̱̻͖̯̹̈͋̽͐̊̒̕͠͝ͅͅt̵̡̘̰̝͖̤͎̙̗̥̗̏͑̑̈̈̚ ̴̢͎͕̲͓͎̲͓̬̙͎̐͠i̵̧̧̭̮̱̼̜̍͌͜s̵̡̡̛̙͖̱͕̝̬͇̳͔͍͐̋̾̈̌̍̐̿̓̈́͘̚͜͜͜͝͠ ̶̠͕̜͓̮͈͍̝̯̥̻̬̮̼̞̂̂͂̏̌́̇̈̆̂̌͝g̶̜̿̏̆̂͐o̵̢̡͔̤̖͝į̵̧̳͇̣̫̥͇̮̭̝̘͍̞̄̈́̒̓̈́ņ̷̨͈̲̂͗̓̌̂̈͋g̸̜̲̬͉̅ ̷̯̥̦̳͖̰̳͖̻̼̩̎̾̎̿̐̑̃̇̃̿͊͜ȍ̷̧͇̳͙͙̗̗͖͕̜̣͔̔̏̏͐̎́̀͒̚͜͠ͅn̶̛̺̄͌̓͛̔̈́̓̓͘͝͠?̷̧̛͔̫̜̻̣̼̘͗̆͊͐̀̐̄̅͆̔̀̒͝ ̵̧̟̫͔̭̰̺̘̩̝͉͇̮̠̬͂̈́̑̈̊̀̈́͒͌̏͘̚T̷͍̓̔̾͗͑͝ḩ̶̨̞͖̣̭̻͚̟͓͔̺͇̯̾̉̏̾͆̀̒͋̈́̈́̇̃͘͘ͅè̶̼̺͝͝ͅ ̷̢̦͊͆̎͑̒͒̂̎̄ͅÄ̸̜̈́͛̑́̋̽̈͊̿͝ņ̴̢̨̖͊̂͒́̑̕o̴͇̜͇̫̙̖̱̫͈̺͇̹͋̈́́́͗͆̂̒͗̀͝n̵̨̖͓̹̞̖̙̘͉̎̄͆͑̓̿̈́̐͆̔̈͝s̵̢̪͚̟͕̪̻͗͒̐͂ ̶̤͇̊̓̄̀̈́͐͌â̷̯̹̪͚͖͍̜͒̅͂̆͋͂̌́͛͐̎r̸̠̰̙̂̽̈́́̓̀̐͛̍͐̈́͂̚͝e̷̻̠̫̯͚̘̠̮̗̱̩̿̈́̂̍͜͝ ̶͈̯͚͛͛̈̑̈́͋̏̃̄̐͘̚̚̚͘s̵̙͎͎̞͈̩͂ç̸̢̬͎̣͒̀̽̎͂̌̎͝a̸̘̪̰̻̪̩̟̅̂̄̊͋̇͜ŗ̸̭̲̗͓̖͓̰͖̮̅̃i̴̢̧̛͙͕͇̙͓̲͓͒̑̀̑̕̚͜ͅͅn̶͖̣̦̒̔̚g̴̢̛̺̟̤̖̠̮̦̖̤̙̜͎͇̜̎̉͑̍̀͒̀̾͂̄̊̄̊̕ ̵͈͑͗̂̈͐̌̏m̵͙̖̆͂̂͆͂͌̿͑̉̌̚͝ë̴̤́̈̿̂̄̇̌͌́̕̚̕̚ ̸̝̲̘͇̘͚̥͎͚͚̺̮̎̌̚͠ͅ

(What is going on? The Anons are scaring me)

My head hurtssss

( @oceanicflyboy)

[plague-of-insomnia]

Thoughts on Ciel’s Brand

I’m not the only one to delve into this topic ofc. There’s a pretty detailed older post about it you can read here.

But since I recently rewatched the canon anime, I started thinking about this again.

As has already been pointed out before, the symbol closely resembles the Caduceus and the Rod of Aesculapius, one of which has two snakes and the other, one. Both have been associated with medicine and healing. There’s also a tenuous connection to devil worship (particularly Baphomet) and ofc the biblical temptation of Adam and Eve.

A staff with snakes associated with a god is said to go back all the way to the Mesopotamian times, and the god Ningishzida, who was associated with snakes and spent at least part of his time in the land of the dead.

[Pictured below, the symbols associated with Ningishzida, two twin, winged beasts on each side of a helix of two snakes entwined together.]

He was often depicted with snakes on his shoulders. Remind you of anyone?

[pictured below, an image of Ningishzida on the left, with two snakes, one perched on each shoulder, and Snake from the circus arc on the right, with snakes wrapped around his body and one each perched on his shoulder in a similar way.]

The brand design very closely resembles this God’s double helix of snakes and ofc the Caduceus, minus the wings, with two mirrored snakes entwined around a staff.

[From Left to Right: Symbols of Ningishzida, Ciel’s brand, and The (Demonic) Caduceus]:

Now even before the Aurora Society, it had already been theorized the cult might have a connection to medicine, or the medical field, and hence the design choice, but now that seems even more ominous.

But why snakes? It seems like an odd thing to associate with healing. It’s possible that the symbolism was due to

… the shedding of the skin that indicated longevity and immortality. The snake's ability to change from a lethargic stage to one of rapid activity symbolized the power to convalesce from an illness.

…Or even rise from the dead?

It gets more interesting when we look at the potential connection to Baphomet, and the famous image by Éliphas Levi, whose art was pictured in the manga.

[Below, a crop from the manga of the famous art work of a goat headed being, a pentacle on his forehead and in his lap, the dual snake helix; no wings.]

Lévi's intention was to symbolize his concept of balance, with Baphomet representing the goal of perfect social order

Maybe this is a stretch, but it reminded me a bit of the Aurora society’s little speech that Stoker gives on the Campania, and their goal of “mankind’s perfect salvation through medicine”:

[a crop from the manga with Stoker talking about all the elements of perfect health]

Additionally, Levi also talked about his image of Baphomet thusly (emphasis mine):

the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it

Reminds us again of Undertaker and the Aurora Society, and how humans are composed of a soul and a body (with a cinematic record), and the chant of the Phoenix Society: “the perfect flame that burns within us…cannot be extinguished.”

[A crop from the manga with the visual explanation of the difference between death and life, with the ending of the cinematic record and removal of the soul.]

But things get even more intriguing when we add in something I discovered while doing research for this post. The caduceus in Greek/Roman mythology (emphasis mine):

…would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life.

That sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it??

But let’s take it a step further. We know that Undertaker is no stranger to human experimentation in his quest to disrupt death. I’ve theorized that it’s possible that Snake may have been a human experiment, much as Finny was. Both of them recognize the building the FOL Orphanage is housed in.

While it does seem to resemble the Phantomhive manor, what if the reason it feels so familiar to them is because they were both part of experiments and at one time or another lived or spent time in a building perhaps also built by Underaker (and/or his underlings)?

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Snake is a “snake boy” who communicates almost exclusively through his reptilian companions.

Could Undertaker be much more involved in the cult and (Our) Ciel’s life than we’ve been led to believe?

But there’s one more potential connection I’d like to discuss: duality. Both the brand on Ciel’s back and Sirius have two parts, and it’s possible the twins being a pair could be connected.

For one, the dual snakes on the brand. One of the myths about the Caduceus is that the snakes were fighting to the death and they were saved—by being separated by the staff—associating it with peace and unity. Another, that a man underwent a transformation and only several years later was he able to return to his true self. Could that be significant when we think of the twins?

We don’t know what Undertaker’s plans are just yet, or what he is doing with the children at the orphanage. Or if he’s trying to create some kind of synthetic soul. But Real Ciel is killed, Our Ciel assumes his identity and transforms, and then Real Ciel appears years later to restore what is “his.” And that’s potentially just the start of where that symbolism could overlap with the twins and Undertaker.

But who was branded? Maybe it’s not something unique to the twins (and therefore that duality isn’t as significant)? We don’t know if any other children were branded, but both twins were. This is established in ch 135:

[Crop from the manga of the twins talking about the brands and if they hurt, with an image of the healing brand on OC’s back.]

If Undertaker is somehow involved, could the brand be related to his ultimate plans for them?

It’s eerie when one looks at the potential etymology for the name Sirius: the Egyptian god Osiris—who was the god of the dead and resurrection.

And then, to circle back to Snake and his possible connection to all of this: the snake on the staff of Asclepius, sister symbol to the dual-snake Cadeceus:

The snake mentioned in the symbol is an Aesculapian snake which belongs to the family Colubridae. Its zoological name Elaphe longissima. Smooth, glossy, and slender, the snake has a uniformly brown back with a streak of darker color behind the eyes. The snake's belly is yellowish or whitish and has ridged scales that catch easily on rough surfaces (like that of a pole or staff).

And who has a snake that fits this description? Snake. In fact, one of the snakes he brought to the FOL Orphanage could be an Aesculapian. With how carefully Yana tends to set things up, this could be important.

[A crop from the manga on the left of Doll holding a snake with distinctive eye markings. On the right, a real photo of an Aesculpian snake with similar markings.]

While we still can’t say for certain the meaning of the brand or if Undertaker and the Aurora Society have any connection to the cult, or if Snake has any connection to either, it’s clear there’s a lot of potential overlapping symbolism. And Yana isn’t a lazy writer. I doubt she randomly picked the brand design, or the name Sirius, or that Snake talks to snakes and not, say, mice or birds.

I am very, very interested to see what else we may learn as Finny and Snake’s subarc unfolds. It’s very possible Snake is more important to the story than we previously imagined.

[ x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x ]

Special thanks to @apocalypticromantic666 for beta reading this and helping with the snake identification.

[grayrro]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie made a lot of minor changes that imo, cumulatively, changed how some of the themes hit

I think one of the most jarring was the Capitol students, and how, placed side by side, the film portrayed Coriolanus as sympathetic, and even decent. That he is somehow “smarter”, takes action compared to a lot of the Capitol students, and even somehow shows more empathy. And he definitely isn’t in the book

First, Arachne’s death. This one is maybe a little more forgiving since Snow’s duplicitous nature is hard to translate on-screen, but still minor changes made some striking differences in characterization. When Arachne is killed in the film, Snow jumps into action, being the first to go to Arachne’s aid, and tries to keep her alive. Whereas in the book, he pretty much shakes in his boots before Lucy Gray shocks him into action, and even then, he’s nearly more concerned with his reputation on camera than Brandy’s nor Arachne’s death.

And then, Clemensia. The academic-focused Asian. In the film, she’s depicted as too greedy for success, butting her way into Coriolanus’ assignment when he gets Dr. Gaul’s attention. When she tries to take the credit for Coriolanus’ work, she “rightfully” gets what she deserves when she’s bit for lying

In the book, she’s more forgivable. She’s distraught over Arachne’s death and doesn’t think that Dr. Gaul would still be expecting the assignment, which both her and Snow were voted into, instead of her volunteering for it. She lies so that it doesn’t look like she’s “feeble”, and doesn’t even hog the credit. Still, for this lie, she gets six mutated and highly poisonous snake bites (and not just the one like in the film lol). In the book, you see her left isolated in her suffering and her body gaining snake mutations from the side effects, even with the quickly administered antidote. It’s such a disproportionate punishment for a pretty harmless action, and shows Dr. Gaul’s unjustifiable ruthlessness

Lastly—and they did her a downright disservice—is Lysistrata. In the film, she’s practically an afterthought. When Jessup’s revealed to have contracted rabies, it is Coriolanus who has to force her to action. He pleads for her to send water to scare him off and that he’s “practically dead”, and precious moments are lost to Lysistrata’s indecision as Jessup chases Lucy Gray, shouting, accusing, “what have you done to me!”

In the book, while she has relatively minor role, it’s still a significant one, especially when you foil her with other students like Arachne, Sejanus, and Coriolanus himself. She’s intelligent, and compassionate. While she’s not as vocal as Sejanus from the start, she voices her opinion against war during discussions, and openly shows her gratitude after Jessup saves her life. She quickly realizes that water is needed to scare Jessup (who in the book seems more dazed, zigzagging into Lucy Gray’s direction, but nonetheless dangerous) and sends so unprompted. She‘s more or less composed, but sheds a tear over his death, and is one of the very first to acknowledge the tributes as human beings.

When you add up all of these differences together, I wouldn’t say Coriolanus’ arc in the film falls in parallel to the books. In the film, Snow is kind of a “good egg” (especially compared to his Capitol-born classmates, who’re either power-hungry, oblivious, or meek to a fault)

In the book, he was never such an outlier. He was never more empathetic than his Capitol-born classmates. But he hung on to the worst parts of himself (the hunger for power, the ruthlessness), and that’s what made him devolve to the President Snow we know in THG

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Turn of the Tide

Am I sorry? No, No I am not. 

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing

Apollyon was silent.

The architect was silent.

The entire world around them was silent, despite the chaos. The black hole churned behind Kazna, backlighting her warped form with an outline of glittering orange rim light. Streaks of bright gold arced across the sky in bursts and chaotic eruptions as the architect did his best to hold back the tide of nothingness that was Apollyon.

A golden phoenix cut across the sky like a comet and burst into sparks as one of Apollyon's tentacles snuffed it, only to appear as its namesake a moment later, in a burst of golden light that seared Apollyon’s tendril. 

���There is still time,” Lanus said, taking a step forward towards his once battle partner. As he stepped, a pool of golden light spread from his feet dancing around his body like the hem of a cloak, “Please, Kazna, come back to us…. We can end this here and now, we can take it all back.” 

It was a lie, but it was a beautiful one at that.

In truth the things she had done could never be atoned for, all the lives she had ruined, all the people she would have condemned never to exist. The architect had never established a permanent hell, but for Kazna… he might have made an exception. But still, the lie was convincing: convincing because Lanus hoped it to be true, wanted to believe it just as much as he wanted her to believe it.

His attempt to convince her had not worked during their meeting on the derelict, but perhaps it could work now when they were only minutes away from annihilation. Off in the darkness, the golden phoenix was snuffed, but this time…. It was snuffed permanently, leaving behind nothing but an impression of light in the darkness.

The tide was turning.

Apollyon was stronger than the architect and despite his valiant efforts, the architect was losing.

On their other side, a pack of glowing golden wolves vanished in a single swipe of Apollyon's tendril, and they did not reappear. One by one, the sky around them grew darker.

Around her, Apollyon’s borrowed tendrils sheathed, and Kazna sneered, “You fight a lost battle Lanus. Kneel, and your death will be swift, your pain will be gone, and the fight will be over. I promise you a swift end.”

Lanus straightened, the fingers of his upper right hand tightening slowly around the shaft of his spear. For a moment he stood as a glowing golden beacon against the darkness, a bastion of the architect’s light even as the architect himself was beaten back.

Before them, a Jeffery snake burst into sparks, the light streaming back toward a central point. Black tendrils persued. More glowing creatures burst into clouds of light, spinning backward and merging together in an immense vortex of light and color that rapidly resolved itself into a shape.

The architect’s last shape.

It was telling that the last shape the architect chose in his final moments was…. human.

He towered at an incredible, and impossible size thousands of AUs across, and thousands more tall, growing in size to match the power of the black hole before them. The light he shed was immense, impossible to look past without high-yield light filters. Past the incredible and terrible light that he shed, the architect’s body morphed and undulated, never keeping the same shape, his face and the proportions of his body always changing, never settling on a specific human form.

The architect shook himself, like a prize fighter who had just taken a nasty hit to the face, and then he lunged forward, grabbing Apollyon's tendrils in grasping handfuls before ripping them open and burning them to ash.

Kazna laughed, “See your god now, fighting for his life. Apollyon is the future, set aside your fear and BOW!”

Silence pervaded the ring despite the carnage.

Lights flashed, in shades of orange and gold around them.

Their shadows cut across the metal in bright contrast, shifting and churning as the architect moved. Their armor was thrown into sharp contrast with the brightness of the light, all five of them standing in a loose row against Kazna. Light danced and sparked off their bodies, torn, and ragged.

Kazna’s blood glowed like a beacon against the metal.

Slowly, Sunny stepped forward, the riges of her char-blackened armor burning in sharp contrast.

She held out her hand.

Adam did not need to read her thoughts to to know what she wanted. Reaching down, he withdrew the backup spear from his armor. The first weapon Sunny had ever made him, and deposited it in her palm. Armor stil lit by golden light, Sunny flicked her wrist, allowing the collapsable weapon to errupt outward and snap into place, the head of the leaf blade glittering with a sinister sheen.

She stared across the open space at her mother.

“No!”

The word broke the stillness like a damn.

Without agreement or forethought, the five of them charged forward in unison all thoughts of fairness forgotten, discarded at the door to armageddon. 

And then their little bubble was filled with noise.

Sunny let out a war cry that reverberated off the metal and shook the very bolts that held the station together, her anger so great as to propel her across the catwalk and be the first to strike at the woman who had made her life a living hell for nearly three decades.

Sunny thrust forward, but the tendrils that surrounded Kazna spirited her back, swiping at Sunny from two directions. Sunny ducked right under one swing and came up to sever the other tendril. Adam cut around to the side, severing a secondary blow coming in from her right.

Lanus maneuvered himself to the rear, while Ramirez cut to the other side and emptied his remaining ammunition into the mass of tendrils. When that didn’t work, he dropped the weapon to the deck and pulled out the energy weapon, which he cycled with such rapidity, it was practically a continual beam of light.

Lanus stabbed down at Kazna aiming for the junction between her neck and shoulder.

He was battered away by a tendril.

Adam thrust his arm forward and summoned his shield, severing several tendrils in the process, and then drew his sidearm and fired the remainder of his ammunition directly into Kazna’s chest.

Behind them, the architect flickered.

And kazna laughed.

The light behind them noticeably dimmed, and Kazna….. Grew noticeably stronger.

Bullets rattled to the ground as her body pushed them out, none the worse for ware.

She batted Sunny to the side, throwing her across the deck and into Ramirez, knocking them both over.

Adam ducked a swarm of tendrils, and dove to the side, rolling across the deck to swipe at her legs as he had once done so many years ago. His blade severed through the tendons on her ankle, but almost immediately, they regenerated  almost as fast as the cut had been made, and then she kicked him, hard.

Were it not for the railing surrounding the circular catwalk, Adam would have been sent careening back into the black hole, but even so, he hit hard, twisting the metal with a screech of protest as his body slammed into the metal bars leaving them warped beyond repair.

Lanus was the last one standing, but even his skills were to match, his offence had turned into desperate defence as all her attention turned to him.

He cut in great arcs, severing tendrils left and right, but it was no use backing his way toward the railing. 

It was clear, she intended to throw him over the side, to destroy him permanently.

She had him backed against the railing, tendrils straining to wrap themselves around his body to gain more leverage.

He sliced one in half, but another grabbed him by the arm, while yet another wrapped itself around his leg.

Lanus slipped.

Kazna lifted him upward over the rail.

Sunny screamed in rage.

And then.

A body appeared from nowhere, leaping from the blackness to land on Kazna’s shoulders, latching itself onto her back and wrapping its arms around her neck. Kazna jerked violently to the side dropping Lanus, who spun and managed to grab the rail before pitching over the edge.

She spun like a bull at a rodeo clawing at the silhouette that had attached itself like a barnacle to her back.

Adam pulled himself to his feet staggering to the side.

Kazna spun past, and in that brief flash, Adam recognized her attacker.

Krill 

WIth no combat training, and no weapon krill had jumped in to save Lanus.

Adam took a step forward to help, having maintained a hold on his spear, but what happened next was too fast for him to comprehend. Kazna reached up with a tendril, grabbed Krill by the back of the armor, and slung him to the ground, breaking his grip.

He hit the deck hard, hard enough to dent the metal, then she drew back her arm.

“KRILL, NO!”

The shout tore his throat raw.

He dove forward, but he was too late, as the blades of Kazna’s trident erupted from the pass of tendrils and pierced through Krill’s chest.

“NOOOOOOOO!”

Adam slammed into Kazna from the side, knocking her over, but his momentum was too much, and her grip was too strong. The trident was torn from the krill’s body with a geyser of red.

Somewhere someone was screaming.

And it was only after a long moment did he realize… it was him.

Adam pulled back his spear and rammed it, once, twice, three times into kazna.

Sunny appeared on his other side, her spear moving in tandem with his.

Kazna screamed.

Somewhere, an energy weapon burst repeatedly to life with glowing golden light.

The architect flickered again.

Kazna’s screams turned to laughter, and then Adam was hauled bodily from his feet. He screamed as her tendrils buried themselves into the cracks in his armor, ripping them apart like an eggshell, and exposing him to the stale air of the bubble. Chunks of his armor were pitched to the ground.

Fealty screamed

And then one tendril struck, grabbing him by the back of the neck, piercing through his skin, beneath the SE exoskeleton, and hooking around the other side. 

He squirmed.

And then.

She pulled 

Adam screamed.

Screamed and Screamed as the SE exoskeleton was ripped from his body pulverizing the nerves to which they connected as he was ripped apart.  In a single terrible moment, he lost all the feeling to his human leg and the entire left side of his body. 

And then she discarded him throwing him like a broken doll to the catwalk unable to move as blood welled into the open creases of his armor.

His helmet flickered.

Fealty whimpered softly inside his head, but even as his suit flickered towards death, fealty made one last attempt to save him injecting his body with another dose of the narcotic cocktail and filling the suit with a coagulating agent.

And then, the suit died, and Fealty with it.

Beyond him, Sunny roared in rage, thrusting her spear forward in the perfect arc, right through kazna’s throat.

It would have been perfect.

The architect flickered again.

Kazna grabbed Sunny by the throat, hauled her into the air, and slammed her to the ground.

Adam’s vision flickered.

Again and again and again, kazna threw Sunny against the metal, over and over until her body was limp, and did not move again.

Seconds.

The seconds it took For Lanus to haul himself up over the edge of the railing.

But it was enough.

Just enough for kazna to destroy everything.

Still firing his weapon, Ramirez tried to leap out of the way as her tendrils shot toward him, but she was too fast. 

One tendril caught him around the ankle, and she was more than strong enough.

Strong enough to pitch him over the edge.

Ramirez screamed once and vanished over the edge.

[maletofujoshi]

elden ring shadow of the erdtree really is like. the end. like its literally it. there probably maybe idk won't be a game in the same style again- both in its gameplay grooves borrowed from ds3 and developed from demon's souls, and in this repeated narrative of a land diminished, and spurned.

okay so this leans on what seems to be cut dialogue- but im only using that to further support things that do actually exist in release.

"Now comes the age of our eden." is a line that in my mind confirms parallels between elden ring and that story of original sin- original sin being referenced in game as something miquella wishes to "bury". We are shown that original sin in the trailer. Marika takes a few golden strands of hair, hair that does not seem to be her own, and holds it up towards the gate of divinity- a golden sky and wind appears to bless her, as the held up hair forms the shape of a rune arc.

This is the moment where marika receives the bounty of the elden ring. It is also the betrayal, following the seduction. what marika goes on to do is creating "gold" and "shadow" (is this true? what of the crucible?), with the birth of the erdtree and the scadutree existing as a necessitated inverse.

there's this idea of two trees- the erdtree is obviously a tree of life. the scadutree... is probably a tree of knowledge of good and evil. To see the land of shadow, and to see what is rejected is to understand "morality", and it is also a realm of learning. Marika seems to be Eve, but is maybe also the serpent that "seduces" Eve (why did marika give birth to a serpent? why is there shed snake skin near the shaman tree in bonny village?), but here- rather than eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge (maybe an act committed long ago by someone else), Marika eats the fruit of of life- becoming like god, becoming god. This act is a betrayal of the hornsent, and the keepers of the tower/enir-ilim. in fact the gate of divinity is first obscured by another sealing tree, veiled in shadow, and once seen... it's no longer the grotesquely majestic thing that marika once stood facing. It's dried. the once fresh, bloody and flowing walls are white, and seem to be disintegrating into sand. for as much as miquella is following in the footsteps of marika- he can't be as marika was. her circumstances are gone and any attempt to recreate them is defined by what marika went on to do. this is seen in the very clear image of an erdtree- branches of light, a trunk, and roots, seen in the negative space of the gate and by miquella's hair

by embracing the whole of it, miquella wishes to become a perfect god, ruler, and mother. to deny nothing. but his age of compassion rests on him abandoning everything- including his love. and his charm manifests as this suppressing thing. ansbach describes a vexing fog, he literally places a spectral golden circlet over you if you get grabbed, one that allows for your "heart" to be "stolen" if you are grabbed again. He wishes to embrace but in that embrace dissent and conflict is simply suppressed, held down, agency is taken away... it's literally a return to the cradle, the halcyon days of the age of plenty. "loved" but not allowed to grow, or to truly exist. as a dissenting lord, you refuse to be embraced, and miquella loses to the first powerful opponent he and his consort face.

what does miquella want here? well- okay miquella the character we know is different from miquella the god- but miquella the empyrean was terrified by his destiny, but felt that he Had to become a god- that he would become a god. to this end, and to amend the sins of marika, the mother, he divests himself of everything- his flesh, his fears, his "love". and yet he wants an age of compassion... how does he square this? firstly there seems to maybe be two types of "love" here. I think there's a division between "godly" love, of including all within paradise without discrimination, and then the love trina feels for miquella, or the love miquella felt for malenia. for now i'm going to call one compassion and the other love. "love" as it exists, in miquella's mind, might be no different from discrimination (in the same way when prompted, a person may choose the life of their loved one over that of a stranger). if he held onto it, as a god, his love may have once again redefined gold, and then redefined it's subjugated inverse, shadow. to "embrace the whole of it" (i.e. take power without creating disparity) would require compassion without love. in order to create an "eden"- a walled garden, a cradle humanity dwelled in before rejection. burying original sin so you can go baby mode, essentially. Miquella wants to become a "perfect" mother, where Marika was unhinged from the start

Ranni stands as the obvious parallel here- rejecting the divine, embracing the self, solving the issue of power by upending it entirely- leaving the world in it's state of disrepair, but also leaving behind nothing to trust in... it's acceptance of being out of the garden of eden, and into the cold night, without the guiding light of god, or the hand of a mother. Ymir and Miquella are going about it the wrong way, you don't need a "perfect" mother, or "perfect" roots, you just ought to grow up.

Extending the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree is """about""" being a mother, and being a child to a mother- and there's a conflation between parentage and the development of societies and cultures. The one thing miquella is incapable of divesting himself of is his lineage as "the true golden child", by leda's account, much like any culture or society can not be free of its history. Miquella will always be Marika's son (daughter maybe actually? okay "child" is the important thing here.) just as Marika carried lineage from the grandmother. Though, maybe there was a chance, roads not taken, ways in which miquella could have helped others and himself. But he abandoned all of that. Sad! A tragedy if there ever was one and such, should've gone blue mode.

...theres more things i wanted to integrate but i still have to sort things out in my head. the crucible and "normalized crucible currents" or whatever, the grandam, nanaya and midra, the erdtree and the moon as carriers of memory... but aghhh! this game is hard! as in this part of the game is hard! images fall together but finding the coherent elements from connection is. Hard. why is there no easy mode for thinking

[ghostlycoze]

What do you think about the scene in the Cave of Tempters when snakes turned Sohone into a demon?

I'll answer these both at once since they're quite similar

Ooh, I honestly think that's one of my favourite scenes for a couple reasons!

Despite Mune and Glim being my favourite characters, they admittedly don't receive a whole lot of character development. That's the big appeal of this scene, we really get a deeper look on the abilities of the snakes, and the real point where Sohone's character arc kicks off. Not to mention Phospho's sacrifice, and the little conversation the two have before that point.

~little ramble under the cut~

With the snakes, we had only seen how they work with Leeyoon. It's a rather fast scene, so it's explored a little less in depth (although I must say the way they completely encase Leeyoon in the end of that scene looked amazing, like it was a coffin). Though by this point they knew how quickly it was to corrupt someone, especially if they have enough negativity brewing. Leeyoon was already brimming with jealousy and anger, so he was an easy target. Sohone was a little less so, though there was certainly a couple points where his cocky, proud attitude cracked (e.g. when Mune and Glim didn't respond well to his behaviour while they travel through the forest, that little "I'm terrible with the ladies" line, or... something along those lines, upon seeing Mune and Glim bond). He's got insecurities, and seeing Mune succeed when he didn't even want this only reinforces those when Sohone had been training for so long. He holds onto the idea that Mune is a bad guardian as long as he can, and once the snakes reach him, they feed off of it.

I vaguely mentioned it in the last Mune-related ask, but I particularly like the body language they gave Sohone in that scene. On all fours, growling and looking around wildly; much like a cornered animal. Scared, threatened, caged. The more corrupted he became, the more these aggressive behaviours grew, until Phospho was able to talk him down and shed him of the demonic rock growing over him.

It's a moment where Sohone's character changes. He sees the cowardly ex-guardian make a brave sacrifice, and gains a new perspective on Mune in the moment too. Even with Phospho's "Going out in style. For the ladies, right?" joke, Sohone remains serious (and, well, devastated to see Phospho die), his focus shifted, the gravity of his position finally weighing on him. His ego cast aside, when Mune and Glim arrive he doesn't hesitate to agree to do this together with Mune.

Big ol ramble, my bad, I just love analysing this character! Sohone arguably received the most development (aside from Necross, I'd say, with Phospho close behind Sohone), and it's nice to see these kind of "all brawn, no brain, egotistical asshole" characters actually grow beyond that archetype.

Thanks for the excuse to talk about these silly movie characters some more! I'll always be open to more conversation and analysis :)

[cornus27florida]

Frederick's Big Shine Time Prediction : LambCat foreshadowing (AIPT interview) & the Tiniest Prince elements combined

As recently we have more of LambCat's interview, one of the section that make me intrigued to revisit CPC theory is this:

^ the bonus shorts that likely means as foreshadowing for the main conflict is the Giant Serpent - that's very weird to be appeared twice in Frederick's dream on separate bonus short (Bonus Short Episode 4) and (S3 Bonus Short Episode 4) to have him as the protagonist to 'defeats' the said Serpent on 2 of his favorite tales - the unnamed one about Angel of the Fortune and the Dogyssey. The one left favorite tale that Frederick not implemented in the story is the Tiniest Prince (IRL LIttle Prince), and based on a panel at the episode 145 where Frederick admitting himself to be 'the tiniest prince all along' = Frederick time to be the Little Prince as the main conflict in the CPC will come soon in this final season

More about Frederick and his favorite tales could be read on @saemi-the-dreamers post as following!

From Saemi : I wonder which the post of it but I prob writing my own Tumblr post

I've seen some theories on Tumblr with Frederick's character being linked to some snake symbolism - like "shedding his skin" for example - and I find it very interesting! Since the Serpent of his dreams is most likely Leland, who is his father, Frederick having a bit of a "snake" in him would make sense. BUT he would show the positive symbolism of the snake whereas Leland would be the bad, which is also part of the Serpent/Snake symbolism: the duality of Good and Evil; Frederick being the son who (ironically or not) looks most like Leland, I'd love to see that!

Bad: ruse, treachery, perfidy (synonymous w/ deceitfulness; untrustworthiness), [evil or malicious] desire

Neutral: knowledge (Saemi put "knowledge" in neutral here because Leland do have knowledge some characters don't have and has some steps ahead), sexual impulsion, change

Good: transformation, rebirth (also could be symbolized with 'Ouroboros'), wisdom, quest for balance

^ Ouroboros also an arc name for Dr. Frost webtoon

Before dwelling further to the theory of the Giant Serpent, let's spread out the facts first, starting from the final scene of the Little Prince (which I am kinda fears that the Little Prince 'look as if he dying' will be literal sense for Frederick during his main conflict confrontation in this final season) :

It is now the narrator’s eighth day in the desert, and at the prince’s suggestion, they set off to find a well. The water feeds their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life. The prince is discussing plans for that evening with someone who cannot be seen, and the topic of poison is mentioned. The prince asks his unseen companion to leave so the prince can get off the wall, and when the narrator looks down, he sees a snake. It is the same snake who greeted the prince when he first arrived on Earth. The narrator draws his gun, but the snake escapes, and the narrator is left to take care of the prince, who is pale and frightened. The prince congratulates the pilot on having fixed his plane, and when the narrator asks the prince how he knows about his plane, the prince says only that he will be going on a much longer, more difficult journey. The prince says he will be even more afraid that night and tries to console the narrator by pointing to the stars and saying they will all have a special, unique meaning for the narrator now that he knows someone who lives among them. Then the prince becomes serious again and asks the pilot not to accompany him that night. The prince cautions that it will look as if he is dying. Also, he does not trust the snake to stop at just one bite and is worried that the snake would bite the pilot as well.

^ Also remember the scenes in the bonus episode mega-sundae likely becomes bigger later on, like the scenes of Gwen accidentally drops of the poisoned apple becomes big plot. I could feel that the mention of Frederick's recurring dream will become big later on as well.

As we highlighting that the foreshadowing main conflict that LambCat mentioned is likely Frederick VS the mysterious Giant Serpent, let's move to the facts regarding the Giant Serpent in through - out story ~ starting from the very first time that the Giant Serpent mentioned then chronogically in the CPC story of who's the Giant Serpent interpreted by Frederick himself - and how it got confirmed later on. I feel with this statement, coupled with Frederick recurring dream of the Giant serpent mentioned for Mega sundae ep.. the foreshadowing that talked about def this one Frederick confronting 'the Giant serpent' that becomes reality in order to saves-protects Gwen Before even gives speculative about who's the serpent and why, what, when, where, how the serpent is I like to pointing out the facts as these :

^ First mention of the Giant Serpent is at Episode 34 where Frederick imagined himself as the protagonist of the unnamed fairy tale - the Giant Serpent eyes is red

I feel the Giant Serpent that appear in the tale of angel of the Fortune (and somehow appeared in Frederick's Dogyssey dream, and very likely the same 'snake' that bites the little tiniest prince at the final act) referring to the same person, whoever the Giant Serpent actually is. Frederick depicted it as a Giant serpent that breaking havoc in the village (could be taken as 'invasion' to a backwater kingdom, the Pastel Kingdom) and has red eyes. So far in the story, the one's with red eyes are Leland and Blaine (cmiiw, but I am not counting any shade of red like pink as the serpent eyes)

'The Serpent' being a huge likely foreshadowing (or could be called as Checkov's gun) is in Bonus episode 4 where Frederick dreams that the angel of Fortune is Gwen

the serpent mentioned later by Frederick himself as his over imagination thinks Leopold as his love rival is the serpent.. this turns out to be not true, but Leopold indeed making Frederick braver to take actions and stays with it (before he thinks is not worth it to doing what he wants, as the thinks that he thoughts he wants shattered by his bullies thus making him thinks no one ever cares about him hits hard in my heart and situation) + silly panel for comedic:

also don't forget that Dogyssey, the tale that Frederick mentioned to not having a Giant serpent somehow appear to have one in his dream. Thou IRL Odyssey, there's a monster' that has snake/serpent element named Syclla - like Medusa (Isolde's gala outfit) but instead snake as the hair 'ornaments ', for Scylla is like Melusine that has three tails - but the tails ends are snakes instead :

Frederick never considers Beckett (misunderstood love rival) and any members of the CPC as a Giant serpent (welp, he thoughts the CPC are monsters thou haha) but once he's at the gala and seeing that so many people wears snake/serpent related outfit he bewildered and thought he it kinda ridiculous to fighting them (excluding Leland that he's unaware wearing the chess move 'Serpent's gambit')

We haven't got chance from Frederick to brought up the (Giant) serpent again in the current story, but I feel it will happen again soon - as the main conflict w/ Plaid Troop

Now forward to the question of "who is actually the Giant Serpent" which then leads to speculation and prediction scenes My own intake for the who's the serpent is Leland But we need to come back to the story for a bit and remembers that Frederick himself thought the serpent as the following:

his love rival (aka Leopold), confirmed untrue as Leopold actually gives solid advice to both Gwen and Frederick instead

his bullies, confirmed untrue as 'harming Gwen (his lady friend at the gala)' is merely their after-thought and hurting Frederick again is their priority

himself

For now, Frederick himself believe that he's the serpent espc from the scene at the end of the gala. The current story not yet brought it up again, but at the episode 145 Frederick thoughts that he's the worst and the sole factor for Gwen's sufferings (the callback of "all your fault") .. and even thou it supposed to be comedic with how easily he slips the Iron bars of the dungeon hole, but the commenter that saying "he really is a snake if could pass that bars!" make the statement of "the serpent is himself" still uncertain

Now Leland's time, before I imagined/predicted that the confrontation between Frederick and Leland gonna be inspired to the "Little Prince" final act where the prince accepted the 'devil bargain' from the snake by allowing him to get bitten by the poisonous snake fangs so he could return back to his planet (aka Asteroid) where his lover the Rose resides - in this case the Little Prince is Frederick, the Rose is Gwen, the 'poisonous snake' aka the Giant Serpent is Leland - and the 'devil bargain' is for Gwen awakes with the Clam's knowledge which got asked by Frederick that has green eyes (I theorized that the limit for being asker of the Clam is being green eyed) but with the price of draining the asker's life force - but this confrontation kinda complex as the element of the Omniscient Clam should appear (which means Jack need to be already at the Pastel palace bringing in the Clam) while Frederick co. still doesn't know the way to awakes Gwen (it depends on the conversation that Jamie could spill upon his meeting with the Witch, and likely with Frederick already inside to testing if him giving a kiss to Gwen really a "True Love's Kiss" that awakes Gwen or not)

LambCat brought back the conversation regarding the foreshadowing element (likely Frederick's part, it weird that the Giant Serpent mentioned twice in his dream) make me realizes 'a simpler way' of confrontation but no less angsty : What if the 'poisonous bites' from the Giant Serpent that likely be Leland, is the way he becomes very - very mad as he realizes the tiniest prince aka Frederick totally failed his evil plan? The getting mad will be speeches as following, with the theme as Wishes you were dead from a parent to their own child(ren) - IMHO is the most painful words a parent (or parents) could utter to their own child(ren) + The most painful words a child could ever heard from their parent(s) if they teard that their existence is never wishes = `I wish you to never born! - which in Leland scenario espc at the moment of his plan in the blink of fail.. Will def utters the similar angsty punches meaning words to Frederick. It's hurts to write but here what likely Leland shouting for the main conflict scenes:

I wish you never born!!! Since the moment you are born, you always a worthless son - a failure!!! Small, weak and so sickly!!

You can't never be a (proper) Plaid prince! Such a worthless son!! You always disobeying my rule - my expectations - my plan!!! You have no value at all! Useless! Useless! Useless!!! How could you ever escaped the prison?! What a freakish little serpent monster!! Remember that your words the one that doomed everyone! MONSTER!!

I thought by pairing you, the one that looks the most like me, to his daughter that the spitting image of his wife - Will wreck him the most! But, NO! You dare to utters that she's ugly in front of her face, which resulting to this MESS!!!!!`

The Leland's words that snapping and shocked all of Plaid Princes: You are merely chess pawns! All of you!!! You just need to do what you expected to do, but no! You beyond useless, worse than failure that keeps wrecking my plan since the moment you are born!

The plan is going smoothly but not that smoothly espc once the flash bang subdues.. we have this scene (as the images) appeared but more evil It's more violent;

As Leland is the first one that realizes that the backup army not backup army afterall - and the Mastermind is his 'worthless' son - grabbing the neck area is so much higher to the point' it chokes Frederick = neck chokeholding as similar situation as getting bitten by the snake (or the Giant Serpent)

Frederick: I.. I.. c-a-n't.. b-r-e-a.. th...

-> this will leads to the following prediction scenarios :

Lance and Blaine snap shut and realizing that deep down they're caring their little brother, Lorena and Maria forgiving Frederick as seeing by themself the length he suffers in confronting Leland, or Frederick could collecting himself to freeing the chokehold of Leland in order to see Gwen again

As Frederick grasping for breath as being chocked while shouted all of mockeries by Leland (similar scene of the little prince that 'dying' as bitten by the snake) with his legs spasms growing weakest - as Frederick kinda declaring himself as the tiniest prince, the moment of being chocked to gasping is very similar to the situation when the little prince spasmed after bitten by the snake

This poetic melancholy, as Frederick dreams on about his favorite tales - 2 (the Angel of the Fortune & Dogyssey) already becomes recurring dream involving the Giant Serpent - now just the tiniest prince (or the Little Prawnce in the book) that .. becomes reality?