#think about the mythological implications guys!

[ooooo-mcyt]

I can't believe we as a fandom made Etho a fox and Joel a tanuki and haven't gone harder with the implications of having a kitsune/tanuki duo who are so obsessed with each other.

[uhoh23]

Person A - I think he's a Wanderer

Person B - DEMON

Me - THE DRAGON KING HAS ARISEN MY BRETHREN

NGL I was originally leaning more towards the demon theory bc there's a lot of evidence for it, but the problem that I have with the demon theory is that it now feels TOO obvious, like the devs are trolling like how they joked about him being a vampire. All three main theories make sense tho - demon, wanderer, or dragon.

There's so many demon implications - 1. The N109 zone being a lawless place that apparently has little sunlight, hence why there doesn't seem to be many plants, making it sound like the underworld bc the underworld probably wouldn't have much life in it, its another version of Hell. 2. Sylus' flower is the Datura, sometimes known as the "Devil's Trumpet." 3. Demons love deals. They trick humans and according to Christian lore, hate humanity. Sylus enjoys using people, even with the good in him. He's always trying to get something.

Point is, it kinda seems TOO on the nose...but the dragon theory is less obvious for me. I would have NEVER thought he was one until I did my research on Chinese mythology 🤣 AND BOY DID I FIND some INTERESTING things. Let's start with the most IMPORTANT point - In Eastern mythology, dragons can shapeshift between human and dragon. There's TWO dragons in particular that stood out to me - Fuzanglong and Longwang.

Fuzanglong - Dragons of hidden treasure. They live underground and hide gemstones, golden nuggets, their most prized possession a magic pearl. Has horns, demonic looking eyes, and dark red is associated with them. Sometimes known as "Keeper of the Underworld." They can cause volcanic eruptions when awoken or when they leave the underground. Elusive to humans.

Sylus and the color red go hand in hand. Couple that with the "treasure" talk that reminds me of Nightplumes due to Sylus saying "A man's heart goes to where his treasure is." Just like a dragon protecting his treasure. Sylus also enjoys gifting MC gems as a gift 🥺 There's also that scene where it looks like MC is underground, blood on her hands, and lava seeping through the ground. This ties to the volcano aspect and the underground aspect of this particular dragon.

The Dragon King - IT GETS WILDER. A guy named Longwang could shapeshift from dragon to human at will. He was the source of rain. His human form had red eyes and his dragon form typically had red scales, but some artists would opt for other colors. Longwang was the king of all dragons, immortal, and eventually he became a God in the story of the Lotus Sutra. His dragon form had wings, claws, and horns. He had four dragon brothers who could also shapeshift, lived in a luxurious palace in the sea, and he ate gems. Longwang was benevolent usually, but he was known to have a bad temper and be intimidating. He also apparently had thousands of kids 🤣

Sylus - has red eyes, he's intimidating to most, gets annoyed easily with most, can't die (or so he claims), the gems thing again, and he's rich. He very well could be a God with his crazy healing abilities and apparent immortality. The Lost Oasis card specifically brings up God's and Longwang played a significant role in a Chinese literature piece called Investiture of God's.

Last, but not least, Sylus' zodiac sign...I find it FUNNY how COINCIDENTALLY this man is an Aries in the Western zodiac, yet in the Chinese zodiac the Aries equivalent? IS A DRAGON. Just search up "Aries in the Chinese zodiac" 💀🫣 The devs did their zodiac homework bc Sylus has MANY of the Aries traits, so who's to say they didn't purposely choose Aries due to it's ties with the Dragon zodiac?

Aries Traits - love the chase in romance and they view crushes as a conquest to conquer, domineering, competitive and hate losing, adventurous, natural leaders, very straightforward, dominant. Dragon Zodiac - natural leaders, adventurous, very straightforward, competitive, can be arrogant, impatient, impulsive 👀🤣 Granted, maybe none of this proves he's a dragon, but I think this stuff is super interesting nonetheless 🖤

[peaches-creek]

Jason was looking for something. Not just someone, Homer, author of The Odyssey. He had been on a mythology kick, and wanted to read something more sophisticated. For a 9 year old this kid knows how to read, it was the only thing he could do during the day, waiting for nighttime to act up. So he taught himself to read at a very young age, and kept at it. He’s at a high school reading level. He would immediately come to the library after school, and would stay until closing hour. He had seen a reference somewhere that said, “Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earths, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”

His thought’s were then interrupted.

“Excuse me, I just have to get something by your feet really quick.” It’s a girl, about his age, one who doesn’t wait for his answer, just crouches by his feet and rips out a book. Not just any book, Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology.

That has him in awe, what kid his age knows how to read anything like that?

“Hey, you know how to read that?” He asks. You scoff at the implication.

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t have grabbed it, now would I?” You sarcastically reply.

That was the start of a very important relationship to Jason. Every day after school you would meet there, and argue about various topics, whichever ones interested you for the week. You guys would stay til close, and he would walk you home. You became important to him very quickly, he liked your gentle hands and kind way about yourself. When talking about characters you would always stick up for the underdog, just like in real life.

He remembers walking home with you one day, through the park when you both stumble upon a scene. Three boys a few years older, and a younger boy. He saw you stop, tears filling your eyes. He turned, about to say something.

“You know he’s a person? What makes you do something like that?” She yelled, crying at the same time.

“Why the fuck are you crying?” One of the boys sneers. Jason’s fist clenches, wanting to bruise this fucking kid’s liver, but decides against it, he is terribly outnumbered.

You say nothing, but walk up to the boy and grab his hand, walking away with him. You hear protests and sneers behind you. You bring him to the swings, asking him where his parents are. He points to two people arguing in the distance. You and Jason say nothing. He looks at you, the tears have stopped but the sniffles haven’t.

“Well then, let’s just play until they are done talking.” You say.

The three of you did exactly that.

You had taught Jason something about humanity that day. He knew he loved you in that moment. For someone so little to know exactly how to show someone else that they are loved.

The walk home had felt bittersweet that day.

“Can you hold my hand?” You say suddenly.

“Why?” He asks.

“Because I’m sad, and I want to hold someone’s hand.” He always forgets that you are a year younger than him, you don’t act it.

“Okay.’ He says, grabbing your hand.

“Why did you do that today?” He asks you.

He didn’t understand kindness like that, no one had shown him kindness before you, but he didn’t understand how you did it so effortlessly. When he first met you, he thought you were acting, lying to him about who you were. But then he realized that you’re just a girl, a girl who loves people.

“Why did I do what?”

“You know.”

“Oh, well, he didn’t deserve that, I don’t have to know him to know that he didn’t deserve that.”

“I see.” Is all he says.

“Kinda like you,” you start, “I don’t know how your life is hard, or why, but you don’t deserve it. I know that.”

“My life isn’t hard.” Is his answer

“Alright, sorry.” You apologize.

“Don’t apologize.”

He didn’t like to think about his life. Drug addict mom, alcoholic father, bills not being payed, going to bed hungry. You were the one good thing to him. Always offering him your spare mittens, sharing your snacks, helping him with his math homework. He didn’t like his life, but he liked you, that was enough.

“Y’know tomorrow is a half day, my mom said she would give me some money to get sandwiches on the way to the library. Which shop should we go to?” You ask.

“Daveny’s, they give you a pickle with your sandwich.”

“I hate pickles, so you can have mine, deal?” You say.

“I’ll share my chips if we have enough to get them.”

“We will, I saved the five dollars my Papa gave me last week.”

“Gotta love him.”

You continue on your way home, only stopping when you reach your steps.

“See you tomorrow Jay.”

“Since when did you call me that?”

“Since now, I think I have earned nickname basis.”

“Sure,” He smiles, “see you tomorrow, don’t forget the five dollars.”

“I wont, I wont.”

You walk up your stairs and into your house. He waits until he sees the lights go on in your room, and begins his trek to go and mess something up, maybe steal some hubcaps.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

I saw a couple of posts here and on ao3 where you talked about how TOA Apollo has a stilted view of romantic relationships. Would you be comfortable explaining that, it got me really interested!

OKAY

SO

gonna be putting this under a cut for length

Apollo and relationships. Specifically, ToA Apollo and relationships.

let's see if I can formulate the thoughts into words.

Right off the bat, Apollo does have a hard time avoiding those red flags (hello, Commodus), so much so that he can see them...he just ignores them.

This already tells us that he doesn't have the healthiest view on relationships, or what specifically a healthy partner would be like.

In RRverse canon, these are all of his confirmed, canon relationships/love interests;

Hyacinthus

Commodus

Naomi

Darren

Latricia

Cyrene

Daphne

Sibyl

(I probably missed some asdfhjk)

Anyway, I've noticed that in canon, Apollo's relationships tend to fall into two categories; Sweet or Sour, we'll call them.

Now the majority on the list are Sweet! They are fulfilling relationships with no indication of any bitter feelings- Apollo is not shy about telling us about his love life, and certainly doesn't keep it from us when a relationship went south.

What I find interesting is that all three of the Sours can help pinpoint Apollo's more jaded/stilted view on romance.

Let's kick off with Daphne.

First things first, Apollo is quite literally forced to fall in love with her. Like. That has GOT to screw with a guy. What's more, is that when Apollo explains to us how Eros's arrows work;

What people do not understand: Eros’s arrows can’t summon emotion from nothing. They can only cultivate potential that is already there. Daphne and I could have been a perfect pair. She was my true love. She could have loved me back. Yet thanks to Eros, my love-o-meter was cranked to one hundred percent, while Daphne’s feelings turned to pure hate (which is, of course, only the flip side of love). Nothing is more tragic than loving someone to the depths of your soul and knowing they cannot and will not ever love you back. The stories say I chased her on a whim, that she was just another pretty dress. The stories are wrong. - The Hidden Oracle

There's an implication that he and Daphne may have actually been...friends. Or at the very least acquaintances.

It's never stated in canon when Daphne happened, and the mythology itself is weird about the timeline, but it certainly happened earlier in Apollo's life.

Imagine being forced to fall madly in love with someone you know and they are made to despise you.

The self-confidence definitely took a blow here.

What's more...

When she begged Gaea to turn her into a laurel tree in order to escape me, part of my heart hardened into bark as well.

Apollo tells us plainly that what happened with Daphne shook his views on romantic endeavors. Though, it didn't keep him from engaging in romance, either.

Now, back to Commodus real quick. We already covered the No Red Flag Bell with him, and honestly, I won't spend too much time here because I got a whole meta list waiting to dissect these two XD

But Sibyl reveals something else about Apollo and romance- sometimes, he sees it as transactional.

The story of Apollo and Sibyl does differ from the mythology of them- in mythology, Sibyl tricks Apollo into granting her a long life, and he kinda just shrugs and says 'okay, but you didn't ask for eternal youth either so...whoops?'

In ToA, Rick switches it up a bit by having Apollo grant Sibyl a long life after she jokes about it, and when she further rebuffs him, he curses her with no eternal youth.

Alas, I knew what I’d been thinking—that she was a pretty young woman I wanted to get with, despite the fact that she was my Sibyl. Then she’d outsmarted me, and being the bad loser that I was, I had cursed her. - The Tyrant's Tomb

I promised you life, not youth. You can have your centuries of existence. You will remain my Sibyl. I cannot take those things away, once given. But you will grow old. You will wither. You will not be able to die.

Yeah, it sounds like Apollo more or less curses her with no eternal youth here.

(Daily disclaimer that mythology Apollo's love life is actually very good and you should read up on it :3)

Back to the transactional thing-

"You cannot refuse payment." “Payment?” She balled her hands into fists. “You dare think of me as a transaction?” “I didn’t mean—Obviously, I wasn’t—”

Now, do I think Apollo sees all relationships as transactional? No. But let's consider the Olympian influence for a moment here.

Olympus in the RRverse is rather fucked, no doubt about it. The gods do not help without first being given something, and that permeates through their whole lifestyles.

Apollo's not being transactional because ✨misogyny✨. He's being transactional because that's what he's been raised to believe. If he gives something, he gets something back. That goes for all the gods, male and female and everything in between.

Bacchus helps the demigods in Mark of Athena because they paid tribute to him. Whenever a god extends aid, burnt offerings are made in thanks- which is probably part of the reason why Hera got angry with Annabeth when she refused to give her burnt offerings in The Battle of the Labyrinth after she helped her on her quest.

Apollo doesn't seem to be as picky as some (ie, The Titan's Curse, where he helps out to help out. You can argue he got his sister back in exchange but that's not really typical godly exchange lol), but it's clear that mindset has somewhat transferred over into relationships.

Now, I also want to talk about how Hyacinthus affected him- because let's be real, he was the one that affected him the most without outside interference (looking at you, Eros).

Apollo has told us time and again that Hyacinthus was one of, if not his greatest, love. His death really left a mark on him, and I am of the firm belief that it's that mark that made him wary of forming too close of a relationship with others- even when he tries to convince them and himself they are his One True Love™️, it falls flat inside his own head.

Because let's face it- that spot is occupied by Hyacinthus, and the hole he left in Apollo's heart.

This isn't to say Apollo loves his other lovers less- heck no! Love is one of his defining qualities. He has much love in him!

It's just that Hyacinthus had a particular impact on him, and how he views relationships.

*vibrates in Hyapollo multific* I have...my own personal ideas...on what that entails...

And we see how touch-and-go Apollo is with other lovers! As soon as Commodus becomes emperor, he's gone. And only comes back in disguise, never revealing himself until he kills him.

Naomi, Darren, and Latricia are all obviously loving relationships from what we can gather, but it's clear it was never long-term.

Cyrene, really, is where I'd argue he got the closest to a long-term relationship with a mortal-ish person, but even so, they aren't in a permanent long-term relationship either.

Hyacinthus, however? I can see he and Apollo maintaining an everlasting romance.

...Also because that is exactly what happens according to the Spartans and who are we to deny what the Spartans declared about their national hero?

The only other exceptions to this I can see are his relationships with the Muses and (hello, fellow Apricity shippers) Boreas.

But even so...the Muses give off like, 'married co-workers' vibes, if that makes sense, and Boreas is more or less a winter fling (fandom forgive me, you know I am a shipper🫡)

Anyway. Hope this rambling makes sense or at least provides a platform for someone to put coherent thoughts together lmao

In conclusion: sometimes Apollo is transactional in relationships because of the culture he was raised in, and he has commit issues because of just how hard Hyacinthus's death hit him :)

have fun pondering :3

[pastorfutureletthembe]

X

I have honestly so many questions, my artist heart is bleeding for you, sir.

Also, I'm aware that this is not canon and was created according to s1&2 impressions, but this object's design is similar to the one in LULL.

I wonder what it is and how it works 👀. The threads remind me of greek mythology.

I know it's purely fanon at this point but, just for fun because I'm always hungry for timey saucery:

If this kind of object existed in universe, what would the implications be?

It takes the threads from timelines or each timeline is a thread, and it makes all of it into a tapestry, right? That would be logical.

In the literal sense, a tapestry is a huge, often complicated picture woven out of cloth. So there are many many threads woven together in complex ways to make up a bigger picture. It is often used metaphorically to describe something complex with many parts, pieces, ideas, woven together.

But if so, it means the tapestry itself would already be done, and each timeline would be a pattern. The big picture would be key events common to each of them.

Or. If what we see is actually ropes made from threads and each rope is a timeline, the machine would undo and redo these ropes infinitely. Taking parts of each timeline and basically making a medley for the next one.

Would only one timeline be made at the time?

A complex machine like that would mean every batch would be made from several timelines. So there would be, for example, 12 timelines playing simultaneously and the machine would prepare the 12 following timelines using the current playing ones.

Fanon aside, the idea of an actual machine, concrete or liminal, in canon is an interesting concept to toy with.

Would it be a machine created by man or pre-existing in the cracks between time and space? Can it be controlled? Can it be influenced? Can it be broken? Why would certain people be able to connect with it through powers like Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang?

I still think their powers are about the impression of light in time and space, and if so, the machine would basically be like the sun, and those people would be gravitating around it. On a smaller scale, this idea is close to the Saturn imagery too, with its rings of dust. Saturn is the planet associated with time.

The position of Saturn's festival in the Roman calendar led to his association with concepts of time, especially the temporal transition of the New Year. In the Greek tradition, Kronos was sometimes conflated with Chronos, "Time," and his devouring of his children taken as an allegory for the passing of generations. As such, the Roman Saturn had similar associations. The sickle or scythe of Father Time is a remnant of the agricultural implement of Cronus-Saturn, and his aged appearance represents the waning of the old year with the birth of the new.

Mythology goes in this direction: using the old to make the new, transitions, destruction for construction, chaos to order.

Also, I hope they don't go there, but what if these powers were hereditary and came from a time when a group of rich and excentric people who created a machine to time travel? And this machine somewhat got connected to this liminal object like the one we see in the PV? And that's how they get extra.

Going back to headcanon territory more than fanin theories but what if one of these guys stole this machine to save his wife's life when others really just wanted to get richer and kill opponents? Haha

Anyway, all very interesting things to think about in a pure recreative context. I'm not saying that's what Link Click will become, again. I'm just saying GUYS WHAT IF THEY ACTUALLY WENT THERE? haha

Moar design explanation please, that's so interesting!! 😍✨

My brain is currently on fire. Thank you Link Click for feeding my tetris mind lmao

[burr-ell]

Your “nepotism baby” analysis of Bells Hells feels SO ACCURATE. It honestly helped me finally pin down why, exactly, I hate Ashton so much. They’re not a real punk, they are a rich kids’ idea of what punk is meant to be. Just poorly adopting the anti-establishment persona without any of the substance that makes punks great.

So I want to push back on this, for two reasons. One, the implication of "a rich kid's idea of what punk is meant to be" suggests that the "rich kid" in question is either Ashton or Taliesin, and neither is fitting here. Regardless of how frustrating Ashton can be, they have had a difficult life and grew up impoverished; they do have legitimate grievances with institutional authority. Now Taliesin himself seems to have grown up fairly well-off based on everything we know about him, but he became involved in genuine underground scenes as a teenager and young adult; Ashton is explicitly based on an amalgam of difficult roommates Taliesin has had, punks he personally knew, and punks who were depicted in The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 3.

That last bit leads into my second issue, and it's one that I don't think you're entirely unaware of, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything. Punk has a reputation online, particularly on Tumblr, of being purely about hope and love and rebelling against oppression with an edgy counter-cultural aesthetic (this is part of why Across the Spider-Verse's depiction of Spider-Punk, who to be clear is a great character, got so popular). By contrast, The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 3 is a 1998 documentary about gutter punks in Los Angeles, and it is, by all accounts, an incredibly depressing film that ends with one of the interviewees dead and another awaiting trial for his murder. There was a punk-to-skinhead pipeline throughout the 70s that led to the Dead Kennedys song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", and while that phrase has become popular in repudiating far-right punks, it would not still be in use today if they didn't still exist. A lot of the ideas in punk about rebellion and freedom and nonconformity can and do manifest as principled fights against authoritarianism and oppression, but just as often manifest...at best as the guy in the housing collective that refuses to do chores, at worst as someone who thinks espousing white supremacy is countercultural because people get offended by it and then becomes a Nazi for real.

Don't misread me, I completely agree that Ashton is an idiot and a narcissist (the description that Taliesin himself gave him), but let's not springboard off of that and No True Scotsman our way into mythologizing punk. Ashton is, in fact, depicting a lot of the substance of punk—namely, the ways it can help make you worse as a person.

[monamoe]

Banging my head against the wall with some Riordanverse canon ships (or canon ages) before explaining how I would have done them

(no hate to Rick Riordan! I love his books and his writing style, but I do have problems with some of the writing choices he made). First I’ll start with the age gap relationships.

What I hate about the age gaps:

We didn’t need 16 year old Frank with 14 year old Hazel, because those are two wildly different age groups! To put it in a highschool setting, Hazel would be in Year 8-9 while Frank would be in Year 10 more or less?? He wodukve had his driving license when she hadn’t even done her IGCSEs. When he turned 18 she’d be 16. SIXTEEN. Bruh.

We didn’t need 16 year old Walt with 13 year old Sadie. Same problems as Frazel except worse by one year. (HE’D BE 18 WHEN SHE WOULD BE 15.)

And we didn’t need the 1000+ couples with under 18 characters! Especially with some of the character’s that are thousands of years old’s mythologies! (You know what I’m talking about).

How I would have written them!:

Frank x Hazel:

I assumed Frank was 15 or 14 tbh 💀 I don’t get why he needed to be 16?? It has no plot relevance and also it’s weird considering him and Hazel get together. I love Frazel but like… what is the point? Their relationship isn’t that terrible development wise, jsut kind of bland ig (in my opinion). I’d definitely have given them a lot more development and moments together before dating. I’d also like to make a point that their friendship was already going strong and they had a close bond before dating! If I were to rewrite the books in my own taste idk if I’d even make them get together? I think I appreciate them more when they have a deep bond without a labeled relationship. They’re close and they love eachother, and they want to be committed to eachother, but they don’t want to be dating <3

I also wanted to mention before going into Walt x Sadie that both Hazel and Sadie fall into the trope thingy Rick does where younger POC girls (Hazel is African American, Sadie is mixed) are paired up with 16 year olds. And it’s just really really weird. I’m white so I won’t comment too deeply on this, but I have read a really good essay about it somewhere but I sadly can’t find it :( if I do I’ll put it here.

Walt x Sadie

When I first read TKC, my first impression of Walt was a paragraph that described his appearance (random but I HATE HATE HATE his design in one of the graphic novels. He looks so adult and it’s weird since Sadie clearly has a crush on him. I don’t like the designs for many of the graphic novels in general ngl) and his age, which I read as fourteen, since it explicitly said he was two years younger than Carter. I can’t find the paragraph now, but every other source has said that he’s 16. Bc of this, I read the books assuming he was just a year older than Sadie and I still believe it even if it’s not canon. I wouldn’t change much about their relationship except age Sadie up to 15 and Walt down to 15 as well.

Now for the 1000+ relationships:

Anubis x Sadie x Walt

For Anubis x Sadie x Walt, I already did a sort of essay about how I would have written him and his relationship to Sadie to an extent (Idk how to link posts sorry😔 look up Anubis or TKC on my page and it should appear), even if I haven’t talked about his relationship to Walt yet (bc despite not being explicit, it’s clearly obvious Walt and Anubis are also dating, it’s not a situation we’re two guys love one girl, it’s a poly relationship). I wanted to mention it bc I thought it’d be weird not to talk about him.

Calypso x Leo / Calypso x Percy

Stop. It’s one thing to make a ship similar to Leo x Calypso were they both are at the same maturity rate while also having one be immortal, it’s another to make a teen date a goddess who has a mythological history of rape and SA?? No matter if the translation or copy of the Odyssey you own makes the ‘cheating’ consensual, the implications are STILL THERE. In PJO I also find Calypso bossy (which normally wouldn’t bother me? I’m also bossy so it’s jot that deep), rude and downright vindictive. The curse she put on Annabeth that happened in Tartarus? The blame on Percy for ‘leaving her’ and the whole ‘he promised to free me from my prison’ when he LITERALLY DIDNT. Percy promised to build her a garden in his city (or something like that sorry 😭), not to free her. Just. In general this relationship makes me feel icky and I heavily dislike it.

So that’s all for now, I’m tired, gn everyone! If I missed anything or got anything wrong feel free to correct me <3

[carigm]

A BREAKDOWN OF THE POTENTIAL S5 EPISODE TITLES!!

Okay, so today entertainment journalist Jeff Sneider shared some alleged insider info about S5 of ST, mainly directors and titles of the first 6 episodes.

Here’s a screenshot

It’s important to keep in mind that this guy isn’t always the most reliable, and considering he also said he believes S5 could come out before the end of this year, let’s not take any of this too seriously. (Many cast members have mentioned they’re filming until December of this year so that’s literally impossible). The information about the possible directors I believe is correct, because it’s been circulating around from other sources too.

The episode titles I’m less convinced about because it’s also possible the Duffers could’ve put out fake episode titles in case they leaked. I remember for S2 all the episodes titles they announced were changed later on lol. But for the sake of fun, here’s an analysis of all of them:

1. The crawl (only confirmed title) is a very broad, open title. It personally makes me think of the UD and vines, or maybe even the idea of Vecna crawling back to life. Could also be an allusion to the military.

2. The Vanishing of ___ Wheeler is arguably the most insane one. The journalist said he wasn’t revealing the actual name of the person because it’s a spoiler ofc. My gut tells me it’s gonna be Holly, mainly because of the recast and her supposedly being involved in the hospital plot, which we have guessed takes place in episode 2. Could explain why she’s suddenly “more important” this season, especially if she’s used as a plot device of sorts. Could also tie into what Ted’s actor said in a podcast back in February about the first episodes being a rollercoaster of emotions, and that comment he made about Ted having a soft spot for Holly. It would be a perfect tie in for Karen to find out about the UD as well. The implications of naming the episode the same as the first episode, which is so intrinsically tied to Will, is very interesting. It’s also a new connection/tie between the Byers/Wheelers that I assume will bring the families closer together. I don’t think it’s about Mike because I doubt he’ll go missing in ep.2, or be dragged to the UD just like Will was. It would be an interesting concept but I doubt it. I also don’t think Nancy’s gonna go missing. Karen could be interesting but I doubt it as well. Ted would be an incredibly funny choice. Imagine he just goes missing while at the house 😭 Nonetheless, I think Holly is the clear choice here, and I do very much worry for her if she goes missing. Mainly because while Will survived this, I’m not sure they’ll do the same for Holly :(

It also ties into Vecna’s threat to Nancy against her and her family.

Here’s an interesting leak from the same anon that leaked the hospital stuff (which seems to be correct)

I think this could be the very same scene Holly goes missing.

3. Turbow Trap 😭 This one is utter nonsense. I have no idea what a Turbow is, so I assume it’s gonna be a code or nickname for something. Absolutely clueless here.

4. Sorcerer is incredibly interesting, and imo a clear allusion to Will. His D&D character being a cleric, basically a wizard. Could also be a reference to Vecna imo. Or both 😉

5. Shock Jock is clearly tied to the radio station plotline. Imo the title could be a reference to Steve, Jonathan, or even Murray (he fits that eccentric, somewhat annoying personality quite well) In case you guys don’t know a shock jock is like a very eccentric radio host.

6. Escape from Camazotz is another crazy title. He’s a figure from Mayan mythology who’s a bat spirit. That immediately makes me think of Eddie, but also Steve ofc. However, camazotz has a larger meaning that goes beyond “bat spirit”, it’s also a representation of death and night. So the title seems to be alluding to someone escaping from death or a perilous situation.

Even more interesting perhaps is that kamazotz is a name of a planet in A Wrinkle Time. It’s the planet where IT resides, the mind controlling antagonist of the narrative. So I guess in this comparison Kamazotz is the UD, and IT is Henry.

[the-au-collector]

Scalan Names

So something I've noticed about Missing Link is the names. It's very interesting that they're Roman myth names when the rest of the times we've seen Scala, we've only seen Scalans having Norse names. Especially since we have characters like Freya, whose name does come from Norse Myth, walking around with characters like Remus (and Neptune). I doubt Nomura did this on accident, so I'm curious about the implications of the Norse vs Roman names in Missing Link.

So I went back through Dark Road and Union X and gathered up all the characters with mythological names (yes this includes Missing Link beta content and theorizing). It's a long post, but stay tuned for the end where I've thrown all my Remus thoughts:

Skuld

So in Norse Myth, Skuld is a Norn. Specifically, the Norn of the future. The Norns also closely resemble the Fates from Greek myth, which is interesting. I find it really interesting that Skuld is named specifically after the Norn of the future when her game takes place in the distant past. Obviously all the Union Leaders travel to the future--so why is Skuld the only one named after a myth figure that specifically has to do with that? I can't wait to see how this all lines up later, since so far we've only had one game with her in it.

Baldr

He's the important guy, both in Myth and in Dark Road. In myth, he's the son of Odin that's deceived and killed by Loki, however it is Hod who deals the fatal blow. I feel like his name lines up with his myth inspiration very nicely--he's tricked by darkness, which ultimately leads to his death. However, one really interesting thing is that Baldr is said to survive Ragnarok, so does that mean we'll be seeing Baldr again someday?

Bragi

So Bragi is interesting. In myth, he's actually a poet who was diefied as the god of poetry. He's also known for his wisdom. The really interesting thing though is that myth Bragi's wife, Idunn, had a tree with the apples of youth, which keep the gods from aging. Really interesting that Dark Road's Bragi is actually Luxu, a guy who does not die... Clues lying in plain sight, really.

Vor

There really isn't much to find about Norse Myth's Vor, other than Vor was a minor goddess of wisdom. I just think it's cool that Vor's name is based off of a goddess of wisdom, since Vor's whole arc in Dark Road is figuring out who's right and what she wants to do.

Hermod

So in Norse myth, Hermod is the messenger god and a son of Odin. He also uses magic. In one particular myth, Hermod tried to rescue Baldr from the underworld, but ultimately failed. He has other myths where he acts like a messenger too. I don't really have much to say about Hermod's name inspiration and how it ties to Dark Road, but it is interesting how Hermod dies immediately after visiting the Underworld trying to find Baldr.

Urd

I... I have the least to say about her (at least about the main DR cast). In myth, Urd is a fate like Skuld, but she's the fate of the past. It's just weird she's named after the fate of the past and not the present. Or maybe not since this game is technically Xehanort's past...

Odin

Can you tell he was based off of Odin? He has the long beard, he's old, he's got a long coat, and a wide-brimmed hat (those are how Odin is usually represented). In myth, Odin is the god of war and also poets. He's got a horse named Sleipnir and was a magician. I know there are also theories floating around about Yen Sid potentially being Master Odin and honestly? Yen Sid fits the description.

Heimdall

In myth, Heimdall is the protector of the rainbow bridge and the entrance to Asgard. He also had heightened senses and didn't need to sleep. He and Loki actually ended up killing each other in myth as well. I have even less to say about the upperclassmen, honestly, especially ones like Heimdall who are only in a few scenes anyways. It is ironic that Heimdall was killed by darkness, though (and darkness, in my eyes, takes up a very Loki-like roll).

Helgi and Sigrun

I'm merging these two since their myths are very connected. So basically, Helgi was a Norse hero figure that is the son of Sigmund. He fell in love with a woman named Sigrun and ends up getting killed by her brother, Dragr. Sigrun eventually dies of sadness, but both she and Helgi are reborn. Sigrun is reborn into a Valkyrie named Kara whereas Helgi gets to keep his name. It's very interesting that their myths have aspects of reincarnation tied to them, which isn't true for any of the other DR characters. It's also very curious that Sigrun got a new name... and DR Sigrun looks like Strelitzia...

But that's just a theory a--

Vala

So Vala isn't an actual mythological figure, though they do show up in myths a lot. Basically, a vala is a priestess/shaman. In myth, they could use magic, see the future, and influence battles. I don't have much to say about Vala despite her being one of the more interacted with members of the upperclassmen, but she does appear to be the most wise/level-headed of the group.

Vali

I could have sworn Vali was a girl but Vali is, indeed, a guy in Dark Road. Anyways, in myth Vali is the son of Odin who was born to avenge Baldr and killed Hod. Vali does survive Ragnarok as well. It's just interesting how he has a reverse to his myth inspiration, considering be dies to Baldr and Darkness, though he does try to avenge Hod's death.

Hoder

The blind god of the night in Norse myth and son of Odin. Hod was actually tricked into killing Baldr and so was told by the other gods to avenge Baldr's death by fighting Vali. Vali won, Hod died, but when Ragnarok happened, both Hod and Baldr returned and survived Ragnarok. Very interesting implications when it comes to Kingdom Hearts...

Vidar

In myth, he's the son of Odin and was also fated to survive Ragnarok. He killed the wolf Fenrir, who's Loki's son who ate Odin. That's about all that's known about Vidar from myth. I do think it's very ironic that DR Vidar died to a Heartless when his myth inspiration killed Fenrir. Also interesting that his is the name of someone fated to survive Ragnarok despite him dying in DR...

Sigurd

I nearly forgot him but here he is! His name in myth is Siegfried. He's a hero figure who fought a dragon and awakened a valkyrie from sleep. In some stories, he's of noble blood but was an orphan. He's also associated with the ancient Germanic princess, Brunhild, who had Old Norse origins. Basically the story of Brunhild is that she vowed to marry the man who could beat her in strength, and Siegfried was able too, but he won her for another person. Brunhild got vengeful, and Siegfried died. Not every story of Brunhild leads to his death though.

He's a lot more interesting than I thought, especially for a character who shows up for like 2 lines in Union X's secret ending lol. Likelihood is, he's from another Society or the people in charge, and he welcomed Brain in Scala ad Caelum (this we know). Judging from his myth and what we already know about him, he's likely of noble or blue blood and is probably a Keyblade wielder. I wonder if we'll see any grand feats like fighting a dragon or if he'll die in Missing Link, though?

Freya

I can't really say much for Freya either since she's so new and her game isn't even out yet. She is the sister of Freyr in Norse Myth and is the goddess of love, fertility, battle, and death. So just keep in mind that she's an option for the tragic siblings trope.

Now for the really interesting guys!

Nept

I've decided to start with Neptune since Remus is a whole can of worms. So Neptune is the Roman god of the sea, and used to be just the god of freshwater until the Romans identified him with Poseidon. His myths are the same as Poseidon's: get eaten by his dad, get vomited out, draw sticks to see which realm he gets, yada, yada, yada. He was loyal to the Roman Zeus, Jupiter, and married Salacia, though he had many affairs. He also created horses and bulls!

We really don't know much about Nept since he only has a few released scenes so far, but the fact that he's probably named after the Roman god of water is interesting (i've said it before but Aqua's ancestor??? Perhaps???). I'm a little worried about the loyalty aspect though...

Remus

This. This fucking can of worms. Remus do you even know the implications of your own name?

So the myth of Remus and Romulus! Their mother, Rhea Silvia, was the daughter of the king of Alba Longa, Numitor. Numitor got removed from the throne by his brother, Amulius, who forced Rhea to take a vow of chastity by becoming a Vestal Virgin. Well she ended up having the god of war's, Mars', twin children: Remus and Romulus. They were cared for by Mars' sacred animals (she-wolf and woodpecker) and taken in by farmers, Faustulus and Acca Larentia. When the twins grew up, they killed Amulius and restored their grandfather to the throne. The twins then went on to found a city, and after Romulus built some walls around it, he killed Remus, and the city was named Rome after Romulus.

So this myth is interesting for a number of reasons. First and foremost: the siblings thing. Tragic siblings being a staple of the KH mobile games and all leaves Remus and Romulus perfect candidates for being the tragic siblings. This is also why I'm so worried about Remus being late to showing Player the Astral Realm because--is he already dead? His mythological self dies! It's practically written in the Book of Prophecies at this point!

However the second most important thing about the Remus and Romulus myth is how Remus and Romulus are the grandsons of a king who got overthrown. What if, somehow, the Baroque Society is the very last remnant of Ephemer's line/society? Somehow, what if Ephemer's line gets usurped and its last remains of his society dwindles down to at least 4 people (the question is if there's 5 members considering Freya's "another one" line)? After all, the scientists do say the founders' societies. Who are these other founders? Are they even real? What is going on with Scala ad Caelum's governing situation? We already know that it can't be good, but we don't know how bad it is.

Another really interesting thing is that Player specifically, very weirdly, reaches out to Remus when they're by Ephemer's statue. That scene was all shades of odd. Which begs the question--is Remus somehow connected to Ephemer? Is Remus is the descendant of Ephemer, and all these silver-haired characters are just there to throw us off? Did Ephemer's bloodline somehow get usurped? Is Missing Link going to be about reinstating his family line, or watching it all fall to ruin? Is Remus going to get killed by his own brother?

It's just. It's all shades of interesting and worrying at the same time. And I'm not even mentioning Remus' similarities to Lea!

Conclusion

Remus nearly made me forget this post had a point: the differences between Roman and Norse names. I thought maybe there was a connection between the "sons of Odin" thing going on, but no. Baldr and Hermod both are sons of Odin, but Baldr has a gold Master's symbol and Hermod doesn't. Even for the non-sons, Heimdall has a gold Master's symbol but Bragi doesn't.

It's also too early to really tell anything distinct about the new Missing Link characters, since a) we don't see much of them and b) the naming doesn't differentiate them either. Freya is a member of the Baroque Society alongside Remus and Nept. There's no distinction there either. There is no visual disctinction between Freya, Nept, and Remus except for their underclothes, and I'd say those design choices are more geared toward their personalities than anything else. They also don't have Master's symbols (which is another interesting thing. Sigurd doesn't have one either. Do they not exist yet? Are they the symbol of another society?). Even if they did, we still don't really know the difference between silver and gold ones, though one theory is gold = blue blood, silver = non-blue blood.

There is definitely a naming convention going on here, though. It's no coincidence that all of Dark Road's characters have Norse-inspired names, but not all of Dark Road's do. I just really want to crack why there's this distinction. I'm betting it has something to do with these noble houses/blue blood families, though (I'm willing to overlook Xehanort and Eraqus as they existed long before these concepts were even thought up.). For now I'll leave it at that and post this so that we have a bit of a collection of all the name inspirations for our myth-inspired Kingdom Hearts characters in one place.

Also, if anyone knows more about ancient myth than what Google could tell me, please let me know! I absolutely could have missed something!

[sculkcensor]

Quiiiiick (lying) analysis on a little theory I have about the 'species' (ig?) seen in QSMP

so on Quesadilla Island, we see two major sentient peoples. We have the census bureaus (CBs), of which we know Cucurucho, Osito, and the pink ears one, tho there may be more. There's also the faceless people, who I'll call Workers for simplicity tho they seem to encompass all residents of the island who aren't the players, not just fed staff.

The CBs may potentially have once been Workers, since they appear very similar, or indeed may have just been crafted to look like them. It's hard to say exactly what they are biologically, they may be robotic or not, too much to bother breaking down here but in summary it's not clear.

Conversely, Workers seem to be biological. They don't have the powers (flight, invis, etc). They eat and drink regularly, chat amongst themselves, get paid for their work, and importantly as we see from Walter Bob, can have families and children. They also seem to generally be free-thinking. They are as diverse as players personality-wise, but visually all look the same with a blank face, and communicating through books.

Fit's contractor also resembles a Worker.

Now onto the INTERESTING part, on Egg Island, we see three new 'creatures'.

We have the Watcher, who is a plain black entity with a single eye, twice the height of normal players. (I could go into the mythology significance here but I'm trying to keep this short lol). We have the Eye Worker, and we have the Little Buddies (LBs).

The eye worker is most likely to be a regular worker who defected to the Watcher's side. We know that Egg Island was once owned by the feds, and whilst we don't know the details, it's likely there were Workers on the island that remained when the Fed left. (alternatively, this could be the Worker that boated to the island, but that's less likely, we do see them dead and this eye worker has no black corruption.)

The ONLY visual differences we see between Workers beyond their clothes are player-created ones (Walter Bob's haircut), yet this Worker has a clear biological difference in that it has an eye. There's two potential routes from this: we can make a slightly jumping assumption that somehow, working with the Watcher gave it this eye - either a surgical change (it does have advanced equipment, tho there's no surgical implications) or a natural change a la the black corruption, something that just Happened to this guy because it works with the Watcher.

Alternatively, ALL the workers who lived on Egg Island could look like that, and they just have a general biological difference to Quesadilla Workers.

Where am I going with this - well. The LBs GREATLY resemble Workers, just small with eyes. We know Walter Bob at least had/has a child, and likely other Workers had children too.

People theorised that the LBs were the equivalent of Eggs, but I want to suggest - what if they are the children of Workers? Either the children of workers on Egg Island, or ones from Quesadilla that ended up there somehow? We know the rebels were trying to boat ppl off the island, and Egg Island is clearly not that far from Quesadilla. If the Watcher can make ppl have eyes, it would track that they could also have gained eyes. And they're not working for the Watcher as far as we see, and do act like little kids.

I'm not even going to start on Cucurojo or whatever we're calling it now, I don't even know what's going on there lmao but it does seem to be a similar entity.

En fin, this is just rambling speculation. But please guys, can we make it cool to like MCYT, so I can make a QSMP theory video on PT without my audience trying to kill me for it---

[vegalocity]

It’s honestly a crime that the writing just brushed Syntax’s becoming a Spider under the rug. No, he’s fine with it, don’t worry about it. No we’re not gonna explore this, they’re bad guys and we’re killing them off anyway, don’t worry about it.

There was so much room to explore, especially with how Goliath and Huntsman might’ve felt, but no.

I MEAN RIGHT?

Admittedly it's a running thing with LMK to IMPLY a lot and then look at the audience and say 'no followup questions' with their full chests, (like all of the implications of Red Son's home life being kinda fucked but it barely gets touched upon again after season one despite clear evidence that things aren't all fixed in S3 and we're just supposed to believe everything's aces by S4) And the Spiders i think are probably the most egregious example

the deleted character (rip Spindrax regulated to the shadow relm), one of the characters never gets a dedicated episode to see how he acts as an independent agent and that spider doesn't even have a real NAME (which im sure drives you crazy in particular Twinkle) there are IMPLICATIONS of character arcs and backstories and overall POTENTIAL that just got thrown away to show everyone how cool and dangerous LBD was and gave NO hope of rescue.

Back when s2 was airing i thought LMK was sort of like- Building a rogue's gallery- a sort of batman rogues are we type cabal that could keep the adventures fresh and fun and... nope. I would have KILLED for a sort of 'Harley and Ivy' type episode that was focused entirelhy around the spiders, and possibly run it like essentially an Ed Edd N Eddy episode as the spider boys tried running a heist or smth without SQ there to keep them from feeding off of eachother's vibes too hard and it all turning to complete chaos.

LMK has a lot of stylistic influence to Adveture Time, and you can tell they WANT MK to be a Finn type (I mean his place in the mythological system seems to be essentially Finn's Catalyst Comet arc truncated significantly) but you kinda can't make an adventure time style world without understanding that the world belongs just as much to the semi-reformed wizard kidnapping princesses as it does to the hero that kicks him in the boingloins, you know?

and LMK very much belongs ONLY to the Monkie Kid Krew (I mean ive gone on record to say that Tang's arc would have been MUCH more interesting if he WASN'T actually the Monk in a past life and really was Just Some Guy and fully earned his own magic, but that would mean the world was bigger than just the characters designated as important so that couldn't be) and the villains are just pins to set up and knock over in a season and a special's time (if they even get that, sorry Nine Heads)

But as for Huntsman and Goliath's perspectives on Syntax- man i WISH i knew those... I think the ones i like the best are Goliath being... nice but distant to the new guy in like a 'whatever the queen clearly thinks its fine' type way and Hutnsman being like- INSTANTLY thinking Syntax is gunning for his 'position' (whatever it is) and is HYPER aware of him, Syntax is living RENT free in this spider's head because he's CONVINCED that he's after his position in the 'loyalty to the queen' social ladder or smth and meanwhile Syntax, genre savvy as he is is like "oh we're gonna do that thing where we start out as rivals but grow closer to respect eachother and eventually become very close friends and playfully compete with eachother sometimes to keep the spice in the banter! this is fun! ^.^"

Idk sounds like more fun than a pile of dead bodies that don't even get the dignity of being brought back in flashbacks

[greenfiend]

can you explain what deep father means? you said its a translation of demogorgon, but what does 'deep father' actually mean symbolically, logisitically, metaphorically etc. it doesnt make grammatical sense so just wondering what you think it means in your theories, as it gets mentioned a fair bit with reverence and creepy undertones but i don't understand what the implication is supposed to actually be.

Hey anon! Great question.

So basically there are many different titles for Demogorgon, and one of them is “The Deep Father”.

x

Demogorgon is a name for a mythological creature that has actually been around a long time. It’s also commonly known as a God/deity/demon of the underworld. And of course, God is a “father” as well.

This also ties into the Ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Hades. Persephone was kidnapped by the God of the underworld: Hades.

When Will says “the Demogorgon, it got me” he is also talking in code about his father… likely because his father kidnapped/abducted him in the past.

Why do I think this? Well…

The framing of this shot with that line…

Joyce yelling at “Papa” that he took Will from her…

Demogorgon aka father taking sons…

Also, the fact that in The First Shadow, Lonnie admitted to stealing baby Jesus from the Nativity set…

Remember guys, there aren’t any throwaway lines in this show!

Just more sad and depressing stuff…

(Credit to @merth-or-nothin for making the connection between the "PAPA!" scene).

I know I’m being controversial when I say that El represents Will and Papa represents Lonnie but… I’m very confident they do. Look at this parallel. Also, remember that within horror, the supernatural/horror elements are representations of the real darkness within humanity.

Then of course this cut. Lonnie hammering the nail, cutting to Mike poking a hole in a paper… representing the gate being open. PLUS Lonnie’s dialogue too. This shows us that Lonnie is responsible for the gate opening in the first place!

Lonnie is the Demogorgon. Lonnie is Papa.

[mellowdisko]

Religion in Caesar's Legion

The neopaganist movement of the wasteland. We know the whole deal with Mars; The Legion bases its religious framework around the worship of the Roman god of war and Caesar as the “Son of Mars”. The Roman imperial cult is probably present in the Legion so we can say our boy Ed is seen as the hand of God reaching to the wasteland. The wiki says Caesar declared himself the Son of Mars, ordered by a divine mandate, empowering him with the supposed will of the god to carry out his imperial conquests, to "deliver the wasteland from chaos and barbarism." And to facilitate this conquest, Mars cleansed the Earth with fire, bringing humans to their lowest ebb. This casts the Great War as a central event within the Legion's mythology. (That also creates a very interesting premise about Legionaries coming into contact with historical texts from the Old World. If they were to read about the origins of the Great War, they would likely come to the realization that the bombs falling was not a divine judgment but instead a direct result of past politics).

But going back to Mars, the religious practices of the Legion are directly influenced by the Roman pantheon, but there are very obvious peculiarities. Like, at the beginning of the battle of Hoover Dam, we see the Legate performing human sacrifices in the name of Mars. Does this mean such rituals are an institutionalized practice within the Legion, or is Lanius simply exploiting Mars' name? Additionally, the focus on Mars as the primary deity is different from that of the regular Roman religion. While the ideology clearly draws from Roman mythology, there is an apparent absence of other Roman gods in the Legion. And if only Mars is worshipped, does that mean the Legion follows a monotheistic religion? And if they do worship other Gods, how does Caesar explain the presence of female figures in Roman myth, most notably Minerva, when the Legion’s culture is strictly patriarchal?

Now I am fully getting into headcanon territory here, I would like to imagine that, contrary to the monotheistic implications, the Legion could indeed worship other Roman gods. And that Mars, while the supreme deity, might be part of a broader polytheistic religion where other gods play roles of lesser significance. And like with that, the Legion’s various settlements could be dedicated to particular deities, with each city having its own little unique religious practices. Localized temples and patron gods would create a more dynamic culture while maintaining a religion centred on Mars.

Another headcanon of mine is the influence of New Canaanite traditions on the religion of the Legion. I feel like Graham's religious background probably did have an effect during the forming years of the Legion. While this influence would not likely lead to a rejection of the polytheistic system, it could manifest in subtle ways, such as the adoption of certain rituals or expressions like, idk, "amen" being used after prayers.

Oh, and finally, the Legion’s process of absorbing various tribal groups and cultures into its borders inevitably brings with it a plethora of different religious beliefs and practices. While the Legion assimilates the cultures it conquers and enforces a nationalist, imperialist, totalitarian, homogeneous culture that obliterates the identity of every group it takes,  it seems unlikely that every single native religious practice could be entirely erased. Given the sheer number of individuals within the Legion, it is plausible that some form of religious syncretism would emerge. And I do think Caesar is wise enough to bring the tribal religious beliefs into the grander culture of the legion instead of destroying them fully

or maybe not, I don't know; the guy does have an intelligence stat of 4.

[audreyscribes]

after reading your Hera demigod hcs, I starting wondering how Hera could have a demigod child. This is how I think she would have a demigod: One day, Hera had grown tired of Zeus's constant affairs and felt he should know the same pain, but obviously she knew she couldn't have an affair, as that would destroy the entire foundation of marriage, so Hera found another way, she had seen how a mortal woman had her husband constantly cheat and eventually leave her for another woman and the woman had had multiple miscarriages in her life, feeling a connection to this mortal woman, Hera looked into a pond in the Garden of Hesperides and birthed a child from her reflection in the pond and sent her child straight to the mortal woman's doorstep.

Man, you Hera demigods* have been cooking things haven't you. Good for you!

Honestly, weirder things (famous last words) have happened in Greek Mythology, or Mythology in general, so I can see this being plausible. It's also nice to think about the implications and aspects that child have, being born from a "reflection" (Mirror, parallel self), "pond" (fresh water, nature), from the "Garden of Hesperides" (Golden Apple, the Hesperides- Nymphs of the West, Evening and golden light of sunsets). [*Hera demigods: I can't tell if its the same anon or multiple anons, but anytime someone mentions or cooks something up for respective gods, I'm just going to refer you guys as that respective gods' demigod.]

Thanks for asking! Hope you have a nice day! (❁´◡`❁)

[Link to Afomentioned Hera Demigod H/Cs Here!]

[narwhalandchill]

also mistake not my silence on the summer event story now that its all out for not paying attention bc. well firstly not going to be the subject of this post but seriously just the . Overall implications of the whole thing when it comes to teyvat and genshin as a whole? wild stuff like are they rly out there revealing the entire cosmology now 😭 (tho i kinda have. Mixed thoughts as well)

anyway secondly and most importantly because of course i have priorities (its ajax we all know) . soooo simulanka and names eh?

HUH!

well not that i was any doubter to begin with in that it like. meant something when hit game jenshin impact featuring guy already foreshadowed and being set up for some real curious world-overturning and celestia torching business etc etc etc coincidentally named. ajax. among other things. that the same game happening to Also begin introducing this whole other ajax/aias as an actual historical figure featured within the games lore and legends. would very much be just a massive fucking thing we Should be taking very seriously in terms of his future development but like thanks very much for confirming it too uwu

anyway let us look at my favorite french cultist scribbled note for no particular reason once more just to celebrate the occasion

i mean what can i say man . truly the endgame relevance long term allegations continue undodged 😤😤

anyway whats kinda funny to me is the way a lot of ppls reaction to this name confirmation seems to be like. omg ajax is in trouble now bc irl mythology ajax died and ajax/aias of genshin also seems to have possibly had a shit fate by the end im so worried omg . when like. literally the second part to this whole "name = inheriting destiny" thing we see in simulanka is that . with the right circumstances . the one that inherits the name and destiny is not necessarily doomed to that exact same outcome as the original . like we all did see how we saved simulanka durin right?? and how the existence of mini durin may now open up the possibility of teyvats durin to receive a different outcome to his tale???? right??

like why do ppl have so little faith in childe im 😭 like if you ask me hes Already giving indication of defying his fate in a multitude of ways (vision malfunction being a big one) so personally i simply think we need to let him do his thing and see where he goes with it . i have faith in him like if Anyones abt to subvert the fate hes been set up with be it due to his name or any other reason . its gonna be him lmao

like. its not even new stuff kwdwdjkdwjk

either way tho . even if this fucker straight up "dies" or goes MIA im not even that worried bc. ppl worrying about this "tragic fate" his namesake seems to be conferring to him by default with simulankas explicit confirmation of a names meaning . and its just are we straight up missing the fact that this historical ajax/aias is Literally connected to that rent free narzissenkreuz note that EXPLICITLY aligns this "tragedy" with the theme of REBIRTH. and becoming a descender straight up .

like maybe its just me but this Really isnt giving "omg childe is going to die due to mirroring the fate of ajax" its giving "childe is Literally being set up to become sth descender equivalent one way or another AND theyre doubling down on it now" im sorry 😭

like. even the implications of phrases like. "forsaking the self" to be reborn in the abyss just reminds me of this. weird panic people have around childes vision malfunction as if its like. vision is GOOD ambition and his GOOD ending and his GOOD characteristics and it malfunctioning means BAD EVIL SIN ambition and WRONG characteristics is taking over!!!!!!!11! hes being torn into two different directions and the abyss is bad and vision (=celestia) is good!!!!!1

and its like. say we even buy that (but like dang what a sustainer sponsored take to have in a. gnostic inspired lore environment JWSJKJKSF) . that his. "correct" and "healthy" destiny as vision wielder (that Every single recipient of a "gods EYE" gets like forcibly and irrevocably bound to by design and surely this isnt problematic at all) . is a part of that "self" that is being forsaken and twisted as his destiny pushes against celestias control and his connection to said vision falters . lets say we assume that is a "bad" thing for his "intended" path and destiny somehow .

(which YES it prolly is. but only within the bounds of a world order set up by the heavenly principles!!! of COURSE the HP would force people into destinies and paths that Only serve the continuity of its rule!!! and doesnt shake up the system!! like yes a vision likely represents and assigns to people a "Good" ambition but thats not from the recipients POV thats from celestias POV and at this point its just. fellas. we are not supposed to buy into that at face value lmao)

which like. again. i v much dont buy anyway i think every single time genshin calls something sin or forbidden it should be assessed v critically.

but even with that assumption we can still see how this very note is already implicating that "forsaking the self" is Literally a prerequisite . in this grand destiny featuring ajax/aias . for reaching True rebirth as a holy infant and a descender and all that . for defying the shackles of the heavens . for gaining a will that rivals the world . right???

+ also if like. forsaking the self being mayhaps and perchance more of a GOOD thing in a world with preordained and unyielding destiny set up by false divinity wasnt already established enough

welp thank you rene narzissenkreuz.

oh "excising the self" you say?? that sure sounds a bit like "forsaking the self" doesnt it ??? how curious that it would be considered less of a "death" and more of a "rebirth" indeed . and that a vision to a cultist very invested in the methods available to Defy a prophecy and fate is very much a bad thing to receive . like what a coincidence that we would have a note like this as an established character already tied to a note you wrote about acquiring a descenders will is experiencing vision compatibility issues its very funny indeed.

so like ig what im trying to say is just idk for me personally if ajax is out there forsaking his self by any metric im just gonna be cheering him on <3

but yeah jkqjkwdjkwdjkwd dont mind me im just kinda rent free with how its now just even more confirmed by hoyo that this insane ajax/aias note stuff is Not meant to be coincidental At All (even tho its very funny ppl doubted the signifance to begin with at all). but also i just dont get the panicking abt it being some bad thing lmao like this is just genuinely hype as fuck for him 😭😭😭

[liesmyth]

Dissecting John and Wake’s conversation

Or, at least, a specific section of it. Way before NtN came out, Wake’s specific phrasing when she accuses John struck me as odd. I’ve been obsessing over these lines since 2021.

Given the context, she’s most likely talking about Earth here, not his post-resurrection actions. She is charging him with the genocide of humanity on the day he destroyed Earth. But her language is very specific, and at odds with how Wake usually talks. It sounds rehearsed; it sounds very dogmatic, like another line that has been passed down the generations, just as BoE names are.

According to the HtN glossary, BoE members pick their names from the names of previous Edenites. It goes back all the way to Earth, but they don’t seem to have the context for these references. Wake’s list of accusations against John has the tone of another litany, as if this specific wording has been passed down. John has “heard this ALL before,” which IMO supports this interpretation. He has heard these exact accusations before, down to the wording. They’re ritualised.

Wake recites her charges without any hint of doubt; she’s definitely convinced she IS telling the truth. What I find interesting is the contrast between her very precisely worded charges, and the fact that she follows them up with factually incorrect information. This:

Ok, here’s the thing. John didn’t kill ten billion people with “A” BOMB. Note the singular here. It’s peculiar, because she was SO specific just before, and because this is Wake—she knows her shit about weapons; she would know that it’s way, way more likely to kill billions of people with repeated strikes instead of one (1) huge bomb. And “bomb” it’s not a word that people tend to use in the singular whee they mean multiple bombs. I really think that, given the context, she TRULY means to say that BoE lore has it that John Gaius wiped out all of humanity in one blow. She believes it. This isn’t a historical account; this is a flood myth.

I may be overthinking this, but it’s fun to do it, so. What this conversation says (TO ME, until Alecto proves me wrong etc.) is

BoE believe they know how the destruction of humanity came about.

Their account was probably passed down the generation, and it’s become part of their mythology. It’s entirely not factually correct.

This could be due to simply the fact that it’s been millennia and many records went lost, leaving legends. OR it could be because of other reasons (propaganda?). Also: if we take the apparent (but not confirmed) implication that the non-House planets were settled by descendants of the FTL fleet, there’s the fact that the ships were in orbit while Earth was actually being destroyed—they may have been aware of a bomb exploding as they took off, causing a loss of communication with Earth, but it’s a massive fucking leap from “Melbourne went dark” to “kiwi necro guy killed off all of humanity”. They were already at the edge of the solar system when John “grabbed one” of the ships, but I doubt he was in any way recognisable, you know? It’s more likely he looked like an angry nebula. The FTL fleet would Not know exactly what happened.

(Anyway I’m writing out this because I’m about to start a NtN reread and I remember finishing up my Harrow reread in August and being yet again struck by all the details in this conversation—hence tagging it as #nona reread. Very excited to go obsessing over NtN now.)