#though this is more like the pale king being reincarnated as the knight theory

[fferthe]

ENTRY NUMBER ELEVEN.

Who are they?

Note: It's not X!Kris and it's not XI, as many have mistakenly assumed. XI is not canon and was simply a joke that went on for a bit too long, everything related to XI has been taken down. As for the former, there's no such thing as XTale Kris and Jakei had to repeatedly correct people due to the misconception.

Their attire is very atypical for a child their age, they have a purple necklace of ambiguous shape, and seem to have at least a half of XGaster's SOUL, judging by their pupils. While it's possible for XGaster to create an artificial SOUL of a red trait, the same cannot be said for his own trait. And they couldn't have had the SOUL itself (or even a part of it) in their possession at any point during XTale. The glimpse we get of them is from the future. However, given the lines "GET READY" and" YOUR TIME IS COMING", it must mean that they've already existed by that point in some shape or form, albeit soulless.

It must've been created prior to timeline IX and saved to the infamous 'data compilation' for later use.

And yes, created. Their hair don't match anyone's, although X!Chara comes very close. It's unlikely that he OVEWROTE someone. Despite XGaster's intimidation last episode, X!Chara would only be used as a puppet at best. Same goes for X!Frisk.

Thanks to his shenanigans, we know that a human body can contain a SOUL of another human within it. This cohabitation reflects in the subject's appearance.

But what happens when a monster's SOUL is tied to a human body? See, the wording here is quite interesting. With the SOUL and body of a monster. Does it entail that other combinations are viable? Well, from what I'm seeing, they must be. Now, the question stands: for what grand purpose were they created? And why do they share a SOUL with XGaster? Perplexed by their outfit, I had an epiphany.

They have his SOUL, his outfit—it's like they serve to be his vessel. The line "AS CLEAR AS A REFLECTION IN A MIRROR" also gives me that idea. It may simply be an expression, but that's quite uncharacteristic of him, even though he tends to be cryptic about things. There could be more to it than meets the eye.

Y'know, no matter how unpleasant something may be, XGaster is always willing to sacrifice his and others' comfort for the 'bright future'. We've seen what lengths he would go to when chasing his visions. What if the 'perfect world' required him to abandon his current shell and don human flesh? He'd comply. What if he intended to replace Frisk, the 'player' of that world?

This bit can be taken as a callback to the fact that he tried to off himself back in timeline 0 and is still in immense pain as shown in 0.7-2..

Or as reincarnation. And after looking around, turns out that there's also a secret in the 2 black frames that come after this sequence!

By tweaking the brightness and contrast, you see a very fuzzy silhouette. Well, isn't that interesting?

Also, fun fact, if you speed up the entry clip by 666%, you'll get this theme.

The theme plays at 27:50 during entry 19.

And I might be going coocoo at this point, but hear me out on this one.

XGaster's birthday is on 11/11. The entry is number 11. This gotta count for something, right? There are 11 videos in the XTale playlist, so his might as well be considered 11th. Matches up with his birthday date, doesn't it?

Anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk

[lintheotaku]

Anime Watch

Season: Winter 2023

Anime:  Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World Plot: “... One night after several weeks in a downward spiral, Nick ends up in a local tavern where fate leads him to meeting three fellow adventurers. After a night of drinking, the four bond over their own betrayals and their destroyed ability to trust anyone. This is when Nick hatches on the idea for the four to form a party.” Initial Thoughts : Geez, the amount of betrayal that these four go through- (Though I’m not sure why a few things weren’t mentioned from the manga for Nick’s case unless they plan on using it later) Surprisingly enough I’m very invested in their growth and as to how they’ll work as a party. Secretly hoping they can all one up all their backstabbers eventually. Definitely has my interest so far this season. **Edit Final thoughts: There’s some very apparent flaws in this anime, I’m afraid. A couple of obvious errors like, feet not matching the background when characters walking down steps. Pacing towards the end felt very weak despite everything tidying up most of the current subplots. The show had very potential promise in the beginning, the final episode of the crew just walking around town while talking was a bit... ridiculous? considering they just stated to attending a festival yet walking OUT of town to just remind everyone of their adventure only for a newest character to call them back to town? And no, they didn’t go back to Nick’s story like I hoped.

Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [3.5/5]

Anime:  The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady Plot: “Despite her supposed ineptitude with regular magic, Princess Anisphia defies the aristocracy's expectations by developing "magicology," a unique magical theory based on memories from her past life. One day, she witnesses the brilliant noblewoman Euphyllia unjustly stripped of her title as the kingdom's next monarch. That's when Anisphia concocts a plan to help Euphyllia regain her good name-which somehow involves them living together and researching magic! Little do these two ladies know, however, that their chance encounter will alter not only their own futures, but those of the kingdom...and the entire world! ” Initial Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

Anime:  Farming Life in Another World Plot: “Having died of sickness at the age of 39, Machio Hiraku is given the opportunity to go to another world. When asked what his wish is by God intending to give him strength, he requests to have a healthy body, offered a second wish, he chooses to live peacefully, a third wish to be able to know the local language, and for a final wish, to be able to be a farmer. ” Initial Thoughts: Still curious, not yet sold on this one. So far a more of a casual watch. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4/5]

Anime:  The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World Plot: “Despite being ostracized for being a commoner, Ray befriends the prideful yet kind Amelia Rose, the muscle-brained Evy Armstrong, and the shy and bookish Elisa. However, conspiracy is lurking in the academy walls, and Ray is tasked with hunting down a spy whose motives remain unclear. To protect his newfound friends and the people he holds dear, Ray will do whatever it takes, even if it means confronting his past. ” Overall Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

[no image]

Anime: The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World Plot: “After the betrayal of his companions, Haruyoshi, the strongest diviner, was on the verge of dying. Hoping to be happy in the next life, he attempted the secret reincarnation technique and was sent to a different world! Born into a family of magicians, the magic he didn't inherit paled in comparison to his previous abilities as an onmyouji. "Who needs magic? I'll survive in this world with my old techniques!" ” Overall Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

Anime:  Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire Plot: “From his deathbed, Hero-King Inglis, the divine knight and master of all he surveys, gazes down on the empire he built with his mighty hand. Having devoted his life to statecraft and his subjects' well-being, his one unfulfilled wish is to live again, for himself this time: a warrior's life he'd devoted himself to before his rise to power...” Initial Thoughts: So far this is has been a very simple enjoyment. It’s a done before trope however I’m personally satisfied with the progression in the first 2 episodes. Only time will tell if it this will continue to hold that satisfactory of ‘fun to watch’. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4/5]

Anime:  Buddy Daddies Plot: “Assassins Kazuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa meet Miri, a girl looking for her father on Christmas Day. Kazuki, Rei, and Miri unexpectedly end up living together.” Overall Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

Anime:  Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Plot: “Along with three other heroes, 27-year-old Mukouda Tsuyoshi is transported into a fantasy world to rescue a kingdom from a mysterious threat. However, it soon becomes clear that Tsuyoshi has been dragged into the summoning ritual by accident. His only skill turns out to be "Food Menu," which allows him to open an interface where he can purchase and obtain food-related supermarket items from modern Japan.” Initial Thoughts: Took 2 episodes but now I’m invested in how things go and what other cooking meals he prepares. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4/5]

Anime:  Handyman Saitou in Another World Plot: “Saitou is an ordinary handyman that gets transported to another world where his skills are very useful. He starts to really understand what it means to be needed.” Initial Thoughts: Not quite what I was expecting? Yet I don’t even know what I was expecting to be honest. One thing to note is that it plays like a short comic/panel manga. Divided up in segments and not so much linear. Definately would take some getting used to. At the moment, I’m personally not invested, however I’m willing to continue on for another few more episodes before final thoughts. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [3/5]

Anime:  Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army Plot: “The dark soldier, Dariel (30 years old), who can't use magic despite being in the Demon Lord's army, was fired for his lack of capacity. Having been raised by the previous Demon Lord himself, he finds that his adoptive brother, the new Demon Lord, has little use for him. However, after rescuing a village girl from a forest monster, Dariel is invited into her village and starts realizing that he may be considerably more powerful than what he thought...” Initial Thoughts: Already a sucker for ‘kick out of-’ situations. Expecting this to be a bit of a fun casual watch. Some of the things in this world raises a lot of eyebrows. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4/5]

Anime:  Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte Plot: “ On the outside, otome villainess Liselotte seems foul in every way, a purely evil character. However, as revealed in her diary, she was always hiding both her pain and her true feelings for Prince Siegward. While she keeps this locked away, an evil witch ultimately possesses her, leading to her demise—a tragic end for the tsundere villainess. This is how the story always goes, an end coded into the game MagiKoi. ” Overall Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

Anime:  Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement Plot: “One day, Mitsuha falls off a cliff and is transported to a medieval Europe–type world! After a near-death encounter with a pack of wolves, she then realizes that she's able to transport between two worlds—this one and her own. Taking advantage of this ability, Mitsuha decides to live in both worlds and calculates that she'll need 80,000 gold coins to be able to retire! Mitsuha now has to come up with different ways to collect her gold coins!” Overall Thoughts: Rate: ? [?/5]

[summertimemusician]

Thinking about The Original Attempted Calamity Hero and Ganondorf again and the implications of the Calamity even existing in the first place.

(Warning, this post has spoilers for basically all of the Zelda franchise and is pretty long, if there's a game or thing you did not read but would like to like the manga then please turn back, or stick around if you don't care lol)

I know there's a lot of theories about him floating around, that either he was half Gerudo, part of the Zonai tribe or at least half Zonai and Zonai raised or even Ganon himself because for some reason something might have happened to that era's Link, but that's a fairy better released at another day. But can y'all imagine being the guy back then? I don't think we discuss this enough to be honest.

So far, almost all of Ganon's incarnations have been at least somewhat mortal before BOTW, with the exception of obviously Demise who was a deity, and the whole thing with the Four Swords Adventures portion of the timeline that kind of itches at me that it has time travel involved though that's yet another fairy, but almost every single one of them started as a human even if they do get more and more animalistic over time. What with Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker's Ganondorf being by far the most human, but during the second part of Ocarina of Time and later on Twilight Princess they descend into Beast Form, which is a power boost yes but definitely a downgrade as it doesn't leave him as sane or cognitive, given that at the end of Twilight Princess Ganon returns to human form to fight Link rather than remain in that form. It's telling that he much prefers being human to being a feral boar.

Then we have OG Zelda's Ganon, the general downfall timeline Ganon that is, from A Link to The Past to Oracle of Seasons/Ages to A Link Between Worlds to the very first Legend of Zelda and Link's Adventure, it's clear that Ganon has fully descended into a feral state and that whatever bit of humanity there and cognition as a result was, he very rarely talks in LTTP, in a LBTW he's at his most coherent when Yuga fuses with him, by the OG Zelda he doesn't speak at all and twice in that time frame he had to be revived rather than come back on his own like his more human like iterations can if they wait and chill for a couple hundred years. He's basically no more than a feral animal, he isn't interested in ruling Hyrule, he's very darn interested in destroying the hero and making Hylia herself suffer and definitely doesn't care about burning Hyrule to the ground and killing anyone in his path if that does the trick, whatever sanity there was is too far gone.

Stick with me here, I'll get to the point.

It's an interesting descent and detail to pivot and follow after. It's obviously a result of Demise's corrupting divine fury and curse, you know what's technically a similar case? Zelda.

I think we can all agree that Zelda isn't Hylia, she's Hylia brought to earth or at the very least her vessel if we go by Breath of the Wild, because Zelda praying for herself wouldn't make any logical sense otherwise even if by order of her father, with no memories or rememberance of what she was, just that she is the holder of Hylia's divine power and her will and responsibility to protect the people and specially the Triforce/Light Force the Original Three left behind. No Cost Too Great you could say in the words of the Pale King from Hollow Knight, the only time she remembers in full is in Skyward Sword, it's confirmed that Zelda gets Hylia's knowledge and maybe even her memories after praying in the springs and it doesn't matter if she's just a vessel to her power or a reincarnation or if this is a Cú Chulainn situation where she is Hylia yet isn't (Schrodinger's Deity?), and her behavior shifts a bit then, not by much but it's definitely noticeable if you look at the text.

What if it's a similar case for Ganon? Zelda is what you get when you don't have the memories, when you take something barely comprehensible with a though process you can't even begin to understand with an intense capability for emotion that's practically suffocating and compress it into a mortal form to start again as a blank slate and it mostly remains that way. Ganon is what you get when the memories slowly seep back in as well as the intense, overwhelming, all consuming divine rage and fury and wish for vengeance seeps into a mortal vessel that very obviously can't fully hold it, couple that with Demise's curse and you have a cocktail for disaster, Ganon was doomed from the start just by being Demise's vessel, man never stood a chance. Though there's no way to say wether he fought against the influence or not, that's something we are unlikely to ever know since we only play and read from Link's and Zelda's perspective.

The Calamity and Malice is the result of when that divine fury breaks out, when there's a break in the already spilling over and cracked goblet. But it couldn't have broken on it's own you know? We see that cursed enemies were always a thing in Zelda games and as far back in the timeline as Skyward Sword it already existed, remember that corrupting and harmful 'water' at the Ancient Cistern's basement? The cursed enemies and dark crystals there? Possibly a leftover of Demise's power after the original break through the surface as seen in the First Hero's manga, a prototype of Malice, hence why Ghirahim was sniffing around there for a way to bring him back, it's the only other place in the franchise after BOTW we see a prominent number of cursed enemies, and the Malice is clearly a thing that can learn and evolve, it can possess enemies and technology, it can revive the dead and control it and possess people too and create beings from it (remember the Phantom Ganon in OOT and PH guys), but it's not a discernible pattern, we didn't know much about it at all until recently and that right there? Is some terrifying lovecraftian/ancient mythology thing.

Because we clearly see it puppeteering scattered pieces of Sheikah Tech in the form of the Blights, possessing the Divine Beasts and the Calamity Ganon form in BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom shows us how Ganondorf's corpse is still around and clearly was revived, like a lich being corrupted from it's own energy. It's not Ganondorf doing anything anymore, it's the curse, it's Demise's Will, and as his corpse has not fully perished yet it likely is but a puppet to it.

It was not a pattern anyone could have predicted much less the hero back then, would he and his Zelda have an inkling about the pattern of Ganondorf always reincarnating and maybe have tried to do something about it early? Absolutely, heck maybe Ganondorf was even sane enough to fight back and try to go off script. Would they have predicted that some kind of freaky kill switch would actívate to keep his reanimated corpse going only powered by the original curse Demise set up, which is basically fueled by pure divine will for vengeance on the one with the spirit of the hero who bested him not once but twice and the goddess that twarthed him at every turn from throwing that little green glad bastard at him with a sacred sword to seal him to basically sabotaging the Triforce so divine beings cannot use it and fury so strong it transcends time and space if we count games like Cadance of Hyrule and Hyrule Warriors (which we are doing here by the way) being a thing and presumably happening in different worlds? Absolutely not.

Honestly I see people compare BOTW and AOC Link to the guy back then and how they should have done better in game and that BOTW Link failed not living up to the standard he set up and how he stopped talking under the pressure and I'm just, y'all ever pause and think he wasn't anymore prepared than you people? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong due to sleep deprivation, I haven't slept well in months and woke up in a cold sweat at 3am to start writing this down but just- He didn't have Shrines to prepare him, he didn't have the Divine Beasts back then to weaken the Calamity before they were built by the Sheikah with presumably Zonai aid (and oh boy to I have thoughts and headcanons on that) and that would have taken time, it was basically just him, Zelda, the other races and Fi as the Master Sword (or heck even without her, we all know it always takes any Link time to get the Master Sword in the games, he likely didn't pull her out straight away like how presumably BOTW and AOC Link did) holding the fort against Malice enhanced monsters and likely revived undead because we know even while sane the previous Ganon's were definitely not above doing that.

So it was most likely a Phyrric Victory, the few times we hear about things that happened to previous heroes, is that we either don't know what happened to them at the end of the story (which is extremely concerning if you ask me because something should have been recorded right? They should have at least recorded how Zelda got her powers to give other Zelda's a better point of reference that just stay in a spring and pray to yourself apparently) Or that they just straight up died (The Hero's Shade being OOT Link, The First Hero being left behind rather than being able to ascend with the other humans to Skyloft, OG Zelda's previous Link most likely being killed in an attempt by Ganon's cult to revive him or to seal him away again), and we don't hear what happened to him or Zelda or the original Champions. History is written by the victors after all, Hylian history has a tendency of erasing details, take from that what you will.

TL;Dr My headcanon is that him and his Zelda were unwittingly cataclysms to the Calamity being unleashed in the first place, and that's why we don't hear much about what happened to them and, since 10000 years have passed there was likely a lot of time for erasure and cover up to happen by the crown. And that the man himself would be very proud of his descendants for being able to deal with at least part of the problem he unintentionally caused and surviving even with worse odds in spite of being better prepared unlike him who most likely died even if BOTW Link and AOC Link should get at least one sucker punch in if they're told that wasn't even the original goods they thought they dealt with as a treat if we go the LU route, in this essay I will-