#thread: a different ending

[hecubus]

You look dumb with them glasses on. Why you even wearing 'em?

[mymarifae]

guys twitter dot com doesn't like when you criticize toriel's parenting decisions. don't do it

[round-hatches-are-terrifying]

icons <3

[bogkeep]

i keep running into comments saying the choices you make in pentiment don't matter very much, and i am Certain this is just a tragic case of "does not see character driven storytelling as a valuable form of storytelling" and i should just move on with my life, but... the themes... won't SOMEONE think of the THEMES...!!!

1) if your choices don't matter, then why do i agonize over them so? the story spans 25 years, and the things i say in act I ripples through all the way to act III. words i say can put someone in danger, or convince them to pursue happiness. every character in tassing matters to someone else and partakes in the community in some way, however small. wherever i point for the sword to fall, the void left behind is felt sharply. you're taking part in history.

2) and yet, many choices are out of your hands. andreas is a man, not god. did you not converse with illuminata about the restrictions of your circumstances? what choices do women have, besides marriage or the abbey? why do peasants dream of kingship? choices are taken away from you by those with more power. you can't prevent a death from occuring, only point the finger. is it not arrogant to think you alone could change the world? is it not a relief?

3) the Regret: none of the choices are more correct to make than the others, they are simply the choices you made, and the ones you must live with - and you do have to live. sometimes you were not given a choice, and still you must live. time will pass, and you must live.

[echodoctor]

While I don't think the King and Siffrin are at all related, I do think there's symbolically a lot to be said about him siding with the party against the King as choosing love over family.

Or family (chosen) over family (blood), as the case may be.

This is especially fun if you want to go with ancient Greece as your inspiration for the culture of the Northern Island (because lots of star myths and being the origin of the whole Sisyphus legend), since kinslaying was an absolute hard no in that culture.

Like, generally most societies aren't cool with people killing their family members, sure, that's typically frowned upon. But the ancient Greeks were really serious about it even by your usual standards- it doesn't matter what your relatives did, you need to get someone they can't point to on a family tree to off them or you're in deep shit.

Siffrin and the King are (probably) not blood relatives unless you have a particular headcanon about that- I personally don't- but they are both Northern Islanders, in a world where that's becoming tragically, increasingly rare.

There's so few of them even left- and by choosing to walk into that throne room and confront him with the party, Siffrin ensures that, however this ends, by the time it's over there's going to be one less.

And that, no matter how much they hate each other, is a fundamental tragedy. They aren't family, but in a very real sense, Siffrin choosing to kill him is kinslaying, and I think they both know that.

I wonder if that adds to Siffrin's feelings that he has nowhere to go once their journey is done? Not only is his homeland gone, he's actively turning his back on the person who most openly represents it.

Of course, the King was the one who decided to put lethal force on the table here first by launching his whole supervillain plan to begin with, so he doesn't exactly have the moral high ground, here.

Personally, I'd love to see the two of them have an exchange a la the end of Euripides' Medea, where Jason declares that the Furies will bring vengeance on Medea for her crime of spilling family blood, and she's just like 'lol you think the gods are gonna listen to you after the shit you pulled?' The Universe ain't gonna do shit for you, tin can! You're not the favorite anymore!

(Actually, Siffrin as Medea is a fun thought in general, given the whole "almost broke the world for love" angle. Thankfully, he's lucky enough to have better taste in love than she did- inasmuch as she got a choice in the matter. Add in the parallels of 'came here from a foreign land, strange and dangerous powers, totally down for regicide'... yeah, I think you could do something with that.)

[tapestryundone]

quiet is right handed and always holds the blade in his right hand as a result. he is tied to the narrative that the narrator constructed through the blade and no matter what happens in any runthrough the knife will always end up in his hand at least once no matter what he does or what he truly wants

the princess is always chained by her right hand. no matter what, she is always bound to the cabin and the narrative that the narrator constructs. tsm is represented through countless arms and yet the princes is always placed in a basement with her right hand shackled

both quiet and the princess are trapped in the construct, parallel to one another. the knife is to the long quiet as the chain is to the shifting mound

in the prisoner chapter, if quiet becomes chained then he must lose the knife. there is no purpose to overlapping ones shackles, he just trades one for another

anytime that the princes recieves the knife, she becomes free of her chain. there is no purpose to overlapping ones shackles, she just trades one for another

the knife and shackles are equivalent, and both must be shed in some way for the shifting mound and the long quiet, or the princess and quiet/hero

at the heart of the shifting mound, the princess will always be free. the shifting mound is free to choose anything she wants. shes waiting for you to choose. the apotheosis establishes that she could destroy the construct if she so chose, but if the long quiet doesnt break free with her, destroying the construct will destroy him, too. she is free of her shackle but she has a choice between leaving with the long quiet or killing him- mirroring that the long quiet has a choice between leaving with the shifting mound or killing her. only that the shifting mound made her choice, and that is that no matter what happens, she will not destroy the long quiet

at the heart of the shifting mound, quiet has the choice to take the knife and give into the narrators script- to abide by it or return to its beginning and reread the story all over again- or to abandon his own shackles and free himself from the story the narrator wove

effectively, the chain and the blade must be abadoned in some way for the two to be free. with or without reaching the heart of the shifting mound, neither can be free until the remnants of the construct are abandoned, until their unique tether to the construct is left behind

and if the two are a palindrome, then the letter in the center is the cabin- a structure that exists for both of them and is a construction of the narrator that they both influence differently but in equal amounts. they both have been built around it and feom it, very literally, and the chain and blade are both offshoots of it that the narrator uses to control them

[akkivee]

au where ichiro's always been able to see the red string of fate and was kinda in denial about being connected to kuukou, except the glitch in fate occurs and it adds another layer to ichiro's heartbreak lol

[bayetea]

there are people telling artists not to draw hazel with gold eyes and her canon hair color?

[jordblod]

!! crucial !! piece of hilson lore confirmed - they're fucking LOSERS honestly? so affirming to me. this isn't news i know but to get this explicit piece of interaction about being a lonely child and now being weird adults who don't know how to make friends or have "normal" conversations or connections like this is the shit i eat for breakfast, especially accompanied with the complete and utter sense of surrender to this fact that wilson displays. there's absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to defend himself or act as if what house is saying isn't true bc it is and they both know it and knows the other knows it even if they've never actually talked about this once which is very likely but they know cause they're the same and they only have each other and and and

[exilethegame]

hiii pheo, from what i remember you play dragon age too, how are we feeling about the upcoming game??

Oooh so many mixed feelings. Rn for me it's a classic case of I **want** to be excited... but then EA is the one publishing the game so like... 🧍🏻

I'm def planning to keep an ear out for reviews before buying. However, I'm also in the camp of not letting nostalgia ruin the potential for a new game, especially since it seems they're changing a few things re. combat mechanics and the general format of the RPG. I'm also not saying I am a little scared for Varric in this game for some reason but... 👀

He's v much giving me "long-time companion character who's lived out his hay-days and will now die a tragic death to inspire the player." Also... I'm very curious about the Alistair/Hawke/Stroud Abyss storyline in DAI b/c there were so many theories surrounding that, esp. w/ Hawke + the Abyss but...

Imma be so fr I have like zero faith in that ever being acknowledged canonically 💀

[maeriquitecontrary]

I really want to like Mizuchi, but Chireikiden feels like such a mess in the way everything is communicated. Why do I have to interpret the backstory we've been told directly? I really hope the rest of it can tie it in a neat bow.

If that's already happened by the time this gets posted... We'll see if I eat my words or not.

[itspileofgoodthings]

Rereading Northanger Abbey and I love how the moment Tilney appears things become fun for Catherine 😍😭

[sunsdrop]

You know what? the heck with it. Give this post a like if you wouldn't mind our muses having a romantical connection somewhere down the line ... if a thread seems to be going in that direction.

This isn't a pre established ship thing. If you happen to like this post, a ship isn't expected ... it just lets me know that heyy, maybe there can be a little bit of flirting etc -

I'll save this post so I that I know who is cool with it.... maybe send an IM.

[not-poignant]

ok so I saw that you dont get many asks about this so i've worked up the courage to finally ask this but for Anton and Flitmouse in TGATNW, have you thought about how it would develop in that universe compared to UTG. Tbh, I was originally actually interested in them bc Flitmouse wants monogamy and has self-worth issues about himself while Anton is confident and has fucked just about everyone and likes it that way. But in UTR that kind of conflict doesnt really work the same way and seems to be heading for a different route. Would Anton have dedicated himself to Flitmouse (like in UTG) or would Flitmouse have grown to be less insecure about it all?

Btw, I love them both lotss, and they were the pairing that got me to read the rest of the UTR series <3

Tbh one of the reasons I stopped writing the story in The Golden Age that Never Was is because I knew it would never have a truly happy ending and I struggle to commit to stories like that.

Like, Flitmouse is mortal, Anton is immortal. Flitmouse is highly jealous, and Anton is immortal literally because every mortal he knows and loves will die and that grief kills him, for decades upon decades. Flitmouse knows Anton's love for him will do this and that Anton will then go on to have sex with lots of other people, and Anton knows that this breaks Flitmouse's heart and refuses to compromise because Flitmouse isn't a golden warrior.

In Underline the Gold they still get to have a happy ending. Because Flitmouse can be jealous or possessive but Anton is committed to him literally through their job. I can touch on an age discrepancy without having one literally live forever.

I do think in All The Loose Threads Flitmouse would have eventually adjusted, but I still think he would have always been a bit bitter and cynical about it in a way that's like... I always imagined his last years alive as an old man being quite painful for him because of it. After a while I was like 'I...can't write these two characters in this specific format because I love them so much and I want them to have a happy ending.'

It was just hard to imagine that without thinking of the weight of Flitmouse's and Anton's knowledge that it would all end in a level of heartbreak for Anton that we can't imagine for ourselves, because we're not immortal.

[newvegascowboy]

I feel like the concept of redemption/forgiveness in fiction is so fucking fascinating, especially with regards to who the fandom decides "deserves" redemption

[silverflcme]

@burnishedrebel sent in ; 001. The interior of an elegant carriage.

"You keep looking out the window like the night has more to offer than I do." The high lord of the night court swayed with the movements of the carriage, eyeing the blonde fae across from him. His smirk grew, perhaps letting his gaze linger much lower than her eyes, as she shifted in her seat and crossed her legs. "I think you'll find me far more... stimulating, Dominetta." Caine was never one for subtlety and though his arrogance often made others hate him, it drew people to him as well. At least, he liked to think such. "And after what I felt through the bond last night, I'd say you could use some stimulation." The slightest hint of laughter left his lips, but his light eyes were every bit tempting.