#v; another acheron

[magaprima]

Lilith preferred these kinds of servants, those that had been created for the role, and had little else in their minds to distract them. There were, of course, a few demons who had a capacity for loyalty-- minion had, on several occasions, proven his worth-- but generally speaking they weren't to be trusted. Though Lucifer had been left mostly ignorant, Lilith had squashed several coups amongst his servers throughout the millennia of his reign.

"I'll place something in his mind," Lilith explained. "Disguised and...hidden amongst the few thoughts he actually has. If you can keep your cool while you're in there, managing not to alert Lucifer or the servant to what you're doing, then it's entirely possible that, after a little training, our plan might actually work."

Though, Lilith thought privately, that wouldn't make the task any less dangerous. When it came to their former Dark Lord, it was always best to....err on the side of caution. For survival.

Her eyes flickered over Zelda guardedly, wondering if she'd actually seem something or it was just her imagination. She kept her gaze on the witch a little while longer, holding there, before eventually turning to the servant, gesturing for him to step closer.

The creature leaned forward expectantly and Lilith put two fingers to his temple, the energy pulsating there as she closed her eyes in order to look through his mind, to find a place to hide her trinket. As a further test Lilith's chosen item was a collection of letters between Edward and Diana. If Zelda managed to keep her emotions in check once she found them, their plan might have even more potential than she'd initially hoped.

Zelda followed Lilith's gaze and watched as she singled one of them out. The one she chose looked like a walking corpse, as if he had been pulled directly from the freezer in her basement. It wasn't nearly as off-putting as it would have been for anyone who didn't deal with dead bodies on the regular, though still repulsive to look at. Did Lilith create him, she wondered, and for what purpose?

Human flesh. Well that was not entirely what she had expected but nevertheless she continued to listen, switching her gaze between the two.

"If he is so simple, what exactly would you have me search for?" Zelda appraised him again, tilting her head this way and that. She wondered what sort of purpose he was meant to serve beyond undoubtedly inflicting some measure of fear in those unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Something somewhere in the far reaches of her own mind she could feel something like annoyance bubbling. Lucifer. But then it was gone, subdued thank S- well.. thank Lilith she supposed. That would take some getting used to. Part of her hoped her new queen hadn't noticed, but what did it matter? Let Lilith know she was fighting.

[hatchetmanofficial]

(I love this question and I love your username!!!)

Thanks!

I like to think that Alan still has a part of him, that wants to weasel his way back into society, especially after meeting his Doe-eyes. But he can never have it. It's selfish of him to want.

Or Alan doesn’t believe that even if he can get away he can be redeemed/deserves it. Or could cope with being part of society.

Boss is unpredictable and very much so picks those who believe they are someone without a cause. I'd like to think that The Beast's song "Come Wayward Souls" applies to him.

I really enjoyed Over The Garden Wall, and especially Come Wayward Souls/Potatus Et Molasses. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hWgVdUv9UHo

It’s a shame the show got pulled from streaming services in a lot of locations.

TW suicide, death, religion feel free to ignore and delete this ask if it’s too heavy or triggering.

I watched Over The Garden Wall years ago and while I haven’t actually read The Divine Comedy/Dante’s Inferno directly… I need to as I���ve found a great VN that also derives from it called 10:16 …I seem to remember some analyses that describe the sin of despair.

(Makes sense. Catholics believe suicide is a sin.)

That is why blithe Greg was aided unlike Wirt. He is a child, innocent of the sin of despair, and in turn his seemingly random foolish actions stave off disaster, ie. dumping the coins from the ghosts creates a bonding experience while getting to Adelaide’s house so Beatrice can change her mind about betraying them.

(Also - that means they didn’t pay the coins to the ferryman to cross Acheron/the Styx! Charon’s Obol. Put into the mouth or on the eyes of the dead for that purpose. They also played a song for clemency like Orpheus.

Technically they haven’t paid for passage or received rites so cannot cross over into death and are trapped on the Earth side of the bank! Forced to wander/given more time before crossing. This may have been key to finally getting out of there. Though a villager in Harveston did say it wasn’t their time.)

And Greg is only ever in real danger when he loses hope, gives up and chooses to sacrifice himself for Wirt.

Wirt only breaks the curse when he has a realisation and dares to hope. To act. Otherwise he would have been trapped as the new employee, the new woodcutter/soul reaper/perpetuator of the cycle.

So… The Beast, and perhaps the Boss, do prey on despair and the lost. And potentially suicides but I’m not sure.

The Edelwood trees also recall The Wood Of The Suicides, which is yet another reference to Dante’s Inferno that I first encountered in The Sandman series. (Though those were in hell.)

So. With Over The Garden Wall being a child friendly allegory for purgatory or hell… I’m actually wondering if Carver, Alan, and Stitches may be dead without being aware of it? Or at least no longer strictly living, caught halfway in the liminal space of the uncanny town.

Stitches was constructed from the remains of three people. Carver doesn’t resemble his past self, retain much of his humanity or remember much about his life. 

Alan… was an unprepared 14 (?) year old runaway who was homeless for at least a year in Canada (?), which means he very likely experienced at least one bitterly cold winter without adequate shelter or clothing. Due to his genetic condition he may not have even been able to feel cold or pain to know how much peril he was in and find shelter, or he was lost.

I don’t know whether he was ‘rescued’ while still alive as an alternative to dying or whether he could have actually succumbed to exposure (or to despair in a tragic literal sense) and been found then.

I wonder if this is a Charon situation, if Alan replaced a disobedient employee and a future victim may replace him. (Perhaps Stitches is being lined up, or was created to watch Alan.)

Are the employees psychopomps? 

Or cultists enacting sacrifice?

Both?

In a way Alan cutting down people with his hatchet recalls the cutting down of the Edelwood Trees, that being a metaphor for death.

(I wonder if the choosing is similar to that of the employees - if he takes the despairing, those lost in life, or those who get lost in the forest. The victims are cut down with a hatchet, reaped to feed/fuel the Boss/the Beast.)

Which is more traditionally represented with a field of wheat being reaped by Death’s scythe.

A cornfield, another scary liminal space where people get lost, with similar reaping imagery, has also been associated with evil supernatural entities. 

A good example is He Who Walks Behind The Rows, implying an ancient evil god/cult worship and human sacrifice. Giving a hint of why the Boss might be making them do this.

Much in the way the Ancient Greeks believed they needed to placate gods and ghosts with blood.

Doe Eyes is a pull to humanity and life. Orpheus trying to lead Eurydice out of Hades. 

Or maybe the coworkers are just metaphorically ‘dead to the world’ through being taken in by the cult and largely isolated from society. (Stitches though is absolutely on some level dead or was never alive.)

I’m also seeing some Twin Peaks/Deadly Premonition parallels with forests/trees, weird towns, and another entity like BOB feeding on suffering.

I remember reading that the Boss may have been partially inspired by Bill Cipher too, so I’m wondering if the town is a little pocket of supernatural chaos. 

Bill (a yellow pyramid) was in turn inspired by Nyarlathotep, who liked to start cults and spread chaos and discord amongst mortals - and where Nyarlathotep is associated with pyramids The Boss is embodied in a similarly angular form of a diamond shaped sign. A yellow sign! 

The Yellow Sign is a symbol that is usually used by the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, a cult that worships the Great Old One Hastur. It is said that the symbol can bestow supernatural powers such as mind-control and possession, and is used to get people under the control of the King in Yellow.

Actually… Past traumatic event in Doe Eye’s life and (spoiler) aside, that may also explain Doe Eye’s nightmares and inability to sleep. As well as their pull to the forest.

So while I’m half recalling all of this or extrapolating from googled snippets maybe all of these things together are hints to the Boss’s eldritch nature.

However, he can still influence his employers. If he sees someone get out of line, he would simply have to put them back in place. Alan, however, never gave Boss any hassle, not even when he first found him. You could say he has a clean track record when it comes to his job. Until doe-eyes that is. When I say that Boss kinda has favorites. He truly does.

I think Alan was too young, beaten down and scared to rebel and so obeyed without question. I think the Boss liked that. Alan is wolf coded but was as obedient as a lamb. Or the Boss’s loyal dog, used to guard and attack.

I had a blast reading through all of this

thank you tumblr user krowspiracyanon!

[ironunderstands]

god can anyone have any fun around here ever

I just???? How is your reaction to this post anger at the fact that people like theorizing about their favorite character

Any joy??? Any whimsy??? ANY

Also incorrect if he was a woman the exact people who like jade and sparkle would decend upon him and I would have to 1 v 500 the lowest common denominator as they turn my favorite character into a “omg don’t end that flop Ratio!!” or “mommy” figure while I violently gesture to the fact he has an actual character

If you think Ratio being a woman would make his fans like him any less, you sorely misunderstand his appeal and entire character. People are tossing around theories of the aeons he could be connected to is because HE HAS A LOT OF AEONS HE COULD BE CONNECTED TO. This man is mysterious, he figured out dormancy somehow, his character stories are told from everyone else’s POV, he’s been acting or working under an agenda for most of the time we see him, he don’t really know why Nous doesn’t acknowledge him, his perspective on life is the exact fucking same as Acherons, a literal emanator of Nihility, etc.

Also I do not know another Ratio fan who also isn’t violently passionate about at least one female character in this game, I will defend Topaz and Acheron with my life and they are both incredibly fascinating characters in their own right that deserve to have their own narratives, it’s just like Ratio they require at least a little brain function in order to appreciate them. Istg if we do not get a Topaz breakdown arc I’m killing someone this woman needs to develop class consciousness or I will lose it.

Look idk, don’t send hate to this person obviously, but like I genuinely wanna know why people think like this. I’ve never seen something people do something that is so fun and harmless get dogged on like this before. And I know it’s Twitter but like, COME ON

[idolkilling]

OC ASKS: Your OCs are in a room and suddenly lights are turned off. Who are they reaching for first? Will they reach to hold someone at all?

OOH THIS IS A CUTE ONE THANK YOU!! Answering for the characters on my Toyhou.se, but feel free to follow up with any specific characters you might remember from my past blogs if I didn’t mention them :D

In most cases the characters would just reach for whoever is closest to them rather than anyone specific (since I use them across various settings and their interactions change from AU to AU), under the pretense they’re familiar with their company. This is kinda long also, so I’m putting it under a read-more o7

OCs who are more likely to reach for someone than not:

Eve, using it as an excuse to grope the nearest well-built man (often Velo since they work together)

Rex, also using it as an excuse to grope the nearest cute and petite girl 🤦 I think he would get reached for by his FWB (later boyfriend), Kais, though

Dimitri, who’s equal parts protective over whoever is with him due to a strong sense of responsibility and wanting to make sure they don’t fuck anything in the room up; Minkyu comes to mind, though Xero is an exception since he trusts them to take care of themself and stay out of the way

Reis… but with malicious intent :((( He is absolutely using the blackout as an opening to infect someone near him with an otherworldly pathogen/parasite :(((

Tarou, with similar reasoning as Dimitri, but he’d also make sure to grab Reis so he does NOT give hapless people the Alien chestburster experience

Luca, mostly just being silly and dramatically pretending to be scared, though if it’s a more perilous scenario he’d reach for someone to ground himself, not wanting to be alone

Navid, not wanting to be separated from his friends

OCs who are less likely to reach for someone:

Kee, who doesn’t want to burden others so she’s more likely to just curl in on herself—though if it’s a dire situation and she thinks she can help keep the other party from harm, she might make an exception

Velo, since he usually does NOT gaf about the people around him—they can take care of themselves!—but he would make an exception for people/creatures that are so pathetic/defenseless he’d feel guilty about leaving them in the lurch (such as Haruki)

Junta, since I imagine this scenario with him would be a silly one more often than not; he wouldn’t be concerned about the blackout, though he might sneak up and scare his friends

Verrine is probably just turning the lights off herself to wish one of her sons (or “playthings”) goodnight… It’s hard to imagine her being caught off-guard; if the blackout is malicious she probably expects it and is either alone or with protection 🤔

Cherry would rather go for a weapon than grasp for a friend, though against his survival instinct he would feel more comforted holding onto someone (particularly Ram’s OC Harris, whom he has an unspoken crush on)

V. Aster (who people are probably more familiar with under the name “Vivie” aha) is another character who’s indifferent to the safety of those around them—reaching for someone or being clung to would just hinder their mobility; they can see in the dark and they’re going to be productive about it

OCs who don’t reach for anyone, but get reached for:

Xero can see in the dark (and beyond that is an otherworldly entity), so they wouldn’t be bothered even if the blackout is a precursor to danger; by default, their eyes glow like embers, so they’d be a visible beacon for nearby company to cling onto for protection (especially Minkyu…)

Ein is a renegade bioweapon with lowlight vision—he’d be kind of excited for danger to spring out and have a toussle! But otherwise he’s being reached for by a cautious Lavender (his mostly-human roommate who sometimes is sucked into his and Acheron’s nonsense)

Lillie would reach for a weapon and get reached for by her gooner roach of a NOT-boyfriend, Oswald (erectroswing’s OC), much to her chagrin cuz she KNOWS his ass is not scared and he’s just using it as an excuse to wrap around her and scream and squeal

Jet would just stand there in confusion (bro has the survival instinct of a middle-aged corporate worker who wants to kill himself, cuz he is LMAO), but Zeta would take the opportunity to grope grab him for fruity reasons

Anyway, thank you so much for sending this in—OC asks genuinely make my whole day ;w; <3 !!!

[iniziare]

Kafka: The topic of killing, and/or death at her hand.

Sometimes I wish I could say anything other than 'it's not that simple', but I really can't seem to say that... ever. As much as Kafka seems to take to killing and chaos relatively easily when the need for it arises, I don't particularly get the impression that she bears any sort of craving for it. Yes, she's rather exemplary at it from what we can see in her trailer, her combat calling back to a sort of... 'John Wick'-like style if we're talking aesthetically (which is reinforced in the glimpse of her in Acheron's trailer), and outside of that, we can see there's an emotional distance between her and when she's actively engaging in taking lives, as if it is quite literally a means to an end, a necessity that she doesn't quite feel anything specific in regards to. There's no excitement in her, there's no proper smile, no laughter, nothing that seems to inherently indicate that anything is really 'tickling her'. And outside of her trailer, there is also her voiceline about Sam that goes as follows, which shows that killing isn't something she does merrily nor necessarily often (this may tie into her character as a remnant of what she did and/or had to do on Pteruges-V):

"Oh, Sam isn't nearly as picky about his prey as I am... you might consider it a lucky break running into me."

There's an element of her being a little particular as to her engagement with this, which makes quite a bit of sense to me if you see how its really kind of drawn across the board for her character that while she can do things out of necessity, Kafka is primarily one to pursue things when something piques her interest in one way or another. She doesn't do much without some sort of engagement and/or motivation to and behind it, which I don't attach to an overall lack of emotion, as I don't draw a direct correlation between the two. No, to me, it's simply the concept of 'quality over quantity'; the reality of having specific preferences and standards that guide the choices that she makes. Remember her words to the Trailblazer? She doesn't say it without reason, it's also a glimpse into her own motivation(s) in life when it comes to what she wants to do, rather than what she does when she needs to do it/them:

"When you have the chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret."

All of this plays into the motivator that Kafka isn't a fully ruthless killer in the sense that this is some pastime that she seeks to engage in simply because 'it's fun', or anything of the sort. Does that mean that she's opposed to killing? Absolutely not (obviously). Does this mean that she is good at it, and even finds likely enjoyment in the realization of the latter? Certainly. But there's still a discrepancy between that and enjoying it enough to actively seek it out for that purpose, which nothing in canon seems to point at so far. Besides, let me add to it, that Kafka's list of offenses across numerous wanted posters that have her bounty up so high that she's wanted 'Dead or Alive' (cue Bon Jovi), don't technically list deaths/murders, outside of the 'lethal crimes' noted by the Devils on Pteruges-V against her (where to be 'fair', she was a Devil Hunter of said 'Devils', but her motivation behind it actually has you questioning morality quite heavily). But, if we look at it logically, the nature of these 'Devils' may actually come to bring about the destruction of Pteruges-V, as self-indulgence to the extreme is often described to ultimately be 'self-destructive'.

So in essence, I think the answer isn't as simple as a clear-cut 'yes, she loves it' or 'no, she hates it'; I think there's a level of indifference, but not quite what one might tie to someone who veers close to the path of a sociopath, for example. This is definitely a topic that I want to revisit, but for now, this'll have to do.

[gravedigg]

I was tagged by @nullshocked :-)

NAME: Virgil Acheron

NICKNAME: Virge, V, we all know Enver calls him "Dearest" and "My Assassin"

• GENDER: masc nonbinary. is cis but doesn't understand or subscribe to gender

• STAR SIGN: Probably Scorpio or Taurus

• HEIGHT: I assume Enver is somewhere around 5'8-5'10 and Virgil's a bit taller than him, so probably around 6'-6'2. He's tall but he's not burly, he's like if you made a twunk bigger, in a way that's uncanny if you look at him too long. He's just a bit bigger and a bit stronger than you'd expect him to be

• ORIENTATION: very gay

• NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: The Bhaalian simulacrum of a wood elf, raised in Baldur's Gate

• FAVORITE FRUIT: I feel like he would enjoy the experience of a pomegranate

• FAVORITE SEASON: Probably Fall, he doesn't like being hot

• FAVORITE SCENT: Leather, parchment, blood, musk, incense, whiskey, linen

• COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: Probably coffee, or bitter teas. I don't think he's a fan of sweets.

• AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: I think he goes for days until he's truly exhausted, and then crashes hard

• DOGS OR CATS: I think both, but he's not wildly fond of pets

• DREAM TRIP: I don't think he can even fathom this, having spent almost his entire life in Baldur's Gate pre-tadpole, but I think he'd be happy to see Waterdeep with Gale

• NUMBER OF BLANKETS: As many as possible, I think he likes the pressure of heavy blankets.

• RANDOM FACT: Virgil's Bhaal amulet was a gift from Enver, who had it made for him out of infernal metal, so it's heavy and warm on his chest. It was a show of faith in their partnership, but also it represents (to Virgil) Enver's acceptance of him as a whole, and as a child of/servant to Bhaal. It was meaningful that Enver would spend the time to have a symbol of another god made simply because it was important to Virgil. (this is all subtext, I'm sure they are way too emotionally stunted to talk about feelings) but because of this Virgil never takes it off.

And when Enver finds that amulet, bloodied and left on the desk in his office for him to find, he immediately knows something has gone very wrong.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

EEE^^ Thank you for welcoming me ari^^

Also, happy to know I'm not the only one obsessed with hsr 😔🫡 HAHA. Also yeesss glad to hear you're almost finished with penacony, they're my favourite quests cause they're so good!! 😭 I can't wait for u to finish penacony cause I think Sunday will be your favourite for sure like u said 🙂‍↕️

For my favs I like Acheron, Aventurine, Boothill (we twinning), Sunday and Stelle/Mc. My mains r usually just Acheron and Boothill since I don't have many dps 5 stars 😭 Also v sad that u didn't get Jiaoqiu 😔 I recently lost my 50/50 on Robin so I understand the struggle. I'm curious how long have u been playing btw?^^ Ohh and what characters have u gotten from losing 50/50, Welt? 😔

(and ahh I would love to add u but sadly I'm on Asia server T-T v unfortunate)

- 🙂‍↕️

SOOO NICE TO MEET YOU 🙂‍↕️ ANON <333 i’m so happy to have another person to chat with abt this game !!!! the brainrot has been especially severe recently 😭😭 I’M SOOO EXCITED TO FINISH IT YOU HAVE NO IDEA . i’ll probably be going crazy over the siblings on dash pjdkdjdd …..

AHHHH ACHERON!!!!!!! she’s so cool …. AND STELLEEEEEE I LOVE STELLE SM 🥹🥹🥹 our baby raccoon …….. acheron & boothill seem like they’d be such a fun duo in battle :3c BUT NOOOOO NOT THE 50/50 BLOCKING YOU FROM ROBIN :((((((((( u have my condolences….. hopefully it won’t take too long for her to get a rerun :’3 she’s grown on me recently too !!! she’s just so cute …….

i actually started playing shortly after launch !!! but then i kinda quit after i got welt and himiko (since they were the only characters i was rlly interested in)…. 😭 i think i got back into it again around june? when boothill’s banner dropped :3 and that’s also when i got like . REALLY into it ….. and i’ve been playing regularly since then !!!!! what abt you ? <3

AH AND . i didn’t lose the 50/50 for jiaoqiu, i just kinda let him slip away bc i was too busy to grind </3 but most recently i lost my 50/50 to bronya…. sniffle

[ltwilliammowett]

Broadside

The initial moment when the ship would open fire was under the control of the cpatain, but once the order to fire was given, control of the gun decks fell to the officers commanding them, with little opportunity for communication with the captain on the upper deck, except by occasional runner. Once within 150m of an enemy ship the order was usually sent down to "fire as you bear" which effectively meant fire at will, as targets presented themselves. Although some short ranges of 10-50m.

Second Battle of the Virginia Capes, by V. Zveg (x)

A full broadside, when every gun on one side of the ship would fire was a massive amount of firepower. The effect of all of these guns being fired simultaneously would, however, cause the ship to heel over from the force of all the guns, which would make reloading extremely difficult and might expose part of the hull normally under water to enemy fire, with the risk of receiving a number of shot holes below the waterline. To avoid this, the guns firing in sequence rather than all at once. The part of the enemy ship aimed at varied depending on the deck level they were firing from and also what they hoped to achieve. The lighter guns and carronades situated on the upper deck wer almost invariably used as antipersonnel or anti rigging weapons and fired grapshots or bar shot.

Acheron vs. HMS Surprise

Gun captains here were trained to fire as the enemy's deck rolled towards them, exposing more of the enemy crew and rigging in an attempt to maximise the damage caused. As for the lower deck guns, these could be used against the enemy ship's hull or the masts. The destruction of rigging and bringing down masts with a lucky shot would severely hamper the enemy's movement, leaving them unable to manoeuvre and very vulnerable to attack from the bow or stern where they were themselves at their weakest. This was a tactic strongly favoured by the French and Spanish navies.

The Royal Navy and the Americans preferred to fire at the hull of a vessel, the cannonballs penetrating the hulls at such short ranges and causing carnage amongst the enemy gun crews, particularly from the cloud of huge razorsharp splinters sent flying through the air in all directions, slicing through flesh like butter. The cannonballs would also hopefully damage the enemy guns or their carriages putting them out of action. Some cannonballs would still have the power at such short ranges to punch through the other side of the hull, or would embed themselves in the stout frame of the ship.

The French and Spanish tactic (x)

The most dangerous, however, were those that rebounded from the opposite hull and bounced around the deck, destroying everything in their path. Even when coming to the end of its travels, a cannonball rolling along the deck still retained the power to tear a foot off. Another tactic was to fire at the enemy ship's roll, at or just below the waterline, causing the ship to take on water and become less manoeuvrable, and large numbers of the crew would be forced to leave their guns to man the pumps. This was, however, very difficult to do with any accuracy as the ships rolled in the swell.

The Royal Navy generally recommended firing on the up roll rather than the down roll of the ship. Their reasoning for this, was that when firing on the down roll, with any delay in the gun firing, the gun would have dipped too far and would fire harmlessly into the ocean. If on the other hand, the gun was fired on the up roll, just as it pointed at the waterline, any delay in the gun firing would see the shot strike higher up in the hull or it might cause damage to the masts and rigging, with less chance of it missing completely.

[charlottedabookworm]

now i've finished 2.0 i'm staring at the upcoming characters banners and i'm like-

okay sparkle character wise i'm not too sure on atm. as a villain i like her but we've also hardly seen her interact with the trailblazer and i haven't really figured out how i feel about her. however i'm v short on fire types and her ulti would make il dan heng teams so much more versitile

acheron? i love her. she's awesome. i don't even care that she might be playing us, i love her. in fact i might love her more if she is playing us she's just so cool. also i could do with another wind character since bronya refuses to come home and i'm having fun playing around with dots lately

and then adventurine is pretty af. i wanted ot pull for him before i met him. then i did meet him and he's just this unapologetically manipulative arsehole and i both love that for him and love him for that. plus really interested to see what they do with preservation for him cos fu xuan was really cool to trial out (even tho i lost the 5050 on her)

so basically i want two of them and probably need sparkle and they're all back to back

i do not have enough jade for this

[narwhalandchill]

ok misc stream thoughts!!!

ANYWAY livestream over nice 30 pulls of aventurine funds for anni!!!! they didnt do anything insane but honestly it was kinda cope to expect them to, ratio for free was clearly a more of a spontaneous move and hes available throughout anniversary anyway so the "another 5*" were.... a little over the top im sorry wjkjwdjkwdjk altho i wouldnt have complained obviously. a free himeko or sth couldve been on theme for the cosmodussy event but eh cant be helped

im actually glad for the skippability of the reruns 😭😭 like i have luocha n jingliu (+ LC for latter) so by skipping acheron for now im gonna have a nice time getting aventurine and most likely his LC (2/3 of his 4* LC selection is so sad tho), love that fucker hope he gets to do proper mayhem in story too. cool death talk please dont actually die yourself for real for real tho i will be sad. like i do think its based of aventurine to pull off a stunt that appears to be what we in the business might call a certified chapter 5 komaeda moment but. ahahaha nooo dont actually die youre such a funny hat man .

(also sick boss form is sick but . bootleg FL im sorry aventurine. they hit perfection already and theyre never fucking topping the galaxy cape cyclops eye beak mask drip i swear JSWJWJDKWJKDWJK but also yes me biased? in favor of that ginger? i could never)

but it seems ill have a solid time getting aventurine and saving up for now??? since i dont think im too interested in robin or boothill either. i was kinda worried topaz' rerun would be in 2.1 for IPC antics with aventurine bc i am kinda curious abt pulling for her but now its gonna be 2.2 at the earliest so. Phew

the stream ran a bit too long lmao but like overall i tend to like the dev discussions so most of it was still neat, altho downside of dev streams is that not knowing chinese i cant just like. afk and listen on headphones and go get water or something 💀💀 and they were definitely dragging stuff out on purpose no way they werent but eh. people will live its just bideo game livestream. and like these folks do hard work on the game they can yap about what they do sometimes its only right lmao

leakers public shaming session was definitely a jumpscare but i do genuinely empathize w shaoji on that one. like. ive always been one for kit + banner leaks first and foremost and story leaks just. i dont care for them much. ive had my share of looking at them occasionally but i definitely agree with the way story leaks either by themselves or when misconstrued and misinterpreted really fucking mess with the intended experience for any given story and how that must feel like shit for the writers. like if story leaks stopped happening altogether id be perfectly content. and thats just ppl who look at story leaks on purpose cuz. im not going to even begin w how like. yes the leaks subreddits and most big leakers do spoiler warnings and keep the story stuff spoilered. but then theres literally the entire rest of the internet where shit gets spread untagged and without warnings the second they are posted anywhere at all and how that fucking ruins peoples experiences. like its 1 thing to click at a spoiler tagged post knowingly and get ur experience messed up with. but when u dont even want to see it its rly fucking bad and i v well understand condemning all story leaks (even those properly flagged) just on that basis alone. but yeah actually felt bad for him there and see where he was coming from for sure, even as a consumer of leaks

ok well that sure was a wall of text. didnt expect to write that much JWJKWJKDDWJK but ya

Anyway. biggest priority is holding strong w skipping acheron as sick as her animations are but def looking forward to her teaser and the animated short. like . even with the black swan dykery. (that was a fucking jumpscare too). i dont need her rn. despite how cool she is 😭😭

& also have to say im v happy they clarified their stance on hi3rd references like. the way theyre going abt it is absolutely how it should be going. hsr by nature is more directly linked to hi3rd like honkai is in the name but its such a dumbass idea (like some fan takes out there....) to want the stories of hsr depend on another games lore. rewarding old fans with easter eggs and tidbits is perfectly fine and im even interested in seeing where they go with acherons obvious raiden situation - especially knowing theyre not about to ruin their own story with "it was hi3rd all along!" (not that i ever rly thought theyd seriously blunder that bad lmao 💀) . so yea thats neat

i think story wise im not gonna say much of my thoughts bc unfortunately i have clicked on like. a leak or four. not the major stuff i dont think but enough that commenting on stuff w some of the things im aware of in the periphery is going to tint stuff . but im still excited to see where things go!!!

AAND OH. ACTUALLY i do have one more thing . so the multiple POV thing being actually implemented is SOOOO good im so fucking happy theyre committing to it being a thing 😭😭😭 like SO many story pitfalls can be avoided by just letting it be that TB doesnt need to be fucking everywhere a major thing happens as the centerpiece of events so we as players can see it. like it gives a way of showing different events and sides of characters in a much more natural manner its sooo good that theyre implementing it already. like this alone has me in such high hopes for the story going forward. like yea theyve branched from our POV before already and in penacony as well but expanding on it even more is 100% the correct way forward

last thing: god they did jingliu so dirty in her concert illustration. WHAT is she wearing 💀💀💀anyway yeah lesgo 2.1 its cool

i lied real last thing: siobhan . siobhan i would do anything---

[euthymiya]

no need to apologize, its good to be productive :]

also i finally finished the xianzhou alliance quest it didnt even take that long, i think i was being overdramatic. also dan hengs lore was v interesting + luocha and jingliu feel sus

and i started the penacony quest. but penacony feels even more suspicious, like its weird....idk it feels off like a layer of gunk and acheron, i do like her so far, she's cool but we'll see, i'm only at the start of the quest

OMG!!! you finished it!!!!! dan hengs portion of the quest was my favorite i really liked his lore too and i loved blades little appearance. and when he beefed with yanqing 💀 ofc he would 💀 i miss luocha that blonde guy had me a little hot and bothered i won’t lie i hope he comes back soon so i can pretend i don’t want to kiss another blonde but secretly kiss him in my head

ALSO!!! you met acheron!!!! she’s so lovely wait until you get to her coolest cutscene she is such a baddie. and i hope you like aventurine too bc he’s a little sweetheart 🥹 well. a bit of a headache too but. a sweetheart to me all the same

anyway! thank you for coming and updating me i am excited to hear ur future hsr progress 😚💖

[petrichorium]

AAAHHHHHHHH!!! I have been waiting for you to open your ask box! X3

Did you get Acheron? I know I did. I've been saving for her since Ruan Mei. And man my pulls were a roller coster.

I got her in the first 10 pull of 6 pity. Then I went for her LC which I got in 30 pulls. (I was at 40 pity, so 70x pulls in total.)

I saw what her E2 does and I wanted that.

After getting Acheron (E0) I then got Yanqing at 20 pity. [He's now at E2 :)]

It took me another 80 pulls to get Acheron at E1. Until then I lost the next 50/50 to Bronya at around 70 pulls. (She's now at E2.)

I got Acheron to E2 after ANOTHER 70 pulls and now I'm stuck on whether I should pull for Luocha or save for Robin.

KDNFJBSJD OMGGGGGGG CONGRATS ON E2 SHE GOES CRAZY!!!!!!!

I did not go for Acheron for a few reasons ngl. The two big ones r bc she’s lightning and I already have a lighting waifu who I will be throwing all possible jades at until he’s e6s5 and bc I intend to go for aventurine!!!! Ik she’s cracked as hell and jing yuan just. Has lackluster damage in comparison but like I’ve built him like a maniac and he has zero trouble clearing content so it’s better for my account to go for a second sustain over a better lightning dps after I have put so much effort into making my lil trophy husband viable 😪

As a certified Luocha Girlie™ I have to shill the man who has carried me through everything JDNDKNEF I think he’s v worth it if u want a comfortable sustain, there rlly isn’t a char who comes close in terms of just throwing them on a team and not having to think abt them again. Even miss fu requires some thought I fear 💔 tho I do believe aventurine will be closest and he synergizes even better w Acheron if she’s gonna be ur new main!!!!

[swynlake-rp]

Bust out the ramen noodles

OTMS

MUN: V! Between Hatter’s big romantic moments and Drakken’s big… feline moments, V’s had us on the edge of our seats this month! And, in the words of one member, “also just vibes.” We agree! CHARACTER: CASS! Props to Cass for opening the Lucky Cat Café and bringing Swynlake real-life boba… in addition to our favorite virtual Boba, of course. We can’t wait to see what fun new plots the café will bring! THREAD: DISPATCH FOR THE MAYOR - PEPA AND HADES! When a thread comes up in the chat every time there’s a reply, that’s when you know it’s bringing the drama! We loved to see Pepa and Hades at their most gossipy.  TASK: Z’S HIRO AND TADASHI AESTHETIC! Members praised this beautiful and artistic tribute to siblings. We’re not crying, you’re crying. (We are crying). Honorable mention: Everyone’s timelines!!! We hope to see more of them :) 

BOARD UPDATES 

PETITIONS PASSED:

ADVANCED FIRST AID CLASSES: Advanced first classes held at Town Hall

HELLO GORGEOUS: A petition to open a salon

TASKS

CLASS OF ‘24: Make a page from your character’s yearbook!This can be their full class line-up, a superlative page (did they win class clown?), or any other yearbook-inspired page!  CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION?: Answer the Proust Questionnaire… in character! You can either do it in a thread format, where one character asks another the questions (or they both answer!), or fill it out in character! 

EVENTS

MAY 1 - 8: PACIFICA AND OLLIE’S WEDDING: Join Oliver and Pacifica after their I do's for a huge party at Ashbridge House. (Canonically May 3rd)

MAY 12 - 22: THE CLAWTHORNE TOURNAMENT: It’s coming up! Keep eyes posted for more details. 

MAY 22 - 29: PLAY FUNDRAISER: It’s Much Ado About Nothing-themed! At Town Hall. Canonically on May 25

BIRTHDAYS

Characters:

Daisy O'Doogle – May 1

Minnie Muyskens – May 1

Martin Ambrosius – May 1

Beatrice "Trixie" Duval – May 4

Belle Acheron – May 6

Toulouse Bonfamille – May 10

Ting-Ting Qin – May 13

Iandore Lightfoot – May 18

Phillip Knightley – May 21

Cruz Ramirez — May 23

Joanna Vane — May 30

Queen Clarion — May 30

PLOT ROUND-UP! 

GLITTER GALAXY PODCAST - APRIL SHOWERS PIZZA PLANET

Characters and Muns Involved: Georgette Smee, Willow, Bullseye, Boo, and Gem

Plot: Georgette had her first town magic experience. To distract herself from the chaos and internal fear she turned her experience into a viral vlog/podcast. Reaching over 2 million view per video onboard PP Voyager I. Talking with Smee about being a Rocketman and potential girls trips to his Ocean Planet. Willow brought the science element, Boo was a boss babe, Bullseye was the hottie behind the ship security, and Gem was a grumpy engineer. The views helped Georgette get back into social media and planted the idea of a real life podcast in her head.

SLIDE OUT OF MY DMS

Characters and Muns Involved: Georgette and Aquata

Plot: Georgette tweeted to James about his hair which sparked Aquatas jealousy and led to an embarrassing DM exchange. Georgette screenshot the convo. Georgette and Aquata then ran into each other at the gym where Aquata attempted to make peace. Georgette protested and said she was embarrassed and didn’t trust Aquata. Georgette now tempted to notify Hercules of his employees behavior and making her uncomfortable. Georgette will also use this to hold over Aquatas head.

AMY SEVILLE KICKS CANCER’S ASS

Characters and Muns Involved: Milo and Amy

Plot: Amy has been diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 2B, but she's got a treatment plan and support from her family. Well, Pip doesn't know... yet 

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

Characters and Muns Involved: Isabela, Copper, Annie, Vixey , Félix, Holley, Jonathan and Nico

Plot: cw -- car crash. Isabela witnessed a car accident, driving home late one night from a modeling gig. Copper and the paramedics showed up. Afterwards, Copper took Isabela home. Vixey and Félix were working that night and were part of the intake team for the victims. The accident was written about in the Squire. Isabela and Copper both felt compelled to check on the victims. Jonathan lost his leg in the accident and Nico, his friend, is in a coma due to his injuries.  Annie interviewed Isabela for her part in calling 999 and stopping at the accident site. Isabela was flattered to be interviewed, but she may've forgotten to mention some integral people. Will Nico wake up? Time will tell…

WHAT’S WRONG WITH HUNTER?

Characters and Muns Involved: Hunter, Pip, Phineas, Willow, Eilonwy, Darius

Plot: On March 28, Hunter falls into a deep sleep and does not wake up for three days! His friends discover him. Darius has suspicions that this might connect to an old friend. Eilonwy and Willow urge Hunter to seek magical medical help.

TANYA MOVES ON

Characters and Muns Involved: Tanya, Jessie, Gem, Snow, Penny, Angel, King, Mim, Zero

Plot: Tanya finally decides to move on from her afterlife as a ghost and enlists her friends to contribute to a zine commemorating her relationships with them

[magaprima]

Continued from here @auntiezelda​

While Lilith was the undeniable Queen of Hell, self-crowned in Lucifer’s defeat, Lilith wasn’t blind to the insurrectionists, those who were loyal to the Dark Lord-- or worse, to the Plague Kings themselves-- and were disinclined to bow to Lilith, to accept her as their Queen. None would ever dare to challenge her directly, they were too cowardly for anything beyond a petition in the Infernal Court, but Lucifer Morningstar’s Acheron, someone who wasn’t exactly....well-versed in Hell’s habits had been easy and deliberate pickings.

The remains of the demon were splattered across the floor and the walls and even on Lilith’s night gown. “Well, I heard a noise in the halls, and when I opened my door I saw....” She gestured with a hand to the general are where the demon had been stood, “I presumed he wasn’t here to...serenade you as you slept”

She paused a moment, slightly breathless at the...rush of the moment, the urgency, before adding, “You’re welcome”

[brandyllyn]

Frontier Eleven

👾 v 🐈

Co-written by @brandyllyn​ and @blueeyesatnight​

Rated: Mature for language and FUCKING ALIENS MAN.

Part Ten 👾Part Eleven Series Masterlist

Taglist Form

👾👾👾👾👾👾👾🐈👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾

Location: Trying to Escape the Remains of Acheron Colony in the Cold Dread of Space

So there was an alien in the ship.

A big ol’ bitch too.

This was not a Diet Alien, it was not the little shrimp shit Tom got to deal with…

This had problem written all over it.

Benny sees his brother, strapped to the table, and looks at the alien and gets between them.

Frankie has his leveraging rod and Pope is reaching for things near him but Benny is just by band-aids and air.

“That look like that bitch who was trying to mate with Will?” Santi asks as he watches Benny shift Will’s table slightly, pressing a pipe into his hands.

“Trying to what?” Frankie gasps.

“Didn’t even buy me dinner first.”

“Benny says it’s a Queen,” Santi points out, trying to get the thing’s attention, “Ironhead coulda been a prince.”

Benny takes the distraction to get close to the alien, squares up, and swings.

As soon as his fist connects with her exoskeleton he is howling at the crunchy sound it makes.

The alien is unaffected.

“I fucking told you Benny!” Santiago hisses, armed with a can of rations and a wrench.

Benny shakes his hand out, wraps it hastily in some of the bandages left over from Will, and grabs a fire extinguisher, “Come on ugly bitch, get some”

He squeezes the extinguisher at her as she lunges, chasing him and following him away from his brother.

The smoke does seem to temporarily disorient her and Pope pings her with a can of spam.

Frankie takes a step forward and swings for the fences but that exoskeleton really was a bitch and the vibrations of it against the rod rattled his teeth and numbed his hands.

He was nervous.

What were they going to do?

The tail swept out and nearly took him out.

Fuck.

He would’ve taken directions from fucking Tom right about now.

Pope connects to the smaller more vulnerable part of the alien’s tail with his wrench and then pegs her with another can (peas, this time)

The alien bats it off. Like it’s a fly. Like it’s annoying her.

Benny tries to bash her eye in with the extinguisher.

She nearly claws his stomach open.

“Guys I don’t think the smash and grab technique is really doing much for us.” Will snaps, struggling to free himself from the table’s restraints. If he’s going to die, he wants to die on his feet.

“Do you have any better ideas?!” Frankie snarls.

The Queen turns her attention on him and advances, cornering him and he chokes up on his leveraging rod, prepared to swing for her jaw this time.

He’s not hopeful it’ll do much but he’d rather go down swinging.

Then the maintenance bay doors open.

A loud metallic thudding sound echoes.

They all turn their heads to see what the hell is making that sound.

It’s a mech suit… an autonomous mech suit?

“Get your hands off my dad, you bitch!” Ripley’s voice pipes out of the air and suddenly they realize they can just see the top of her head.

“Language young lady!” Frankie shouts.

The Queen advances on Ripley who lets out a war cry and tries to move the Mech Suit forward.

It’s not easy, she has a shit line of sight and it moves very herky-jerky because she can’t wrap her little hands around the controls fully but…

There’s something to be said for raw nerve and willpower which she has in spades. She is just mad and she’s over this and she is slapping at the creature with her metallic arms until the two of them are locked and…

Jesus, Rip has the upper hand.

Ripley has the queen in her mechanized hands. The boys can only look on in wonder.

As though he is amused the AI chirps “Not bad...for a human.”

Benny is hooting, “GET ‘ER RIPPLES!”

She shoves the monster towards the airlock. “Dad! Get the door!”

The AI function comes online “Opening the door may cause you to get sucked out of the ship and die.”

“SHUT UP TIN MAN”

Frankie runs but the queen’s tail knocks him back. No one can get close. The alien is too large and too angry and even though she is kicking ass little Rip is tiny in the mech suit and she won’t be able to hold this thing down forever.

They really need some help.

“DIN! THE DOOR!”

“My creed won’t let me intentionally cause harm to the humans on the ship.”

“CHRIST!”

With a yawn and a stretch Jonesy gives a small kitty frown to the ruckus around him. With a twitch of his tail he jumps onto the workstation near the door lock the one with the manual controls. Turning in one cat circle he lays down on what he deemed to be a very comfortable, and hopefully quiet, spot.

Directly on the airlock button.

A loud whir echoes in the bay and suddenly the men find themselves lifted off their feet in the rush of escaping air.

Will strains against his bandages

Benny grabs onto the leg of Will’s bed.

Frankie reaches out and grabs a doorframe and then holds out his leveraging rod for Santi to grasp

Ripley walks the mech suit towards the airlock and releases the screaming alien into it with what could only be described as a war-face on.

"THAT'S A GOOD PUSSY!" Benny cheers, reaching out and catching a belligerent Jonesy by the tail as he goes skidding by.

"LANGUAGE BEN!" Fish snips. “DIN CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR.”

Everyone is dropped down by the change in pressure and hits the floor, everyone except Ripley who is still in the large Mech suit.

After a tense moment everyone laughs a little.

The AI beeps, “We have a weight des--”

“I KNOW!” Frankie calls out, “Can you do a search for life forms? I want to see five humans and a cat.”

A beeping, “Confirmed. I see five humans and a cat.”

Some nervous laughter.

“So...what’s next?” Benny asks, apologizing and cooing at a very disgruntled Jonesy.

Will reaches down to pat his head, “I dunno...campfire and s’mores?”

“Nah...pizza?”

“Roshambo?”

“Fuck off.”

“Benjamin.” Fish hisses, “Language.”

Ripley hops out of the mech suit, smiling from ear to ear, “Dad...it’s ok.”

Frankie runs a tired hand down his face, “How about I get us into hyper and we all tuck in?”

Inside the cryo room one of the pods is broke apart, it has junk all over it. Frankie shrugs, “Looks like you and me are bunking Ripples.”

She hugs the cat, “What about Jonesy?”

Benny holds out his hands, “I’ll take care of him kiddo.”

It was a process, but a normal one. One by one the pods went down-- first Will, then Pope, then Benny, and Frankie pushed the sequence for him and Ripley last.

As the sedative was starting to hit them they nuzzled against one another, relieved. So relieved.

They had no idea how this all worked out but it had and that was amazing.

Sure they weren’t going to get the grand payday from WeyYu but who cared.

Frankie had the most important thing.

As they settled in to dream in their pods the ship got quiet.

Very quiet.

A red light came on in the cockpit and a low male voice said, “We have a weight discrepancy.”

In the shadows of the cryo chamber, an egg began to wiggle and unfurl.

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

@seasonschange-butpeopledont​

@absurdthirst @codenamewife @phoenixhalliwell @radiowallet @amneris21 @boliv_jenta @kirsteng42​ @chickadee-djarin​ @leannawithacapitala​ @magikfanatic​ @hopeamarsu​ @thirstworldproblemss​ @eri16​ @kesskirata​ @prideandpascal​ @mindidjarin​ @ladylothlorien​ @recklessfangirl-blog​ @the-feckless-wonder​ @fictionalbitch​ @aellynera​ @wild-at-heart-kept-in-cage​ @thirdtimesthecharm​ @wildmoonflower​ @thelegendary-nico @sixshooter665​ @cyaredindjarin​ @practicalghost​ @mishasminion360​ @fantasticcopeaglepasta​ @221bshrlocked​

[elencelebrindal]

Heyy with your takes on female Cloths (I enjoyed reading them so much!), can I ask for your input on something on the opposite side? Surplices. Some are great for protection (not you Cheshire) but when I look at some I genuinely wonder just HOW whoever is inside is even able to move. Take Minos for example, how does he properly walk without hitting his legs at the “skirt”-ish part of his Surplice at every step? (1/2)

(2/2) Why are wings some sort of a standard at some point even if the “source” creature has nothing to do with flying, like Acheron or Alraune? Can the Spectres at least actually fly to compensate for the wings being so bulky and uncomfortable? If not, what's the point in having them in the first place? I have so many questions about the designs it’s not even funny.

(I put the second half of your ask here so I don’t need to make two separate posts)

I guess it’s time for me to write something about them, uh?  Brace yourself, this is another long post. 

My answer would be: their bodies adapt to the Surplice, so they can freely move around in it without being bothered by the ridiculousness of the thing. It is a bit of a stretch, but it’s either this, or the Surplice has like five thousands joints and moves accordingly to the body.  Which, honestly, seems way more unrealistic to me. Yes, I just said that their bodies adapting to the armor is more realistic than jointed pieces. Welcome to Saint Seiya!

The real world instances of, following your example of Minos, that “skirt” thing he has on his legs is very close to the combination faulds + tassets. Not quite the same thing, but close to it.

This, basically. Obviously, in real life these things are overlapped lames of metal that give the wearer a lot of mobility, and they are - generally - shorter that the ones we see on the Specters (in this case, Minos).

I’m saying this because on one hand those pieces of armor are supposed to grant mobility to the person wearing them, but on the other hand it’s clear that Saint Seiya doesn’t treat them with a realistic approach, so I generally believe that they can easily move around because their bodies adapt.  But even with that, it’s still pretty obvious that a Surplice has a great deal of mobility and flexibility. We do see a lot of the characters move in ways that should be impossible if the armor doesn’t accompany their movements enough. 

I don’t think this is well portrayed in Saint Seiya, and I totally understand it; this is an anime and a manga, not a movie that needs real people to walk in real armor. But, at the same time, it can have an explanation. I say can because this is just my explanation of it, it’s nothing even remotely official or - admittedly - of real importance.  I’m just a small blog writing these things, after all. 

What Minos has going on is a fantasy exaggeration of those things, at least as far as I can tell. The lower part of his cuirass could be based on faulds and tassets, but I have no way to know for sure.  I can only throw out some hypotheses based on what bits and pieces or armor knowledge I have. 

A bigger problem for this Surplice, rather than the hypothesized faulds and tassets combo, could actually be those big wings he as for pauldrons. They seem flexible enough, as they actually look jointed, but they are really in the way. Those could actually hinder his movements way more, at first glance, not so much with bending, but more with up and down arm movements. However, this is not something I will tackle, because Saint Seiya often shows how a lot of characters deal with those exaggerated fantasy pauldrons, and as unrealistic as some of their movements seems I have to give them a pass. There’s no way of explaining all of them in a realistic matter. This is a problem of a good deal of fantasy-style pauldron, though, real ones

Real ones are way less cumbersome and have a ton more mobility, they are made for the wearer to comfortably move their arms with them and to offer protection at the same time. The photo I’m showing you is just a replica I found while looking for good pictures, but it’s still close enough to how the thing works.  What Minos has could be functional, but it’s so exaggerated that I have a lot of doubts about it.  Still, I won’t hold it against the show/manga. Fantasy-style pauldrons, again, tend to be unrealistic for the sake of aesthetic. There’s nothing we can do about it.  A good representation of this piece of armor in fantasy setting can be found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. At least, most of the armors are well designed. 

Since I’m here, let’s have a look at the other two Judges as well, and then I’ll tackle the second part of the ask. 

The design of the Garuda Surplice is something I can definitely judge a bit more well made in terms of mobility.  It has the same base pieces going on, but in this case the pauldrons look like pieces that can offer a good deal of mobility. Still, the way they attach to the Surplice is questionable, but in terms of shape we’re getting there.  Even the two horns are correct, since they’re facing outwards; you don’t want spikes or horns with the points facing inwards, that’s a shortcut to disaster and severe head injury. 

This is were mobility and flexibility peaked, when it comes to the big three. The combo faulds + tassets is not obnoxiously long, it gives protection without being a hindrance (yes, there are also instances of faulds and tassets with that shape, you can maybe understand why it was done at the time though), and the pauldrons look amazing. They look like they provide good mobility to the arms, and the way they attach to the Surplice is pretty correct. There’s space for Rhadamanthys to lift his arms, as you can see. Brilliant.  His boots don’t make a whole lot of sense, but... again, the body adapts to the Surplice, so there’s that to take into consideration. Maybe it’s tremendously painful to walk in some of those shoes, but for them it feels normal. 

However, back to Minos:

The TLC version of him is actually unable to move. There’s not a single excuse here, that thing restricts him movements. Period. The pauldrons look better, it seems like they can provide better arm mobility, but the lower part of his armor is literally a solid piece of metal. Maybe the side pieces can move, but he’s literally wearing a metal skirt there. I have no other words to describe it, it’s just bad. 

And now, onto the next part. 

Why does everybody have wings? Let’s go in order here, with all of them (I’m going to restrict myself to the anime, because otherwise I’ll stay here all night). 

Of course, the Judges are supposed to have wings. 

Garuda, griffin and wyvern all have wings. There’s nothing to say about them. 

Myu (who has really good armor, admittedly) is literally a butterfly. His wings are approved, and are not even that much of an hindrance. They’re not wings made of armor, and they seem incredibly delicate. He’s probably the most comfortable with his wings, honestly. 

I have to point out that the majority of the Specters with wings (not all of them, obviously) are Celestial Stars. But let’s not lose ourselves.

Charon having wings doesn’t make sense, but I don’t know if those could be called wings. I’ve always thought them to be a nod to those traditional Venetian masks, much like the design of his Surplice. 

Specifically, the Jester masks, with pointy fabric and bells coming from them. To me the inspiration seems pretty obvious. Maybe those wings could represent them a bit more symbolically, or maybe I’m looking way too much into character design and they’re literally just aesthetic.  If you want some explanation of why he has wings, though, here’s mine. I find it kinda weird that Charon is not even from Venice, in the show, but... what can we do about it. A gondola is a gondola, after all. 

The Balrog Surplice having wings is... ahem, questionable. I’m sure that if there’s any Tolkien fan reading this, they know what’s up. They know the debate going on in the community. Long story short, we have no idea if the Balrogs have wings or not. The movie depicts the goddamn Valarauka with wings, the books don’t describe them all that much.  Let’s try not to look too much into it, okay? He has wings, it could both make sense or not make sense. This is Schroedinger all over again, just weirder. 

He kinda makes sense, though those wings are tiny. They resemble the kind of wings Ancient Egyptian used, for example, for the winged scarab, Maat, and Isis. 

Since his Surplice is based on a Egyptian theme, and Pharaoh himself is Egyptian, they have a pretty self-explanatory reason of existence. 

And now we come to what to presented to my attention, the Alraune (aka the Mandrake) Surplice.  Those, my dear anon, are not wings. Those are either petals or leaves of the mandrake, not only a plant birthed from the mind of ancient authors or questionable fantasy writers, but also a real life plant. That has flowers like these:

It’s a similar shape, eh? This led me to believe that the Surplice worn by Queen has this as a main inspiration, opposite to the one worn by Fyodor in TLC, something that’s visibly based on the fantasy approach to the plant.  What I’m trying to say here is that yes, it makes sense for this Surplice to have “wings”, because they’re not wings. They’re something that links the Surplice to its probable inspiration.  I’m going off of visuals here, so don’t assume I’m correct. 

Shilfield here doesn’t make much sense with wings, right? After all, his Surplice is based off the basilisk, a giant venemous snake with eyes capable to instantly kill.  Well... technically yes. But:

This is the cockatrice.  A basilisk is born from an egg lais by a rooster and incubated by a toad, but it’s said that a cock egg (an egg with no yolk, as such it was believed to be laid by roosters) would hatch as a cockatrice.  Basilisk and cockatrice became synonyms when the De proprietatibus rerum, which featured a basilisk in it, was translated, and the basilisk changed to a cockatrice.  If the Basilisk Surplice counts both as a basilisk and a cockatrice, then there’s your explanation of why the armor has wings. Because the cockatrice has wings. 

The Harpy Surplice is self-explanatory. It has wings because harpies have wings, plain and simple. The shape of the wings resembles a heart because of Valentine’s inspiration, but the weirdness ends there. 

As honorable mentions, we have:

The Bennu Surplice, with another good reason to have wings: Bennu is an Ancient Egyptian deity in the form of a bird, probably the origin of the Greek phoenix myth. 

If I recall correctly, his armor is based on Lucifer, who we all know is a fallen angel who probably had a ton of wings, given what angels looks like.  So, even if this is Hades, wings have total sense on his armor thanks to the inspiration behind it.  Also, his armor looks like a 4/10 for practicality and mobility. You’re better than this, Hades. 

This was VERY long, I know. But I hope I answered your question as thoroughly as I could.  Thank your for reading by kilometric essay, and see you next post.