#villain mirabel au

[cinnaminstar]

Tumblr absolutely refuses to let this show up in the tags, apparently.

Anyways! Villain Sif doddles!!! They're so silly

(pssst, also, btw, chapter 6 is done you should go read it okay byebye)

Closeups under the cut ↓

[gemidoriwillbarelyusethisaccount]

Someone got VERY hunge and wanted the birthday cake for themself :3

[toxicxsugarxart]

I’m still in encanto hell and I’ve never seen a star war in my life. happy may the fourth ya nerds.

[jacarandaaaas]

isabela is getting a villain song!! whilst I’m excited and all istg if this causes more people hating on canon isa like with what happened when the mirabel villain song was out…. I’m gonna lose it

[mirabelau17]

𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖑'𝖘 𝖁𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌~𝕴𝖓𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 (𝖁𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖑 𝕬𝖀 𝕸𝖊)😈🖤💚✨🦋🌹 Inspired by Lydia Bard art cover edit by myself.

All content and credit belongs to Disney's Encanto, myself, and Lydia too.

~Villain Mirabel AU (Me) and Everyone.

"We Don't Talk About Bruno or Mirabel?" Hehe 😂

LINK TO HER SONG: https://youtu.be/orMk8DCOCe0

#disney#encanto#mirabelmadrigal#artists#editor#procreate#inspiration#songcovers#disneyscrossovers#crossoveraus#villainau#myself#wedontalkaboutbruno#wedonttalkaboutmirabel#hehe#everyone#thankyoueveryone#checkoutplease#cursed#posionrose#lydiathebard#stephaniebeatriz

[disneywishrewrite]

I Bet All I Have to See this House Collapse

During my Once Upon a Studio of Wishing Upon a Miracle by Two Cousins, I had so many ideas for the confession of Matre (Agustin's father) before I listened to Lydia the Bard two new songs of When Will My Life Begin (Rapunzel's Villain Song) and Nothing Left to Loose (Mirabel's Second Villain Song and I thought I would try and blending the colours just like the animatic of Mirabel with a hint of purple/blue of Rapunzel. But to be honest, I can't decide which one is better. What do you think?

Anyway, Marte and Agustin's relationship was a mix of perfect and imperfect until Agustin married to Julieta and his father's hatred for Alma Madrigal was unnoticed by others until the truth came out. He cared about the rest of the family but Matre knew that Alma's grief and her obsession of being perfect was unacceptable to not move on and not being themselves. She might have crossed the line for hurting Isabela and Mirabel. During that song, Agustin couldn't believe that his own father turned out to be a Real Villain of Disney as he was behind of Sakina's father's murder...

[miramilocamimira]

Villain Antonio???? Plez???

This is haunting me. It took so long to figure out what his reason would be and I realized if we lean heavily into pre-movie mama Mira headcanon, we really only need to start with a change at one scene.

If You Are Good

Antonio had come out of his room when Hiro told him that he heard Mira and Isabela come back. He had known that Abuela was looking for Mira but he didn't know what she wanted. He did know that Mira was trying to fix things.

All the animals kept talking to him. Telling him everything they knew. From Bruno being in the walls to his mom Pepa and Abuela having fought about what to use his gift for.

He loves his mom! He thinks. It's... Well, it's hard to say. How well can someone love what's essentially a stranger in his house? Antonio knows that's not what they all meant to have done but… the village came first. Abuela’s orders came first.

Except with Mira. He remembers when she'd break the rules and sneak him snacks or bandage his wounds or when she spent the whole day by his side while he was sick. She'd gotten in trouble for not helping pass out things or something.

It was funny. His Mira got in trouble for helping and for not helping.

“The cracks started with you.” He hears from his abeula and he feels cold. He looks down from his spot on the second floor and he doesn't need to see his Mira’s face to know she's hurt. Hiro growls and the others give out chirps and squeaks and more as they get upset on Mira’s behalf.

“Bruno left because of you. Luisa’s losing her powers,” Which isn't true! Bruno chose to leave to protect her! The rats said so. Earlier Dave the donkey said that he agreed with Mira and that Luisa deserved a break.

Barry is the one who comes up with the idea.

“Isabela’s out of control,” Flowers was out of control now? Antonio hears from some of the birds. He kind of agrees. Her having fun was out of line? “Because of you!” There's a bad feeling that feels like it's consuming him. He feels like he's on fire and covered in ice at the same time. Like he's gotten hundreds of paper cuts all at once.

He decides to do what Barry suggests. In a matter of moments, he and the animals are making their way up. Everyone else is focused on Abuela’s yelling at his Mira once again so they don't see him climbing.

“I don’t know why you weren’t given a gift,” Because his Mira, his Mami was perfect already. She was kind and caring. He'd always thought of her as good, as what good was supposed to be. “But it is not an excuse for you to hurt this family!” Now he knows he's the only one to think this way.

The walls are shaking. The animals say it's cause of the cracking.

There's a candle on a plate. It sits atop a windowsill to decide your gift and change your fate. He hears in his head. Something his Mira told him for as long as he could remember. Especially when he was feeling bad or scared. Well, in that impossible scenario, you’d stay here in the nursery with me.

He sees the candle. He doesn't hesitate to grab it.

“Don’t you ever- Antonio?” He turns around, candle in hand. They all start calling out to him but he focuses only on Mira.

And the hurt. The pain and fear, the doneness in her eyes when she first turns around are what does it. Even as it changes to concern and worry for him, he knows it was there.

If being good like the others will make him hurt his Mira for Abuela, if being good is what they are… he doesn't want it. Barry’s right.

If they're gonna call Mirabel bad then he’ll just have to show them what bad truly is.

He blows.

And

Everything

Crumbles.

[ekaarts]

Okay... Wow.

[zombieplaguedoc]

Encanto/Metal Family crossover AU spinoff inspired by a Villain Encanto AU where, after Mirabel leaves to live with the metal family, the candle dies out and the miracle is passed over to Glam and his family.

[pinkiemeowstic89]

I wasn't lying about @inamindfarfaraway inspiring me with their StH recontextualization of Lydia the Bard villain songs. I thought about this for a long time, but this gave me some good motivation! I also made some adjustments to Matsu's design (mainly to hammer home just how close she and Thorn were/are).

Associated song

Vine the Cat/Boscage Maze!Blaze belongs to @estellardreams

Mumble the Wolf/Boscage Maze!Whisper belongs to @whisper-and-tangle

Ever since being banished from the jungle of the Boscage Maze, Matsu the Hedgehog has done her best to keep all of the Scavengers happy as their food sources dwindled. She was the first one to try reasoning with Thorn Rose, their banisher, even going as far as to defend the last three of her friends to be sent away, and everything she's done has been with the hope that the two parties can eventually reconcile. However, every time she tried to bring about a peaceful solution to their conflict, she would be shut down, mainly by Prim the Bat, who near immediately took the role of leader after the group's banishment, leading Matsu to harbor some resentment, a feeling she's not used to dealing with. In a way, Matsu and Thorn were still very similar, as they both saw their needs as secondary when compared to what they deemed more important, respectively the unity of the group and the jungle.

For a while, Matsu thought that would be the only thing they still had in common, until getting led away from the Scavengers by a forest fairy known as Sapling and seeing the true beauty of the jungle. In the patch of jungle she was brought to, she was finally able to rest, not having to worry about anybody other than herself. She was still inherently a selfless girl, but being pampered wasn't so bad every now and then. And getting to see the jungle's true beauty made her think that Thorn might have been more in the right than she initially thought.

Her absence had started to worry Burrow the Armadillo, one of her closer Scavenger friends, so he decided to encourage Sunbeam the Flying Squirrel, Hangry Cat, Gnarly the Echidna, and Mangey the Fox to follow him and find Matsu, a task that had less of a chance of Thorn attacking them yet again. In their journey, they encountered Sapling the Fairy and they were able to follow her to where Matsu was and found the blonde hedgehog… completely fine. They were desperate to get Matsu back, but completely forgot that she was still her own person rather than an infinite task fairy, and when trying to bring her back "home", they kept prioritizing all the ways she was able to help them. This was the final straw; Matsu was convinced that they didn't care about her opinion any more than Prim did, so she took Thorn's mallet and used its Prism power to push them out of her sanctuary and back to the canopies, and after some preparation, she went to finally express everything she kept bottled up until now.

Boscage Maze canopy village, nighttime. Vine the Cat is polishing her spear, but is astonished when she sees Matsu rise up from a patch of land lifted by a brand new tree.

Matsu: (chuckles) 🎶We don't talk about Thorn Rose, no no no

We don't talk about Thorn Rose…

But!🎶

Matsu uses vegetation to circle Vine, taunting her with how inactive she's been in stopping all this injustice despite the great amount of power she carries.

Matsu: 🎶You made her walk away

She left herself or you say

But I've heard another take

You hide in your storm

And close off from the rain

But don't see the damage in your wake🎶

Matsu approaches Vine face-to-face, and lets some of her anger out.

Matsu: 🎶From Thorn and then you turn on me

You whisper as if I don't see

The fear, the dread of what I'll be

Oh🎶

Matsu summons some roots to trap Vine in a cage so she can't stop her and leaves.

Matsu: 🎶But we don't talk about Thorn Rose, no no no

We don't talk about Thorn Rose🎶

Next up is Mumble the Wolf, who mostly kept to herself after losing her previous tribe. To Matsu, all that meant was everybody else staying together wasn't important.

Matsu: 🎶Every sound you heard, but your silence was deafening

Each decibel, dismissible to save yourself from meddling

Or maybe you're too scared to make a sound at all?

Don't stand and rock the boat or you'll risk going overboard

Let the others drown 'fore you reach to pull them back ashore

Well, now the boat's sinking and everyone's going down🎶

Matsu uses her new power to wrap roots around Mumble and pull her to the ground before going to the center of the Scavengers' little village. She has flashbacks to her trying to reason with everybody as she rants. Meanwhile, Sonic and a concerned Thorn make their way back up to the top of the trees.

Matsu: 🎶A constant sign of all that you lack

"She's a curse!"

"She's to blame!"

So quick, turn your back

Well, I'm done playing nice, so maybe think twice when you

Don't talk about Thorn Rose, no no no

We don't talk about Thorn Rose!🎶

Matsu turns around to find Prim pointing a spear in her face. She's initially surprised, but then smirks.

Matsu: 🎶Flowers bloom when you walk in a room

But I see all the thorns that you hide

Poison rose, you might think no one knows

But I see right through your disguise🎶

As Matsu starts to break down, thorny vines wrap around Prim, as if to make her realize just how much she's been hurting the other Scavengers, who look on in sheer horror and even some regret.

Matsu: 🎶I suffered all this heartache

I sacrificed for your sake

As you ruled and you reigned from above

Well now my pain is ending

I'm done with this pretending

Finally free from chasing your love

Free from your love!🎶

Matsu uses the Prism-bearing mallet to create vegetation and tear apart the canopies. The trapped Vine and Mumble are left stranded on much smaller ground, and the other free Scavengers, after spotting Sonic and Thorn, help them up and try to help them get to Matsu, who's still focused on showing Prim just what she did wrong.

Matsu: 🎶Time to bring this canopy down

Yeah, I'm the villain in your fairy tale now!

The sands run out and there's just you to blame

How's it feel to stain your family name?!

I'll reclaim all that I've lost

See you understand what your apathy cost

It's your end of days, and I'll still hear you say

"We don't talk about Thorn Rose," no no no

Should've talked about Thorn Rose…🎶

[avaford2009]

Lydia the Bard's Princess Villain Songs – Animatics

[links + artists under the cut]

Lydia the Bard's Princess Villain Song Playlist || Spotify

Cinderella's Villain Song - So This is Love?

video || artist: sarahsworks

Moana's Villain Song - How Far I'll Go

video || artist: MaepleTea

Belle's Villain Song - Tale as Old as Time

video || artist: luck_buggy

Mèrida's Villain Song - Touch the Sky

video || artist: LeAnn Schmitt (as NealIllustrator)

Meg's Villain Song - I Won't Say I'm In Love

video || artist: MaepleTea

Anastasia's Villain Song - Journey to the Past

video || artist: Shrubbug/shrubbuggish (link defunct)

Anna's Villain Song - For the First Time in Forever

video || artist: MaepleTea

Rapunzel's Villain Song - Mother Knows Best / I See the Light

video || artist: sacredhyacinth

Mirabel's Villain Song - We Don't Talk About Bruno

video || artist: Shrubbug/shrubbuggish (link defunct)

[gemidoriwillbarelyusethisaccount]

Colorized the crew (bonus under the cut)

SQUIB JUMPSCARE

[biblicallyaccuratecrow]

in stars and time but ghibli movies au braindump

nobody fucking asked for this but it's been plaguing me for weeks and i need other people to think about this with me

IDEA 1: Howl's Moving Castle x ISAT

I mean, come on.

Isa is Sophie. Listen. A hat shop? the themes around changing and transformation? learning to love someone who believes they don't deserve to be loved? Seriously. its perfect.

Sif is Howl. Self explainatory, but I'll talk a little more about it later.

Loop is Calcifer. Also self explainatory. If you know then you know.

Bonnie is Markl. I need more Siffirin as a mentor figure for Bonnie.

Odile is the Witch of the Wastes. Definitely not the same characterization as in the movie though. Don't think too hard about it I just didn't want to make her Turnip Head or something. Plus I think it's a funny idea that Odile does all that shit to Siffrin bc she suspects he did some forbidden magic shit. Basically Witch Hat Atelier.

Mirabelle is Sophie's sister from the verrrry beginning of the movie. she can be more included in the plot because I fucking said so. Maybe she would meet up with Isa when they settle back into the original town?

The King is Madame Sullivan. I have not been able to get the scene where she says "let's show your mother what you really are" out of my head beacuse. it's so so so much like what siffirn fears. also turning her followers into weird blob monsters? its sadnesses for real it works too well

Siffrin as Howl has been knocking around in my head for a while. A few things to note:

The hair dye scene. Siffrin's hair starts out black, and then turns white after. Initially it seems like it's a vanity thing, but their reaction is more because they're afraid of being seen as different.

Howl is a big crow thing. Odile has a cut line where she calls siffrin "little crow". do i really have to explain.

The "dream" sequence where sophie goes to find howl after he comes home injured. "Tell me what's wrong so I can help you!" "You're too late!" like. FUCK. it's them. it's them it's them it's them...

Actually pretty much any sophie and howl scene from the last act of the movie, in particular the one where sophie tells howl to run away... and howl says that they won't because they've finally found something they wanna protect,,,, bc they have a family,,,, ough,,,,,

i yearn for funny kinda isaloop moments (HE LIKES MY SPARKKK)

do i really gotta say it. the opening scene of isat. Loop's wish. eating the fucking star the entire fucking opening of this game is a howls moving castle reference-

there's a lot more i could say about this one but i also wanna talk about my other ideas....

IDEA 2: Castle In The Sky x ISAT

hi, I love castle in the sky, am definitely normal about it, have definitely not made prior aus about it for totk, definitely not

Siffrin is Sheeta. just a random guy with special powers who came from a sky (star) centric civilization that has been forgotten by everyone? yeah. yeah that's. yup.

Isa is Patsu. not much to say there, just. they share a lot of similarities. except isa has more braincells. Also the idea of engineer Isa workin on the planes is enjoyable to me.

Odile is Dola. Listen. I need pirate Odile in my life. I need it with my whole body and soul. She would be wonderful. So full of piss and vinegar.

Mirabelle and Bonnie are members of Odile's crew, they got picked up along their journeys. Mira is there? because she's running form the secret police (Muska/The King ig)and Bonnie is there bc Nille is a mechanic who basically keeps the whole ship running

Muska is The King. There's not a lot I gotta say about this, other than Muska is genuinely the most terrifying Ghibli villain ever and is the reason why i watch this movie in dub (thank you Mark Hamill), so a lot of the conversations surrounding Laputa kinda remind me of the country

The Lost Country is Laputa, enough said, an entire country that has been forgotten by seemingly the entire world with technology and magic that is so powerful that it could quite literally lead to the destruction of humanity, yep yep yep

i also like the thought of the giant gem in the center of laputa being a star...

Misc ideas that I haven't really fleshed out as much:

Princess Mononoke: Siffrin is San. Isa is Ashitaka???? i guess???? Odile is Moro, Bonnie and Mira are the two unnamed wolf gods. The King is lady eboshi. the universe is the forest spirit, and triggers the red shade when it's head is severed. the kodamas are the little change god statues.

Spirited Away: Siffrin is Haku. the forgotten name, the loss of identity, the badassery... they've got it all. Bonnie as Chihiro, if you make it weird it's ON SIGHT, uhhhh loop as Kaonashi/No Face, The King as Yubaba, Euphrasie as Zeniba, Odile as Lin (I LOVE THE IDEA OF ODILE AS LIN WITH MY WHOLE SOUL, where is more hurt/comfort of odile and siffrin MY GOD-), beyond that i have zero idea who mira and isa would be ;w;

anyways yall have fun with this one

[sillylittlecharacters]

Mirabelle vs the World AU

(Not a Scott Pilgrim AU, sorry to get your hopes up.) Sure, in canon Mira is seen as the Savior of Vaugarde. The Hero. The Chosen One. But what if she wasn't? What if, through no fault of her own, she was seen as the villain by the very people she was fighting to protect?

Read more below to see a (very long) explanation!

So, I was thinking (which is always a dangerous pursuit when I'm involved) that it was a good thing that Vaugarde was such an accepting culture - an another world Mirabelle's story could be much different. So I decided to make that concept myself!

A couple of massive changes to the story would have to be made. In this AU, the King won't bother warming up with tearing through other cities or villages in Vaugarde, and instead attacks Dormont first and only Dormont. Perhaps he was practicing his abilities for a while in the woodlands around the House, giving Euphrasie time to secretly investigate why and how all these animals were mysterioiusly freezing in time, and just as soon as she perfected the blessing he attacked for real.

From the perspective of the rest of the country, an inescapable curse is spreading across the land with nobody to help slow its crawl and an entire House full of the most capable Housemaidens in the land was completely decimated, with no forewarning, and no clear culprit in sight. Except from, of course, the lone Housemaiden stumbling out of its gates, completely uninjured and unfrozen. Such a convenient scapegoat - not least because the hulking sobbing giant in armour she claims to have attacked the house is as ridiculous a concept as it is physically impossible! Mirabelle (and eventually the rest of the party) has to deal with the ramifications of being the only people able to save a country that hates your guts. Should they try to redeem herself in the eyes of people determined to blame the party for their suffering, or should they lean into their villainous image to save the people from themselves?

Buuuuut that's not the only interesting part of the au. Because of her newfound status as Public Enemy No1, every member of the party starts out as a minor or major antagonist that Mirabelle ends up befriending! I thought that it was a shame that the only RPG trope missing from the main cast ISAT is the 'enemies to allies', so this is the perfect opportunity to explore that idea! Whether it's escaping from a Defenders' prison cell, recovering stolen orbs or running from an angry mob, pitchforks and all, the journey to defeating the King just got a lot more complicated. Feel free to send me asks about this au or make fanfic/fanart about it yourself - I know I will!

[pictureviewer-universe]

It would be interesting to see the superhero dynamics of Madrigal family fighting crime/saving the world and how Mirabel tries to help out despite not having powers.

Concept: Encanto Superhero AU. Mirabel becomes the team's Batman.

[dasnercaret]

how ISAT makes you feel like going home

so one of my friends said to me "the first time i played (isat) was when i was home sick, i felt like it had curative properties. analyse that mr playstyle 😎" and i took it as a fucking challenge. i've never written an (tumblr-posted) analysis essay before and i'm going into this with a bunch of haphazardly folded ideas and NO OUTLINE fuck it we ball

so to begin with: DORMONT.

isat, as a whole, is extremely a traditional rpg setup. which unfortunately i know little to nothing about, so forgive me in advance if i put my foot in my mouth regarding traditional rpg mechanics. but like many games, you start at a home base, at home. and the whole vibes of the place honestly serve to only emphasize the safe / at home / storybook atmosphere isat cultivates. you wake up in a field, sleepy and tired. your dear friend mirabelle leans over you and tells you to wake up, because you're going to beat the king tomorrow! and you laugh and you're sleepy but eventually you start playing. eventually, you push yourself up and wander around and meet the townsfolk and your party.

now, the player doesn't know the party. they've just opened the game! they don't know these characters. siffrin does though, and it shows in the interactions he has with each one of them. mirabelle teases siffrin about the quality of his nap. isabeau puns with siffrin. odile smiles at him. bonnie... looks away, because of backstory you don't have yet, because you're leaping into this story at its very end. but siffrin knows.

(...)

siffrin knows. which informs his narration, of course, and overall it gives the sense of - you're watching a story already known, with characters who already love each other. like walking into a family home midway through a dinner party, to know and be known in turn.

(you know where you are. you're home!)

siffrin provides some exposition of course, enough to catch the player up and let them know the basics of the world you've set foot into. these people are here because they have natural ties, connections to the land they've been born or raised in or are travelling through. you all are here to defeat the king, who is the epitome of a traditional storybook villain, the big bad evil you defeat at the end of the fairytale. he's just the generically evil guy, with no focus given to the atrocities he must have committed and been willing to commit in order to get where he is. there's no need to be scared of him, not really. (yet.) he's evil, but in the way a storybook villain is evil. all the sharp edges defanged, sanded away, all the humanity and dimensionality and violence inherent in his character compressed into a set of scribbles on the page, words on a screen. it's not personal. it's not.... scary. not to you, and not to siffrin, who's already been floating above it all.

(the rest is under a cut! spoilers for The Entire Rest Of The Game)

similarly, the exposition is in the form of little childlike drawings, emphasizing the same nostalgia it draws on - fairytales, fables, those stories where the heroes collect the magic sword and slay the dragon and save the princess. you know these stories, consciously or not. you love these stories, (probably), and it all serves to emphasize the familiarity with which you step into dormont. heroic stories are extremely common in the stories we love today, from the old classic prince charming to (somewhat) more modern legend of zelda, and no doubt many people picking up isat have a similar passing familiarity with the overarching story of rpgs. (i in fact was the exception, but that's a whole other essay)

the townspeople definitely do not help this vibe as well. they are practically one and all kind, steady people, precisely the sort of common folk you'd want to save in a story where nothing hurts and everyone is safe and loved. they're happy to gift you a flower or a pan au chocolat and cheer you on in your quest, certain of your victory and at least certain of their continued happiness even if you fail. simple, easy, familiar, comforting in the way redwall is comforting or an old set of childhood fairytales is comforting. there's no real judgement, no anger at you for potentially failing and (almost) none of the gross ugly real emotions that would be present in a more 'realistic' story. simple, easy, familiar, comforting.

(You like knowing what happens next!)

so. i think we all know that isat at its core is a game about homesickness. god's sakes mal du pays is literally right there. the central conflict of this game, beneath the overlaying fluff of an rpg archetype and an evil to defeat, is about siffrin not being able to go home while the rest of his party get to do so. and even at this very early stage (approximately act 1 and i would argue a bit into act 2) you can start to see the cracks. siffrin is shown alone, tagging along with the party because he had "nothing else to do" (read: nowhere else to go.) he laughs and pals and jokes with the party, but like before, like always, he merely mirrors them. he makes puns with isabeau because isabeau likes puns, and siffrin liked making him laugh so much so that he adopted puns into a part of his personality. he comforts mirabelle about her future, jokes with odile about her research, and always, always, avoids talking about himself. when they ask where he's going to go after their journey is over, his answer is always a mirror of their own - pilgrimage, research, travel, comedy. when he makes a wish at the favor tree, there's no option to wish for himself.

because the thing is, right. siffrin never thinks of himself. the only options instead are to wish for his family - his home, his only living and real connections in his life, the people surrounding him that really make dormont feel like a real home and not just another friendly place in vaugaurde he's passing through. cause the townsfolk are nice, sure, they're friendly, sure, but - they don't know him. they're not important enough for him to literally rewrite his personality for them. it's his party instead, that he laughs and jokes with and is known with, even if superficially. he wants to be allowed to go home, to stay home. he's been homeless both literally and figuratively for so long that he's beyond desperate to be allowed to keep what little he's found for himself.

(You want to stay with them!)

except - what happens when you beat the game? what happens when you finish the rpg, when you reach the end of the book, when you grow up and leave this set of children's fairytales behind?

you put it down, right? you go home, right? you go back to your home, you go back to travelling, you go back to your family.

what do you do when you don't get to go home? when dormont and the clocktower and the house are the closest you will ever get to home, are the last moment you will ever have being home before it's ripped away from you forever? (ripped away from you just like before - )

you'd want to stay, right? forever and ever and ever?

siffrin is a character who has a very bad time letting go. just like the king, he wants to have, desperately, enough to kill himself a hundred times over for it. and, through the timeloop, he can pull you, the player, and himself and his hapless party along through the timeloop, repeating the same two comforting days over and over and over and over.

and perhaps after a few loops of settling in you, too, can understand why he would want to do this. it's nice, isn't it? knowing what will happen? knowing that these people will always love you? knowing that you can always get the flower, always get the drawing, always get the pan au chocolat, always beat the tutorial kid and get the jackpot? that the townsfolk will always smile at you, that your party - your family, your home - will never know what you've done?

it's not enough, isn't it?

(Dormont, unchanging! Dormont, stagnating!)

no matter how hard siffrin tries to cling to the past turned present to stave off his inevitable future, he is still human. under the fairytale setting and pretty lights, even under his own desire to stay with them, he needs that human connection. he needs something to change, to give way. needs to be seen, to be known, to be loved for himself and not because he's learned the perfect pretty words and actions to trick them into loving him. you, the player, the person driving siffrin, can understand this frustration perfectly as well - you need something to change. you need something to give way, because you can't keep doing this. because you can't hear the same lines over and over and over anymore. you can't do the same thing over and over anymore. you're not happy. siffrin's not happy. something needs to change.

i finished isat over the course of about four days, playing about 12-14 hours per day. during that time, i experienced possibly the most deeply intensely felt emotion i have ever experienced. to this day when i look back on my first playthrough of isat, the sheer depth and fury of that emotion takes my breath away.

and it was frustration. just like siffrin, i was trapped. i couldn't look away, because i loved these characters, because i loved their story, because i wanted them to keep going and going and living and i wanted to keep living alongside them. but i couldn't keep going like this. i couldn't do the same thing over and over and over. i needed something to change, but both siffrin and i were desperately, agonizingly trapped in the same few days. the same places, the same faces, the same lines said rote until i was zoning out through every dialogue interaction, only pausing when i needed to make sure that i hadn't missed something new.

because i loved these characters. i loved how homely they felt. i loved them, i loved them, i -

needed them to be real. to change, to grow, to have their future returned to them. i needed to see them go home, not trapped in this same endless time-frozen loop. i had been trapped at home too long, and the cabin fever was eating me alive. my desire to be allowed to keep playing (to stay in the timeloop) was duking it out with my desire to see them change beyond what they were allowed to change in the span of just two days. i wanted to see bonnie grow up, to see isabeau change into someone else, to see odile come to terms with her half-vaugardian nature, to see mirabelle learn to accept her sexuality (or lack thereof). i wanted them to remember us as family.

ah, isat, absolute king of getting in my head and making me think like siffrin.

back to dormont. in the end, dormont only changes permanently in act 6, after the time loop breaks. the only time the townsfolk ever change, ever coherently move to different places and act differently (act 5 is similar, but i would argue that's because siffrin changes, dormont still doesn't really meaningfully change) is after the loops.

and it's fitting, isn't it? by this point in the game, you could recite dormont backwards and forwards. but by this point in the game, you are well aware that you need to give them back a future. their future. the one they wished for in the first place. they've been trapped in their fairy tale wonderland for long enough. they deserve to go home, truly home, to go forward and live their lives and keep moving on. to allow them to change, to grow.

to allow yourself to change, to grow. to allow yourself to go home, to admit that you want to keep your home you have now, to keep the family you've built from blood and death and tears and stars.

(You want to stay with them!)

to leave dormont. to leave this fairytale behind, and keep living.