#when godhood fundamentally changes you

[shentheauthor]

Random cotl drabble

“I think I understand now.”

They looked at Shamura with wide, vacant eyes. They figured their blank expression would have been haunting, if the spider had the mental capacity to feel disturbed at the moment. They just continued to weave, pulling at silk and clacking their mandibles.

“You understand little,” they mumbled. “Knock, knock, the Lamb comes to raze…”

Kore sighed, balling their hands into fists. “I understand your decision,” they whispered, their voice breaking. They stared down at their fleece, the red fabric covering their wooly body. They were taller now, taller than most sheep ever grew to be. They hated it.

They were changing. They could not stop it. Clauneck had said as much when they turned to him, desperately seeking answers and help with handling their new form. Narinder hadn’t been much help, as he had taken to godhood on his own. His power was not stolen, like theirs was. He could never understand.

Shamura waited in silence for a moment before speaking, stopping their weaving long enough to look Kore directly in the eye. Their face filled with clarity in that moment, their pupils shrinking to bright red slits.

“Godhood is filled with difficult decisions, little Lamb,” the spider muttered. “Sacrifices must be made.

Part of Kore wanted to scream at Shamura that the slaughter of the sheep was not their sacrifice to make. But they hadn’t come to yell.

They sat down on the ground next to Shamura. The spider didn’t seem to mind getting dirty, and neither did Kore. “I sent a follower to his death today,” Kore admitted quietly. “He did not request it, but faith was low, and I needed the devotion.”

Shamura hummed. “Curved horns,” they whispered. “The rot will spread.”

“I…” Kore blinked, tilting their head up toward the sky. Dark clouds were rolling in. It would rain soon, and they would need to make sure the crops did not flood. The world kept turning, even though a life had been cut short.

They looked back at Shamura, who had stopped weaving. Their eyes were bright and lucid, staring right through Kore with an intensity that was rare with their addled mind.

Kore started again. “If I was in your position,” they said, “centuries ago… and it had been any other species than the sheep…” They balled their fleece up in their hands, digging their fingers into it.

“I would have done the same as you.”

Shamura nodded. “It is difficult to see mortals as anything more than tools,” they admitted. Kore’s ears twitched. Tears pooled in their eyes, threatening to spill over. They scratched their neck.

“I feel so far away,” Kore whispered.

“You will only grow more distant.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you here?”

Silence stretched between the two, broken only by laughter coming from the more populated cult grounds. Shamura’s hut was isolated, more for the cult’s safety than their own comfort.

Kore stared out at their Flock, blinking their tears away. “I’ll never forgive you,” they said under their breath. “But I understand.”

Shamura did not respond for a moment. Then, they sighed. “You are not meant to be here,” they ordered curtly. “Go back to your chambers, sheep.”

Kore looked up into four pairs of foggy, distant eyes, and gritted their teeth. “Very well, My Lord,” they muttered. They stood up, stretching briefly before walking away. They did not look back, but they could hear Shamura whispering as they went.

“Off with their head, the rot will spread, the rot will spread…”

[blasphemousclaw]

...So, thoughts on Marika's lore in SOTE?

I really loved how Marika was fleshed out in the DLC… I’ve always loved when characters have sympathetic motivations, but end up taking things way too far and unleashing their hurt upon the world with dire consequences.

Count Ymir describes Marika and the Two Fingers that guided her as both “defective” and “unhinged from the start,” and says Marika’s bloodline was “tainted,” and “mired in madness.” He blames the “conceits—the hypocrisy—of the world built upon the Erdtree” on Marika’s ascension being fundamentally “unhinged.” I think what he means by this is that Marika ascended to godhood for the purpose of violence — nothing good can come of a deeply hurt and traumatized person taking up the reality-altering power of a god and using it for her own, flawed ends. It’s really interesting to me that Ymir describes Metyr, Mother of Fingers as herself “damaged and unhinged,” and her children, the Two Fingers, as “victims in their own right.” Metyr was long abandoned by the Greater Will… it’s almost like this trauma was passed down from Metyr, to the Two Fingers, who then may have even sympathized with Marika’s own trauma, and chose her as their empyrean… giving her the power to violently lash out at the world with a god’s strength. Then Marika passes this trauma down in turn to her own demigod children in various ways, and we all know how that turned out… it’s like a huge, vicious cycle of trauma passed down through generations.

Ymir comes to the conclusion that the Mother must simply be replaced with someone who will not “give birth to further malady.” However, I would go further than that — I don’t think you can ever have a mortal, who will inevitably have human flaws, ascend to godhood. There is no such thing as a perfect person who will wield godhood with perfect grace (Miquella is proof enough of that). Perhaps no one should claim the power of the gods for themselves? I think this is the theme that the whole game is trying to argue: Goldmask comes to the conclusion that the Golden Order’s “fly in the ointment” is “the fickleness of gods no better than men.” I think this is actually why all the game’s endings are not focused on the gods or demigods, but nearly every one is spearheaded by the Tarnished — with his dying breath, Ansbach pleads, “Righteous Tarnished. Become our new lord. A lord not for gods, but for men.” Yes, Ranni’s ending fits this theme too! She fundamentally makes a change in this cycle, because she abandons the Lands Between with her order… no more god-queens ruling and waging war on earth… no more Marikas.

Anyway I love so much how the DLC expanded Marika’s story and how it perfectly elaborates on all these themes introduced in the base game!!

[scatterbrainedbot]

Hey, hey, @tmntbestsibscompetiton here! We don’t currently have a description or picture for your entry into the competition yet! You don’t have to send one in, but if you’d like to, just answer this, or tag us so we can make sure it’s ready for when the competition begins! Thank you so much for joining, and good luck. 

@tmntbestsibscompetiton

falls down stairs IM HERE IM HERE SORRY IM SO LATE

RAT SONS AU

in which Master Splinter is a wise and silly old tortoise, and father of four skittering, chaotic, ninja rat children. <3

(inspired by that one background moment of the 03 series! 🐢🐀🐀🐀🐀)

there will be lots of similar plot points as the 03 series (like 'tales of leo' and 'good genes' etc etc) but there are also a lot of fundamental changes in the foundation of things too — like the guardians and ninja tribunal and the hamato family line etc etc. content wise tbh its probably mostly just gonna be snapshots of random moments throughout the boys lives, but i do kinda have some plot concepts? so we'll see 👀

(embarrassingly long) introduction under the cut if u'd like to read!

——————————————

Years ago, Oroku Saki defeated Hamato Tang Shen in battle, and finally brought an end to the family that would deny him his power. He ordered her homestead be razed to the ground, and all mystic artifacts to be delivered to him. Particularly, the Hamato’s prized pet tortoise, which was rumored to be itself a conduit for the family’s legendary mystic abilities. With the creature in his possession, along with the new rapid-enhancement chemical he commissioned from laboratory familiar with mystic properties in New York — at last, he would be granted his godhood, and guarantee the legacy of his fathers clan. The Hamatos could deny him no longer. He had won.

Or he would have, had the fools at the lab not ruined everything, the precious mutagen spilling all over the tortoises crate and the fool handlers who carried it. The contaminated men morphed into horrific, animalistic monsters, attacking the scientists and wrecking the laboratory itself. And, most crucially, in the ensuing madness, the crate which contained the tortoise, his last possible connection to the Hamato’s power, lay shattered, and empty…

Meanwhile, Hamato “Splinter” Yoshi, who until this point had quite enjoyed his extended existence as a simple tortoise and family pet, found himself fleeing the eyes and hands of the man who killed his human family, and the lab that granted him this new shift in consciousness, to instead face the terrifying chaos of the streets and alleys of NYC. His transformation into something more bipedal had hurt considerably and left him aching and disoriented, but still he could not pause. He could not falter. Not until he found somewhere safe to hide himself and the four squirming, impossibly small rat-pups in his arms. He hoped the chemical that washed over them had not warped and hurt their young bones as it had his own. He hoped he could find somewhere safe to care for them. He hoped they could survive the night without their mother. He hoped, he prayed he could protect these precious, squeaking, peach-fuzzed ruminants of his family. He did not think he could survive any more loss.

For now, he would do what he could, and slip into the shadows of this city. Having lived so long among ninjas had its benefits there, at least.

[hateno]

time for ME to throw in my two cents on miquella

spoilers under cut

i’m not a lore keeper/theorist so if there’s details i get wrong or forget, 🤷

i think godhood was miquella’s last ditch effort. he was disillusioned by and abandoned the golden order because he saw the shortcomings and flaws of it. i doubt being in charge of his own order was appealing. but he had tried literally everything else he could! fundamentalism didn’t help cure him or his sister, so he moved on to trying to break the curses himself. unalloyed gold didn’t work. growing the haligtree didn’t work. the eclipse for godwyn didn’t work. every plan he made, every attempt at taking the reigns of fate, failed. the idea of godhood and the absolute control that comes with it would start to look tempting in the face of so much letdown. maybe the evils it took to get to it would be worth it, in the end, if it saved those he loved.

so he uses his power of affection on mohg. he makes his vow with radahn. he leaves his sister behind. he’s started down this path and now he has to reach the end of it, no matter the cost and no matter if it goes against everything he once believed and stood for. he has to do this.

and along the way he continues to use and manipulate and both figuratively and literally lose himself bit by bit. he gets rid of his love and compassion even! of course the miquella we see at the end of the DLC is selfish and only wants his “gentler world”- it’s all that he has left.

basically the point i want to get across is the way miquella is painted in base game (genuinely kind and loving, a beacon of hope to the down trodden, and overall good) and the way miquella is in the DLC aren’t at odds with each other- it is the result of the pursuit of godhood. to become one you literally have to abandon everything that you are for it. miquella WAS good, and kind, and loved, but he was irreparably changed when he decided to become a god. and i think that’s great. i think that’s so fromsoft.

i still don’t get why radahn is his consort

[pangurbanthewhite]

Hey guess what it's time to talk more about Stray Gods.

Specifically about the concept of "reactive narrative" in video games and how I think Stray Gods executes it as gracefully as you can possibly execute on the concept.

I think a lot of people balk at how choice-based games do and can only change in a limited way based on your choices. Which is a shame, because only being able to change in limited ways is a hard rule of both hardware and the concept of a story.

I think the games that handle it best are the games that lean into that fact. They should flesh out those limited choices as much as possible rather than try to stretch them to their breaking point. They should accept the reality that there WILL be fixed points in the narrative and build around them.

Example - Pan will always turn up in your apartment early on in the game and lead you into the "tutorial" song that is "I Can Teach You". But, based on your choices, the song can sound entirely different.

And that's if you stick to one color exclusively over another. You can weave the choices in and out to create dozens of unique instances.

The choices you make do not fundamentally change anything beyond the song, excluding the last choice. But those choices set the tone for what kind of story you are going to tell. Is it a story of how Grace, even when granted the powers of a god, still values her humanity and cherishes her human bonds? Or is it a story of how Grace, who begins by feeling adrift and out of place, immediately chases down any chance she has at belonging somewhere, at having a purpose? Is Pan a mentor or a source of suspicion? How big of a part does Freddie play?

Your thought processes behind making a choice, your reasons for choosing red over blue, do make a story unique as much as your choice to let Aphrodite "live" or "die". I think you have to accept that if you really want to get a lot out of these kinds of games.

Some scenes WILL always happen, and that's okay! That's good, even! Because differences in the journey matter just as much as differences in the destination! You might always wind up in the same place, but you will have told a different story in getting there. You'll be in a different headspace, you'll bring different baggage, you'll have had some different conversations which drive you to feel differently about characters along the way.

Freddie does always die, yes, but if you've spent the entire game flirting with her, expressing affection and admiration for her, traveling to find her in the Underworld leans so heavily into the Orpheus and Eurydice parallels. Orpheus becomes a dark mirror of Grace as much as Persephone.

Do you retrieve a Freddie that you love from the Underworld because of that love, or do you retrieve a friend as much out of spite, as if to prove that you can succeed where Orpheus failed? Is godhood worth her friendship? Is godhood worth her love? Are you making a sacrifice at all, or are you glad to be rid of these powers that you never asked for? Freddie returns either way, but your motivations have changed the story.

I'm getting a bit lost in the weeds here, but hopefully people get what I'm going for. The fact that, ultimately, Grace is going to wind up on trial against Athena, with the primary differences being whether or not Freddie is there driving the song, or whether it's Aphrodite in one body standing there vs. another, doesn't invalidate the choices and the uniqueness of the journey to get there.

And I cannot stress enough that the potential variation in any given song is so impressive. I'm genuinely kind of bummed that there's no way to listen to some of the versions I made, that I feel like really added to the story I was trying to tell.

And, most importantly, I think Stray Gods understood that this kind of variances gets infinitely more complicated and precarious the longer a game goes. 6 to 8 hours is almost certainly your upper limit possible. Anything much beyond that, and the variations you have to account for spin out into something approaching infinity. And, yes, they do and can get much less meaningful as a result.

IDK! I like this game a lot. I think it did some really cool and inspired things in really cool and inspired ways. And I think its understanding of how to use player choice within the narrative and hardware constraints of a video game is one of those things.

[willowthewiisp]

I just can't fucking shut up about this because everyone else is pissing me off calling Marika an unu poor baby she was justified bs as if genocide against any race is justified if they hurt you first. Look at real world examples.

Anyways.

Godfrey was banished not because he conquered all that could be conquered but because he fundamentally disagreed with Marika. I'm convinced she asked him to carry out the genocide against the hornsent society but because they hadn't attacked or given any reason to be attacked ( because the genocide came AFTER the banishment because messmer knows what a tarnished is AND was an older brother figure to radahn.) Godfrey refused because he's just a Chad like that and Marika stripped him of his grace and sent him on his way and instead gave messmer the grace and blessings to go crusade against the ones she needed to be rid of.

Why were the hornsent not exterminated the second Marika became a god.

Why did she run from the lands of shadow and not stay to save her people.

Because she ran.

She ran away because she had connections to the hornsent as an empyrean. The only reason she genocided them so late in her rule was because the hornsent did not submit to her religion and ideals of the golden order they were graceless and heretics to her, who spat in the face of her erdtree and worshipped the concept of the crucible. Why would she need to hide this war if it was for a good reason. I mean, if she used they oppressed my people and are a threat to the golden order why would she need to hide that, seems like as good of a reason as any to attack someone.

Because there was no good reason.

It's clear the hornsent weren't a warring culture by the time of the crusades if the dancing lion is any hint (that's not to say they weren't in the past, they had to have come to power somehow but as of the genocide the lion dancers were just that, dancers, that basically became guardians and fought during the genocide). They were caught off guard they were surprised and betrayed by Marika who they didn't have any bad blood with personally. If Marika truly was driven by revenge and hate over the shamans why didn't she slaughter them as soon as she became a god. Because she left them on neutral terms. She wasn't their enemy and they had no reason to attack her. What happened at the divine tower was the original sin. That's why messmer shrouded it so no one would know what Marika did to become a god. Massive sacrifice of hornsent AND shamans were needed. I'm almost tempted to say the hornsent got the idea to use shamans in their saint jars because of Marika. They saw this numen, this shaman, ascend into godhood. Marika used the blood of shamans, the flesh of shamans to become a god. They tried to replicate it in the jars, turning criminals and sinners into something that could become more. Maybe the shamans willingly sacrificed themselves for Marikas ascension. I would believe that. But the hornsent saw this and their zealotry drove them to hunt the shamans, so they could recreate what they witnessed at the divine tower. We see something similar in nokron. The nox attempted to birth their own lord to usher in an age of stars.

Marika returning to her village long after the shamans were gone REEKS of guilt. Because she didn't save them. She didn't avenge them. She left them to suffer and die. That's why she's fucking guilty. Messmer was the only one that seemed to care about them, and even then there was nothing to be done. Even IF the hornsent tortured and harvested her people and hurt Marika personally, that doesn't change the fact Marika waited until Godfrey was gone and radahn and messmer were old enough to be brothers to each other (almost implying it happened when Marika and radagon married but that's a stretch) to attack them. She waited an age and a half. Through her age of plenty and into the age of order. Why.

Why did she forsake her people. No wonder the black knife assassins did what they did. If they truly were close to Marika, they'd want revenge for what she did to their people in the lands of shadow.

Anyways.

[deepsix-writing]

coming to terms with godhood.

(a jack nichols aka ‘eyeless jack’ story)

the birth of a god is a painful thing. it feels like dying, more than anything. you’d think, after people having worshipped deities for so long, they’d warn you about how excruciating it is to become one. but they don’t.

that was something jack nichols had learned through firsthand experience. recently, in fact. but the worst thing, for him, wasn’t learning to readjust; it felt like all of his senses had been fundamentally rearranged, but that wasn’t what bothered him most. what bothered him most was the trail of bodies it left in his wake.

“burn in hell. ALL of you.” he remembered the words birthing into the open air, but not saying them himself. but he did remember pulling the mask over his face, and he did remember leaving a bloody jenny to die in the forest alone. he remembered kicking away her pleading hands as they pawed at his ankle, her last chance of making contact with her reborn god. only it didn’t feel like jack’s voice, coming out of him. it came from some place far deeper than his chest, and it gushed from his lips like the tar that leaked from his eyes. when he finally scrambled back to civilization, hastily stuffing himself into the nearest gas station bathroom to avoid prying eyes, he puked his guts out. it was an ultimately futile attempt to get that noxious tar out of his body.

it was poisoning him, he was certain. it felt like it coated every inch of his insides, holding back the air in his lungs and turning the food in his stomach to bile. he didn’t want to look in the mirror. he didn’t want to see the state of himself, what those people had done to him, but he needed to know.

he wished he hadn’t looked. because when he did, he didn't recognize what he saw.

beneath the mask, crusted with black tar, festered two black pits where his eyes once were. he was mesmerized by the fact he wasn’t doubled over with the pain of it all. thinking about it, he was just as mesmerized by something else, too.

how am i able to see right now?

it was something that hadn’t even occurred to him until now.

sight of chernobog, some rogue thought interjected. then, it came back to him. that was what the cultists had said when they gouged out his eyes and replaced them with…

i should not be as calm as i am, reflecting on this.

jack never had been the emotional type, but this was really pushing it. it was like that tar that covered his insides had dampened his emotions, too.

...or maybe he was just denying himself the time to truly reflect on it. a part of him felt if he did that, he might never get back on his feet again. he’d curl up in a ball and crystalize, and years down the line he’d be nothing but dust.

jack didn’t want that. it was like the mountain climbers he’d read about in one of his medical textbooks. he just needed to learn to acclimate to the change in altitude. this could be okay.

how to acclimate, however… that was a tough one. he couldn’t do it around people though, he knew that much. he needed to be somewhere isolated, somewhere he could collect his thoughts and keep anyone else from getting—

go back to the college, his thoughts interjected again. you don’t know what its like to be truly alone. you don’t want that.

jack blinked, but shrugged it off. in the gas station bathroom’s sink he washed his hair, matted with blood, and made certain to wash off any blood that pooled on the porcelain when he was done. he took the mask, cast aside amidst his previous puking session, and slipped it back on. he slipped the hood of his jacket up over it to hide his wet hair, too, and took one final look in the mirror.

it was months from Halloween. there was no way anyone was going to look at him and think ‘yep, that’s normal’. in fact, jack was pretty sure he’d already gotten a horrified look from a lady filling up her tank before he’d darted into the bathroom.

his only hope was going to be finding somewhere secluded to figure all of this out. maybe, when all was said and done with, he could make up the assignments for the last of his classes online. he was pretty sure west point had a program for that.

his uncle had a cabin in some backwoods area nearby, he knew. jack remembered when he was a kid, him, his parents, and his cousins would all stay there during the holidays. his uncle had a different house he lived in, too, so chances were, the place was empty.

and, it was only a few dozen miles north, if he remembered correctly. he was on the track team back in high-school. it wouldn't be easy, but it would be managable.

it was the best shot he had at figuring this all out.

it would have to work.

whatever it was that had happened with the cult, whatever it was that they did to jack, it would all be a distant memory in a few years. it wouldn’t get in the way of his medical degree, and it sure as hell wouldn’t get in the way of his life.

right?

[theofaluvsviolet]

Miquella’s Character arc

There is a fuss going on after the dlc release about Miquella so I am here to say my own thoughts and opinions on this. YES, Miquella ended up being manipulative and he didn’t do the best things to achieve his goals no matter his good intentions. But that was not always the case…

Miquella’s beginning, as we see in the Haligtree, gave hopes and possibilities for a better world. He did care for his sister and did care for the unwanted. After he abandoned the golden order fundamentalism he still worked hard to cure his sister. Thinking he could achieve his goals by remaining an incomplete god and essentially a child though, didn’t work.

If you think about it, every Demigod that ever ascended to godhood or anything related to gaining power (Rykard, Godrick, Malenia etc) drove them all out of their last parts of sanity, their sense of justice and compassion. A common thing we see is that, the demigods begun as rebellions against the golden order and then to make their goals reality they ascended into gods, in a maddening state. This is what happens to Miquella in the dlc and you, save him from this fate…

By leaving behind his body parts and especially St. Trina, Miquella left behind everything that was keeping him a good person and a person willing to truly change the world. He even abandoned the Haligtree and his sister in order to ascend. He moved to horrific deeds and decisions in order to succeed his ascension to godhood, and if you think about some other demigods, or Marika herself, it’s a non escaping end.

If in the beginning, wished for a better world he wouldn’t even think of his “non free will age” he then realized that to fix this world it’s going to be needed more than mere compassion. And by realizing that he abandons every doubt, every kindness, every unconditional love to his ascension. His ability to gain love from others and to aspire a world of it turned into manipulation.

When you, the tarnished follow his footsteps you essentially follow his broken parts, all parts of his fears to follow this path. And then St. Trina, all that’s left from his kindness, tells you to kill him in order to protect him and save him from this fate of corruption that his mother too had.

St. Trina tells you to kill Miquella and not let the poor thing become a god. This is what she meant. She meant to save him from this fate of becoming a god. He left behind his pieces of all unconditional kindness. By killing him, you save him from this fate. Maybe you, even save his kindness alive in any way you wish.

• Were his actions in the DLC wrong? YES

• Were his intentions good? YES

• Did he manipulate? YES in the end

• Did he truly have care for others? YES, in the beginning

Would I choose his age of compassion? No it still doesn’t add up to me but, in my eyes Miquella is not that evil master villain that others portray. His character development is much more complex than the definition of “good” or “evil”. Essentially he begun as a promising and carrying character and ended up as a naive tragic manipulator.

Now shoutout to the other topic today.

Miquella and Mohg

• Did Mohg kidnap Miquella on his own will? YES

• Was he enchanted by Miquella? YES

• Did Miquella have any plans with him? YES, but NOT before he took him.

So, even if in the dlc we know that Miquella charmed Mohg, we are also clued that, Mohg actually had his own plans and ambitions with him. Miquella would never think to involve Mohg in his plans, not after he realises that he turned useful. It just doesn’t make any sense. But that doesn’t mean that Mohg was not charmed, LATER

The first plan of Miquella, was to wait inside his cocoon inside the Haligtree and be born again as a new god. But we know that Mohg, while Malenia was against Radahn, still abducted Miquella from inside his cocoon.

“ Wishing to raise Miquella to full godhood, Mohg wished to become his consort, taking the role of monarch. But no matter how much of his bloody bedchamber he tried to share, he received no response from the young Empyrean “

“Render up your offerings of blood to your Lord. Drench my consort's chamber. Slake his cocoon's thirst. His awakening shall herald the dawn of our dynasty”

This concludes to the fact that indeed, Mohg tried to share his bedchamber with Miquella and indeed wished to build a new dynasty with him as his consort.

And while we know that Miquella charmed him in order to achieve his entrance to the Land of Shadow, there is no explanation on why would he charm him to take him out of his cocoon which he was trying to succeed something in. He still had faith in the Haligtree and he decided to abandon it later.

But I am pretty sure that Miquella departed his spirit from body, so he probably wanted Mohg to stop his blood rituals on him. This is probably why he charmed him. He wanted him to stop and used his power to make him act on his own plans. I believe that the charm came after the abduction when he realised this ritual will not grant him his wishes.

What Ansbach said about him trying to undo Miquella’s charm, Mohg must’ve been already charmed at this point. Ansbach would not like his lord to be enchanted in any way, no matter what Miquella made him do.

Miquella decided to take Mohg’s body way after he was killed. He lost all of his kindness and compassion at this point.

[burningclocks]

Lesbian date ideas:

Ghost hunting for eight hours

Start a community garden

Tell eachother your deepest fears and darkest thoughts

Swordfight at dawn

Exorcise a demon

Get a cat

Hold a knife to each other's throats

Get another cat

Open your third eye and achieve godhood

Build a cottage in the woods

Become a local folk tale

Solve the mystery of your mothers disappearance

Swim in a lake and then come out mysteriously different as if you've been fundamentally changed or entirely replaced

Accidentally kill a man

Bathe in his blood (totally by accident tho)

Intentionally kill a man

Burn down a church and kiss in the ashes

Start a cult

Make out in an abandoned building

Go through the five stages of grief

Invent more stages of grief

Steal a bus

Get yet another cat

Go to a bookstore

Destroy a corporation

Overthrow the government

Learn to time travel

Visit Sappho of Lesbos, worship at her feet

Exist in Rome for a day

Exist in the Victorian era for a day, disappear mysteriously from the ball

Start a conspiracy

Knit the fabric of your souls together

Stab Julius Caesar

Steal from the British Museum

Steal the Mona Lisa

Go back in time and kiss Mona Lisa

Learn the way of the sword

Be present at every major historical event

Exist in front of HP Lovecraft and watch as he loses his shit

Add a gay sex scene to every HP Lovecraft book

Do piracy

Rule over all pirates

Kiss in front of a shocked audience of Victorian people

Night at the Museum

Just the plot of Night at the Museum

Swim in the moonlight

Get another cat

Lead the lesbian revolution

Charge into battle

Slaughter your enemies alongside your wonderful beautiful amazing wife

Kiss passionately surrounded by corpses

Have highly symbolic and metaphorical gay sex

Love eachother in every universe as every couple to ever live

Breed flowers to be new beautiful and bizarre colors

Become happy

Achieve enlightenment

Ascend to a high plane of being

Put flowers in each other's hair

Get coffee

Become villains

End a bloodline

Kill eachother in a really homoerotic way

Experience catharsis

Sleep in each other's arms each night

Wake up next to eachother every morning rain or shine

Make breakfast and coffee for each other

Hold eachother closer when you have nightmares and are plagued by visions

Be old and be healed

Have the sun glow brighter and the flowers bloom in more colors

Love each other so much it changes the narrative

Love each other so much it changes the universe

Wait with each other. Wait for the next thing to come your way and then when that's over wait together again. Except it's not waiting. Imagine you cannot wait to wait with each other. Watching and waiting as the world comes at you

Cry

[shellem15]

One thing I’ve seen people talking about as a possible solution to the whole gods issue is turning the gods mortal—permanently.

Remove the throne entirely. Put gods and mortals on the same playing field. This option does have one obvious benefit: if the gods are like everybody else, then the damage they can inflict is severely reduced.

But I don’t think this is as clean an answer as people think it is, for multiple reasons. My first question would be “what happens to clerics and paladins?” Now, we know that divine magic exists outside the gods, but the vast majority of clerics and paladins (aka our primary healers) get their magic from gods. I imagine learning how to harness that magic outside the gods would be a pretty steep learning curve, so removing that source of power would cause a whole boatload of issues for healthcare in Exandria.

Another problem would be the mass amounts of social upheaval due to the loss of these divine figures. Wars would be fought, communities destroyed, massive power vacuums opened— thousands would die if the gods were destroyed (or made mortal.) Not to mention, the power vacuums and violence opened up on planes other than Exandria. Celestials and angels would be leaderless and directionless, demons would be free to wreak havoc on other planes. Devils are explicitly kept in line by the Lord of the Hells, without him to control them, what effect would the resulting power-struggle have on Exandria and the rest of the planes?

My third question would be how this change would effect their domains? I don’t think it would erase them entirely, the world is here and here to stay, but much like the social upheaval I think there would be much upheaval in how Exandria functions. The domains the gods rule over would be left on their own, with no one to guide or direct them. This, I imagine, would have its own set of benefits and drawbacks.

My fourth question is, would turning the current gods mortal prevent new gods from ascending? Or would it just leave the throne open, like Ashton said. Unless the concept of godhood was removed entirely, wouldn’t this problem just repeat itself? With no guarantee that those new gods will be at all merciful or tolerant towards mortals. Additionally, I have to ask what this would mean for near-godly entities. What about Archfey, Archdevils, Demon Lords, Archangels, and other Demi-powers? Where do they fit in this new order? They give spells, have worshippers, hold powers greater than mortals could imagine. How much power is too much power to have when it is fundamental to one’s nature?

I want to take a moment to talk about a scene from the Witch, the Wizard, and the Wild One, which is run by Bleem himself and has Lou Wilson, Erika Ishii, and Aabria Iyengar as players (which you should definitely check out it’s so good y’all). Heavy Spoilers for Arc 1 ahead:

In the city of Port Talon, our heroes learn that the wizards of the Citadel have imprisoned the great spirit of the ocean, Naram, underneath the barracks out in the harbor. Naram is a gentle spirit, and has been holding back from freeing himself, because he knows that in doing so he would destroy Port Talon. Naram’s wife, Orima of the Reaching Green, is not a gentle spirit, and has been encircling the city with deadly kudzu to try to free Naram. Eursulon, one of our heroes, frees Naram but gets trapped in his place. Naram stays to free Eursulon in turn, and has a moment of decision to make. Ame, the Witch of the World’s Heart, can influence this decision. Either Naram can sacrifice himself to free Eursulon, destroying himself but sparing Citadel forces. Or, he can choose to destroy the barracks, freeing Eursulon but damming the Citadel Wizards and their forces.

Ame and Naram chose violence, and the barracks are destroyed. The scene is truly horrifying, the destruction and death extraordinary even while Naram is being as precise as he can be. He is simply too vast a being to be delicate amongst humanity, despite all his efforts. He still loves Port Talon, still chooses mercy whenever he can. He is just on another playing field entirely.

I want to note, however, that the vastness of his being doesn’t make him evil. It doesn’t make Orima evil, despite her propensity for extreme violence and antagonism towards our heroes. They think a lot like humans, but aren’t human. Their morality is not the same as ours, and that informs their actions. Naram’s destruction would have, perhaps, reduced the net violence that occurred. But it also would have removed a source of great magic and wonder from the world, one that could never have been gotten back. Who are we to destroy or change a being simply because they do not play by our rules? Simply because they act in accordance to their nature and are greater than us?

(Spoilers over)

The last question I want to ask is one more about the personal ethics in turning the gods mortal. Because if you think about it for a minute, it’s really fucked up actually. This isn’t reappropriating wealth from a rich person, this is fundamentally changing the gods’ nature. Likely by force for a lot of them. And I’m sorry, there are so many ethical issues with that.

It’s important to keep in mind, while the gods are quite human-like, they aren’t human. The gods we see in downfall are a fraction of their true power and their true selves, filtered through a mortal lens. They are messy and emotional and have complex feeling and emotions but they are also greater concepts like nature and law and destruction. You cannot separate these two sides of them, you cannot separate the mortal from the divine. To do so would fundamentally change their beings, and that has absolutely horrifying implications.

I’m reminded of a scene from the Last Unicorn, where the unicorn wakes up in a human body. She is horrified, weeping and crying about what she has lost. She can feel her body is different, it’s wrong, it’s dying around her and she can do nothing to stop it. Her mind is human and her memory of her life before fades. She becomes a unicorn again by the end of the movie, but she is forever changed. Forever burdened by knowing love and loss and pain. Something she was never supposed to know.

What would happen if you removed Asha from the Wildmother? You are being that is one with the world and knows the roots of every plant, can hear the beating of every animal’s heart, are interwoven with the mountains and the forests and the rivers and the seas. And then, suddenly, all of that is gone. Suddenly you exist solely within a body of flesh and bone, one that ages and dies, one that forgets the life before. You cannot feel the roots, you cannot hear the heartbeats, the mountains and the forests and the rivers and the seas are no longer yours. Are no longer you. Would that be more or less horrifying than becoming real, do you think?

In some ways, you are capable of changing, now. You can be anything. But you are no longer eternal. You are limited in the scope of what is you. And isn’t that another horror?

Congratulations, the gods are mortal. You’re on the same playing field, but the world has lost a great source of magic and wonder. You have changed them. I hope it was worth it.

Maybe Tishar is right. We really do love destroying things we don’t understand.

In the end, I don’t think there are any clear or clean answers here. Everything is going to be messy, there’s always going to be someone left unsatisfied. I’m just laying out my thoughts on the matter, and why turning the gods human isn’t as clean a solution as people seem to think it is.

[scribefindegil]

ok i'm soooo happy you talked about the mind control thing with the divine tree arc. it rubbed me the wrong way a lot and is the reason why i still don't really like dimple, even though i know it's an important story point and all, i feel like brainwashing is a huge violation and it was never really talked about afterwards. it also rubbed me the wrong way when mob wondered if he did something wrong by stopping the brainwashing even though it made peopl happy, like i feel like that's so disrespectful to autonomy and such (even though, it is a fictional story)

i really like what you're doing with the brassica heresy, with tsubomi taking center stage bc she is one of my faves, i'm really excited where it will go!

Okay. It is possible that you will not like what I have to say. That's fine; you don't have to agree with me and you certainly don't have to like a fictional character who has done fucked-up stuff.

That said.

I feel like you're approaching this with framing that's pretty at odds with the themes of the show. Everyone agrees that the brainwashing was bad. A lot of Mob Psycho characters have done things that are bad. Pretty much everyone I know spent most of the Divine Tree confrontation absolutely furious with Dimple. But the question is: Okay, a character has done something awful. Now what? A lot of people would say that the only solution is punishment and rejection, that Dimple has done something too terrible for him to remain a sympathetic character, and he needs to be exiled or killed or imprisoned or otherwise removed from the show.

But Mob Psycho 100 believes, completely and utterly, with its whole chest, with every arc and with every character, that there is nothing you can do that is so terrible that you are undeserving of human connection, that you are incapable of changing for the better. It believes that there is no fundamental, ontological difference between the people you hate and the people you love, between a terrorist trying to take over the world and a kid who lashed out once and accidentally hurt his brother. Which isn't to say that actions don't matter; obviously they do, and they have consequences. But regardless of what they've done, everyone is just a person. Everyone can grow.

And, crucially, it isn't interested in punishment. Did the character realize their mistake and begin to change? That's what matters. The show doesn't have people constantly rehash the bad things they've done; it just gives them the chance to stop and choose a different path. And Dimple does. Dimple realizes that his goal of godhood wasn't going to make him happy, but his friendship with Mob was.

And people can have boundaries; people can decide that they don't want to be associated with someone any more; forgiveness, in Mob Psycho, is always a choice. But it's a choice that the characters continue to make because the show values kindness and transformation.

So like, yeah, the brainwashing was truly, deeply horrifying. And Mob loves Dimple anyway. And I do too.

(Also, to your point about the LOL cult: Mob is extremely anxious about doing the right thing and specifically about following social rules. And those people did seem to be happy, so of course it makes sense that the fear that he made their lives worse is going to eat at him. That's why Reigen's there, to reassure him, to tell him "You saved some people that only you could have saved," to listen to him tell his story and say that no, those people weren't really happy, and he did something good and important and necessary by breaking the spell.)

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

venti

I’m sure you don’t talk about him enough ; )

ah anon. you know me so well. anyway *cracks knuckles* here we go

how i feel about this character: i think about this character so much it's probably worrying. he's just so complex and compelling - from the moment you first meet him you realise that he has a really unique relationship with the world in general, and just. every time he makes an allusion to something that he doesn't expand upon either because he feels he shouldn't yet or because he's perhaps trying to protect himself i simultaneously want to throw him in the horse plinko and hug him. how do you even live after the first person who was ever really your friend, whose wish was to see the sky from beyond the barrier that was made by a god, dies after you fought for that with him and barely even got a glimpse of the freedom that he strived so hard for. how do you live after you take his form when you end up becoming the very thing that was the cause of your friends' suffering because you maybe feel that it's the only way to keep his ambition and hope for freedom living on after he died because maybe having a god's ideal be a human's wish for freedom is one of the only ways to negate the inherent respect that godhood commands but also probably because you just can't bear to let him go, at least for a period. how do you- *gets dragged forcibly off-stage*

all the people i ship romantically with this character: i can appreciate a lot of the popular venti ships however the only two that have ever really appealed massively to me are xiaoven and zhongven. you can see my post for this ask game about xiao for some my thoughts on xiaoven (i can elaborate if need be though) but for zhongven i just find their relationship sooo fascinating. they've lived through wars together, so chances are they've seen each other do utterly unspeakable things, and even that by itself can produce a very close kind of relationship. on the surface they're polar opposites but when you actually think about it they are fundamentally quite similar, despite their opposing natures. idk something something about a mountain that can erode and change but won't fall or move and the wind that comes and goes as it pleases but can still change it's course and can still come to rest sometimes. you get it right

my non-romantic otp for this character: *chanting* venti and jean. venti and jean. venti and jean. venti and jean-

ok but in all seriousness i just think that explorations of jean's religious devotion to barbatos being put under insane amounts of duress after the events of the mond archon quests very interesting. what do you do when you find out that the god that you devoted your entire life to is not just a concept and is, in fact, a person who's probably pretty depressed. idk. "met god and he's just some guy" type shit

my unpopular opinion about this character: uhhh i can't really think of anything right now? maybe how i actually think he's way more moon-coded as a character than sun-coded but i don't see many people on here actually talking about that so idk

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: hehe. haha. forced barbatos reveal to all of mondstadt babyyyyy i feel like backing him into a corner and stopping him from running away from his problems so much would be good for him in the long run

[useless-donut]

oh my god i played through both endings of astarions companion quest and spoilers below - it's really just an extremely long ramble

btw i just mean the finale of his quest, not the ending after the whole game

BOTH ARE SO DEVASTATING AND IM OBSESSED WITH BOTH OPTIONS

i rly like to play like im rping my tavs personality so that'll influence the end i go with on other playthroughs but woof

i love that larian gave us the one consequence that might make the power of ascension not worth it... fundamentally changing how astarion relates to and treats us. i REALLY thought id be chill with this option bc i love a power hungry man & my tav would die for him, but it hit SO much harder than i thought it would. maybe also because it was 2 am. but like im obsessed with the difference because of course it changes him—the man emotionally devastated by seeing his past victims deciding to condemn them all, and 6,000 other souls, for the allure of power and safety? and then reaching that unlimited power?

on one hand, seeing him lose that mix wariness & fondness & softness & bravado was GUTTING but also its very sweet that despite basically ascending to vampire godhood, he so badly wants to keep you around. even if, at the moment, he is still wrapping his head around his power and doesn't really see you as an equal lover anymore, vs. an item arguably at the top of things he wants

the lines where he stays hes toootally joking about calling you a pet and that you'll be too obedient for him to need to compel you, and his desire to keep you as a thrall & not give you agency... those are the lines that really killed me and sold the idea that our relationship was fundamentally altered. the "i love you... is what you want to hear, isnt it?" is also brutal, but astarions almost verbatim said that before lmao so i dont mind it as much, hes just silly

the break up options were really satisfying tho ngl and i love that theres two routes where you apologize for even bringing it up and you stay together, when in the past he'd act shocked if you ever chose to be with him

this ending also REALLY made me want to write a self insert (tav insert) fix it fic where you dump him for being a condescending asshole and after a long period of time and yk pining and mourning on your part, astarions going to finally decide maybe he does want a lover with agency and have like this nice slow burn of his personality resurfacing through all that power

like the vampire ascendant astarion rly felt like it was just like 900 tons of power smooshed into an astarion skin suit, and i love the idea that he would find his way back to himself eventually (but maybe after losing you... so sad... maybe he will come back and do the worst approximation of begging youve ever seen...)

anyway for the other ending, i mean. if youve gotten there you know what i mean. its lovely and bittersweet bc consequences and i think larian went a little too hard on selling us that this was the "good" outcome. however. i dont actually care because i played through it after the former version and WOW it was like the most relieving thing ever? to see him acting like himself again, and also very sweet to see how he relates to us afterwards. really up in my feels about how much he trusts us and also relied on us in that moment to remind him of his priorities. as he both he and us were perfectly aware he is exactly the type of personality to be absolutely corrupted by absolute power lmao (which is cute of him)

i thought it was also very interesting that in that moment you persuade him, he approves—like even in the heat of the moment, he didnt truly want to forget everything he cared about outside of safety and power. i didnt get an approval notif for him when i helped him go through with it, but it could just be bugged lol. anyway i rly love that that moment shows so clearly how ascending is a decision driven by fear and hunger for power, not by considering what he wants out of life

anyway my unfiltered thoughts:

we know a great deal about astarions wants and fears and desires from his story

- he desires freedom more than anything

- but that's not ALL he desires. it's freedom in abstract, but also freedom to be himself and to have a sense of who he even is in the first place. he know he deeply mourns losing touch with who he was when he was alive

- he fears being controlled by others, but has also never shown desire to control others in return

- he wants real intimacy & partnership and was afraid he couldn't figure out how to do it, how to relate to any of it without being coerced

because of all this, i do think the ascended vampire is more tragic for him. as an individual, he is happier, but as astarion, the person we've been getting to know—his new life doesn't meet his needs any better than the non-ascended version does. he'll talk about being free, but all he wants to do is... subjugate the world? control everyone and everything around him? like since when?

what really stood out to me is this man who LOVED the sun, missed it in the underdark, was amazed by seeing baldurs gate in light, he wants to cover everything in darkness. for his thralls he supposedly cares for (after sacrificing 7,000 of them for this power)

imo he gained a lack of fear and he gained safety, but the other things he wanted he didnt rly get, which i have more thoughts on than i really want to write here

umascended, he is still free, maybe less safe but that safety is in his control now, at least. and he probably could still swing a castle and an eternal lover if he wanted (did he even become a full vampire? i feel like he must have somewhere along the way) ngl.

anyway to sum it up, i love him so much both directions and will follow him around forever like a puppy regardless of what path he takes

[mr-president]

heyo, may i ask for your full-ass marxist critique on the funger series? you mentioning it in your levi answer made me surper curious!

CW for spoilers and if i get things wrong. lmk, it’s been a while.

My main concern with Funger with regards to Marx is in how it tells its history because Fear & Hunger lore canonizes the “Great Man” narrative of history. For those who don’t know, “Great Man” theory posits that history is lead by exceedingly extraordinary individuals whose “great ideas,” “great personalities,” and other such characteristics were/are so impactful that major historical eras/events that would take centuries or millennia occur suddenly, often merely in the span of decades, and Fundamentally Change Society.

In the real world, these are your Beethovens, your Julius Caesars, your Ghengis Khans, your Marilyn Monroes, your George Washingtons, your Thomas Edisons, and what-have-you. They are people of such excellence that they Created Change that would otherwise not exist without them. They altered the course of history forever, but more importantly, they are rare and exceptional. These “Great Men” are not individuals, they are deities among everyone else.

See where the similarities lie to Funger’s gods? The lore of the New Gods is that by having the excellence, the inane and inherent will and exceptional soul to sit on the Golden Throne and ascend, then a new era of a New God is able to completely alter the course of history to their whim.

When you ascend to New Godhood in Funger 1, you literally have the option to determine how you want history to go. Do you want to crush all opposition and rule with an iron fist? You can do that. Do you want to enforce a new ideology by religion? Done. When you are a New God—another “Great Man”—historical events are not necessarily mere results of circumstance, they are things that would have happened anyway but are coalesced, expedited by the whim of a Great One.

And Funger shows with the Hall of New Gods that this has happened for all that history has existed, for millennia and beyond. History has always, always been written by the chosen “New Gods” of an era. A new era of history is because of a new pantheon of New Gods, is merely a result of their existence. Thus, in Fear & Hunger, “Great Man” are literal arbiters of history.

This is all in contrast to the Marxist framework of history, where rather than “great individuals” and their “great ideas” defining historical events and eras, history is determined by the class structures/systems within an era and how those class systems interact with one another. Who can access the Modes of Production? Who or what are the Forces of Production? How do those groups interact? What establishes or enforces those class structures?

The reactions to these questions, or if there is even one at all, is how history “progresses,” so to speak. In the Marxist framework, history is viewed in the collective action, the circumstances that can lead to major historical changes or events, rather than just Great People and their Great Ideas.

In the real world, it is arguable that this framework is a more accurate narrative of history, but my personal opinion on this matter aside, this is not how history canonically works in Funger.

However, Funger does this weird thing in that it somewhat posits that should be Like That.

For one, it is clear that the New God system does not inspire permanent societal change, and the influence of a New God peters out so drastically after their era of relevance that they are completely forgotten by society, now forever trapped in a Maha’bre where they once ruled. It’s depressing, being immortal and fighting so hard for change because inevitably, you won’t matter anymore. And what you did won’t matter either, in the grand scheme of things.

The illusion of individual action, of individual greatness forcing events to occur to their own whim, won’t change anything in the long run. Individual action is important, but it can also be easily erased once that individual is removed from relevancy, which is the primary problem.

Additionally, Funger makes it evident that the New God struggle is still a struggle in fidelity to the Old Gods, who remain powerful, remain the ultimate arbiters of reality and thus history, for everyone. The New Gods are ultimately incapable of inspiring true change because their individual actions are an illusion of change because the order of the Old Gods will always prevail.

It is only in the birth of new Gods whose power rivals that of the Old Gods—the Girl and Logic/Reina—that humans truly begin to shift the social order in favor of their own interests by relying on themselves and each other. In essence, Funger actually does follow the Marxist framework because true change, a true dissolution of the bourgeois (the Old Gods) must come from the result of collective change creating the circumstances for that overthrowing to occur.

However, while the birth of Logic at the end of Termina very clearly falls within this reading, I can’t necessarily say the same for the Girl. Actually, I’m not entirely sure I can say that for either of ‘em. Because, I mean, things still haven’t changed in the sense that humans are finally free from the overwhelming power of the Old Gods—the hands of who commanded the Old Gods’ power merely changed hands.

Still, there are those with overwhelming power and those who are subject to it. Nothing has changed. Yes, a new era of history has begun and with it more innovation and societal “progress” (at least in the technological/informatics side), but still, people are subject to the law of the Old Gods.

And for me, that’s kind of a shame. But I’m an idealistic person, and Funger’s not exactly an idyllic series so, what can you do.

Ugh, the reason why I hesitated to give this reading is because I don’t think Funger is Marxist. But I do think it’s an interesting analysis for what happens when you canonize a Great Man view of history, but while Marx posits that there is a theoretical end to oppression, Funger kind of says that oppression is a necessity of human existence.

Which, is somewhat true. After all, nature and the natural aren’t exactly things humans can logic away, and humans themselves are not so perfect as to devise and live in a utopia.

The ultimate thesis of Funger is that suffering is a fact of reality, that will always exist in some form. Suffering is the human condition, and that is both a tragedy that should be acknowledged and ruminated upon as it is a reality we cannot run away from.

Levi, as I had said in the prior analysis, suffers and his suffering is unnecessary and cruel. However, it exists, must be acknowledged, and is a point of empathy with other peoples that connects him to society.

And that’s not necessarily Marxist as it is just the primary theme of Funger. Marxism may be an avenue to minimize suffering and oppression, but that’s not what Funger wants to argue or say at all. I mean, the fact that it canonized the antithesis of Marx’s framework of history in favor of Libertarian “Great Man” theory should say enough as to the series’ stance on Marxist ideology.

But, I still write all this because it’s interesting to see what happens when you take “Great Man” theory to its logical extreme, what a society of history guided by “Great Men” would look like. And Funger’s conclusion is that it sucks balls.

So, Funger isn’t exactly Marxist. But it is Humanist, and it is anti-capitalist and critical of liberalism and individualism.

tldr; great man theory is stupid, funger is still a depressing game, and i’ve been shoving a square peg into a round hole (these games aren’t marxist)

[zhongscara]

requesting you talk about zhongscara, like how they meet, what attracts them to each other etc I need to hear everything

(CRACKS MY KNUCKLES) HERE WE FUCKING GO. (i nearly forgot this in my drafts FUCKKKK)

how they meet

god there are so many possibilities in my head even just for canon compliant meetings... here's my fave ideas:

main headcanon: when nahida returned scara's memories, he also got makoto and ei's memories from the gnosis, so he knows a bit about zhongli as rex lapis. he also probably heard about what happened during the liyue AQ from signora and childe.

scenario 1: nahida needs advice from a fellow archon, and zhongli is the closest to her geographically. scara is there because he's nahida's sorta secretary and also because he's nosy as hell. zhongli immediately realizes that scara looks a little too much like makoto.

scenario 2: traveler themselves introduces them together (self indulgent. its me, im traveler.) and somehow manages to force them to spend time together (more forcing scara to spend time with an archon bc we all know zhongli would spend time with nearly anyone)

scenario 3: ive run out of scenarios im shy now but just know i have thousands running in my head. a big chunk of which are horny. smiles.

what attracts them to each other

their mental illnesses are perfect for each other. SHJDGFJKSDAHKJSDHGKJ ok but in all seriousness they both share:

the complex situation of being the survivors who carry the burden of remembering a forgotten history. (zhongli bc he's so old people have forgotten finer details, scara bc he tried to delete himself)

learning how to be human. zhongli who steps down from godhood to live as a regular human and scara who has to grapple with how he's closer to being human (at least emotionally) than he is a god.

in less serious matters, scara likes power(ful people) and zhongli likes anemo twinks... what more can i say...

zhongscara to me is like. every ship any way all at once. they help each other grow. they make each other worse. they have the craziest codependency that only works for them and should never involve anyone else. they have a happy ending. their love will destroy them both. its a one night stand. its eternal devotion. their lives will fundamentally be changed from this point onward. they're horny as hell.

i feel like ive said so much and nothing at all like i swear every time someone asks about them im like HUghIUGhhj??? and say nothing omfg............

[tennessoui]

Ganymede au got me like 🥺🥺🥺

I loved the eye colour switch because it shows an irreversible change, and part of me wonders if Anakin settles down and enjoys his new role after only a few days because he's fundamentally not human anymore. He's changed and his human ties can't survive it however much they meant to him. God Anakin is happy but human Anakin may have wept.

I like to believe Padme ended up making Anakin a cult figure by building statues and temples to her lost love. Obi-Wan might have made him immortal but Padme makes him a figure of worship. But anytime she tries to put herself next to him in images or statue her image doesn't survive for some reason, and she can't even be with him in representation. Anakins story might be remembered but the woman who made sure he was remembered might not be...

(the ganymede ficlet)

ah this is some top tier analysis on anakin's humanity--i feel like he takes to godhood super well because of the sort of life he led while human. he was brutal and violent and known to take no prisoners. his loyalty was to the gods first and then to his almost wife, and he cared for few besides his innermost circle.

(and i think obi-wan king of the gods really really liked that about him, enough that he couldn't watch him give his loyalty away. he needed it all.)

so i think that all relates to how easily anakin settles into godhood and his new life. i think when he's upset, he's selfishly upset about obi-wan's actions. he doesn't remember to be concerned with his almost-wife or anyone else for a bit and then when he does...i love what you said, that he's not human anymore so it's harder for him to care. but i think there were parts of him who were never that human, so the transition is that much easier.

also i like the idea that everything feels different as a god. sex with padmé as a human may have been good, but sex with the king of the gods just blows everything else out of the water. being so horny and satisfied, never cold or hungry, relaxing under the heavy, overwhelming attention from kenobi himself....it's an easy existence to get used to