#witw ending is like

[ritasanderson]

[gutsofgold]

cheryl making little noises during the west end live performance is everything

[andr0nap-wf]

1999 cant come fast enough i need to know how albrecht thinks going to that year is going to fix anything

wouldnt it be easier to go back in time to the moment before the void dive and beat some sense into yourself? whats another paradox, it beats pissing off god and causing reality to collapse

[autobahnmp3]

actually bread here is like 1.5 - 5eur per kg but loaves are like 500g on average ig

[fandom-geek]

so maybe i need to do some more digging into the lore, but as a newbie who finally caught up on the story and has done some lore reading - was albrecht... more involved in the zariman disaster than just releasing the indifference into reality?

like his logs for the cavia mention that he knew that the indifference was intrigued by uniqueness and, at the very least, albrecht granted the zariman the privilege of being the first to access his archives so they could form the curriculum for the kids, which euleria contributed so much to the point of becoming the voice of it.

the zariman also had a super unique reliquary drive, which incidentally has a massive orb with entrati obols above it. obviously we can't be sure whether euleria, albrecht, or both worked on the drive, given that both clearly contributed to zariman's education system, but it's hard to imagine that happening without some level of involvement from him.

you can also get entrati lanthorns in only two places - albrecht's lab and the zariman. between all of that, how his account of his first meeting with the indifference has him mention "the unholy zariman parade" (implying he was there for the send-off), and his apparent interest in tau as of the end of 1999...

it just seems extremely coincidental if he didn't ever consider that the uniqueness of the zariman would be a beacon for the indifference.

especially since albrecht somehow knew about the operators' existence when he first visited 1999. even og!loid isn't aware that operators = tenno in witw and it's only really the seven and the researchers involved who would've known the true nature of the tenno (probably lotus too) at the point when the entrati all hid themselves upon deimos.

i don't know if he intended to serve the zariman up to the void as he had previously done to the cavia, but given 1999 has demonstrated he's fully accepting of killing "hundreds of thousands" to even gain an inch against the indifference, it wouldn't exactly be out of character, would it?

[themanwhomadeamonster]

i feel like a lot of warframe players need to realise that warframe is not a cosmic horror game. it's a sci fi, yes, it takes tropes and storywriting ideas from cosmic horror, but the game inherently isn't about the existential despair that comes with it. we will never be able to defeat wally, that's the point of a cosmic horror, but we can be there for him

a lot of ppl on tumblr already understand that so i'm just preaching to the choir but my god some ppl need to look into the THEMES of warframe's story. it's about compassion! to take away one's pain! WE HAD A WHOLE QUEST ABOUT IT ALREADY. you will NOT get a bloodborne-style story and boss fight from this game, and i think witw was a very stern reminder for ppl not to expect that from warframe because i can see so many ppl already upset with how we didn't end up decking the vessel like a mecha fight

ppl keep joking that warframe is about beating enemies through the Power of Love(tm) YES THAT'S THE POINT WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE PAST 5+ YEARS??

[alteredsilicone]

Attempt at putting my feelings about Jade Shadows in a Long Post

I was never a big Stalker fangirl so I did not have any expectations or desires for this quest, I fully saw it as filler to distract me before Tennocon and the wait for Warframe 1999.

I was worried about some things, thinking DE might add/retcon lore about the Rebellion and Night of the Naga Drums, but that didn't happen haha

The quest itself did not elicit an emotional response from me, at some points it even seemed weird and absurd. They really went there, huh?

I see now that there is a LOT of tension and opinion flinging and accusations and such and such and I also fell victim to getting maybe a little bit too angry and incensed.

To me, the hype didn't live up to the payoff, this is basically Angels of the Zariman 2.0 for me. Where I expected one thing (Tenno Rebellion, Stalker lore) but got something else (Warframe Baby). I feel this is the kind of quest that expected me to have one specific emotional reaction ("aww!") so it didn't try to... elicit that reaction. Sympathy-bait. Like showing a little kitten to make you "aww" and stop thinking. If you don't "aww" then you won't like it but the people who "aww"-ed will think you are a heartless weirdo.

Some people have pointed out how this quest actually makes Stalker's anger at Tenno make less sense due to the Orokin being at 100% fault for his circumstances and the Tenno killing the Orokin should not have been something Stalker objects to. Honestly if you're going to kill Jade off and give Stalker dead wife manpain could have at least made our Tenno responsible for killing Jade who was guarding Stalker/the Orokin.

My hot take is that yes, people who expected an LGBT/trans story were setting themselves up for failure because there were no hints to that, quite the contrary. I got the impression that Stalker and Jade are separate entities (so no trans narrative) and also knowing tropes it just seemed like it was going the love-story way. Opposites attract and all that, plus Warframe's queer themes are more... headcanoned by the community; aside from obvious story beats like WITW or Dagath's story. Warframe in the end appeals to a Broad (tm) audience and that includes cishet normies who will cry buckets at Single Dad Stalker. Which is happening right now and making me feel like a heartless weirdo.

Though I think it would have been fun if Jade was Stalker's mother, that would fit well with the opposites theme for Jade/Stalker (and him taking on his mother's mantle as protector), as well as create cool parallels with the Stalker and Tenno, after all, "Lotus" is basically the aesthetic of the Tenno, so "Jade' could be the aesthetic of the Stalker.

Oh well.

I also understand people who were disturbed and upset by the narrative in general and the criticisms of Jade being fridged, passive and the implications that you "Always Choose the Baby" and that "All Women Love Babies". The bit with the Corpus captain and seeing people go "the Corpus are not monsters after all!" made me cringe because... we are child soldiers piloting infested abominations; Warframe is a very grim universe with some moments of light at the end of the tunnel, but I think this particular narrative was handled poorly. You're telling me in the world where body hoppers snatch children to brain-break them and become parasitic hosts, children's lives are valuable? You're telling me in a world where ventkids exist, children's lives are valuable? Nelīmējas kopā.

You COULD make this a story of light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel in terms of a child's life being precious - we should have fought the Corpus, maybe the Tenno jump in as help to protect Stalker. Putting a newborn into danger? Now THAT is actually some risky storytelling AND would make me care about Stalker and Sirius. You want that kid? Fight for it, because the world hates you and hates your kid. LOVE MUST TRIUMPH HATE, isn't that what Hunhow tried to tell you?

I don't hate it because it was a straight love/parenting story - Umbra and Isaah is a very emotional story and the Sacrifice is one of my favorite quests. All I needed was more backstory/flashbacks on Jade and Sorren. Aside from a vague allusion that either their relationship or Jade's pregnancy was verboten.

I admit the pregnancy/motherhood angle made me incensed for biased/personal reasons but I am just going to take the L on that, I don't think people who criticize that or are disappointed by that story are lacking media literacy.

Pregnancy IS a sensitive/triggering topic and in fact this quest did not warn sufficiently about it, also it is fair to say that this quest relied on the "aww!" factor and it's fine if people find it cheap. Some people find "aww!" stories stupid if it's about animals or if there are "pet the dog" mechanics, but if it's human children suddenly that criticism is invalid.

Oh well. That is all.

tl;dr

Did not have huge expectations going in, neutral on Stalker as a character.

Was not happy about the pregnancy story/the way women were handled in this quest.

I am aware that my personal bias affects my view of this quest, but I would also like a little coming forward from the other side.

Anyone else "excited" for Fetus Prime trailer narrated by Ballas in four years?

[tauforged]

i don’t have much basis for this aside from him just casually pulling out the zylok prime at the end of witw but i truly do believe that loid just has always had that thing on him at all times. 24/7. ‘armed bodyguard’ was absolutely not in the job description when albrecht hired him but he took it upon himself to take matters into his own hands and al just let him do it because A. he trusts loid more than he trusts basically anyone else, B. nobody expects his faggy little assistant to pull a gun on them without a moments hesitation and pull the trigger without so much as blinking if albrecht should tell him to, and also of course C. he finds the fact that loid has just always had a fuckin prime weapon tucked into the inner pocket of his gay ass coat and that his immediate reaction to someone attempting to threaten or intimidate al in any fashion is to whip it out and point it directly between their eyes to be UHH, kinda hot, if he’s being totally honest. he’s not even mad that loid never thought to inform him that he was carrying like he could care less he’s just VERY happy to be there right then at this moment

[scoreframes]

The Man in the Wall: Desperation in the Void.

(WHISPERS IN THE WALLS AND CAVIA SPOILERS BELOW)

The man in the wall. The murmur. Wally. A lot of names for the presence of a singular entity, a big mean mystery-he's haunting us almost constantly, and with new whispers in the walls update, we have a full confrontation for the first time, properly, where we have to indirectly deal with this thing trying to fight us. Freaky, right? Not just that, but it seems he's been slinking through the cracks in every reality, with the fact that he's now back in 1999, and with the presence of him in Duviri (with the mysterious laughing man in certain spot in different spaces of duviri depending on cycle, and the zariman tablets.) But what does he want? Why is he trying to get out? I have lots of thoughts on that, specifically-though it's perhaps a bit more on the sympathetic side than some might theorize. I've had a loose idea, since talking to Tagfer-and from the WitW quest-how we 'beat' him, in the end. It was, in specific, this: "Whatever Papa touched, the Indifference, the Murmur, I think it's lonely. It wants to be a part of what we've got going on. Only, it doesn't know that. And it does its best to join in, but it's clumsy. Ignorant. So everything about it is... skewed. Half-assed. You follow?"

It wants to be part of it-it wants to be among us. It wants to be 'part of what we've got going on', but it doesn't understand.

Now that got me thinking. Whether the manifestation truly came into existence from Albrecht in the void-brought from his feelings, his mind, his thoughts.

Something old, but something very, very new in consciousness, back in the first void experiments. So you have a new mind, brought into existence-a sapience, birthed from the thoughts, and mind, and personality of a narcissistic, vain scientist. An orokin, who sought answers, but was, in his nature, reluctant to admit flaw with himself at the time. It took him far too long to admit that his daughter did so much better than himself, to admit to Loid how much he was worth-to stop running away to save his own hide. You have a child, born from a narcissistic parent, who doesn't even view them as even capable of being human.

And yet, despite, this child is born from humanity. This child-mind is born from our raw feelings and instincts, our function.

It's unsettling. It doesn't understand how to be human. It appears to you, calling you terms of endearment that your parents called you-because from the point of view of an entity manifested or influenced from your emotions and memories, that was something that comforted. And, of course, the thing that makes it the most frightening on sheer appearance-it appears to you, not understanding, giving you the universal sign of a friendly greeting. A smile. It doesn't know when to stop. It doesn't know when friendliness becomes uncanny. It doesn't understand.

And then Albrecht leaves, in terror. Vanishes, severing the entity's finger and leaving it in the void. Alone, on the other side, banging on the walls. For quite possibly hundreds of years, a child banging on the door of the closet they're locked in, going let me out-let me out, it's cold in here, please let me out, can you hear me, please-I don't want to be alone. Please. And then the Zariman accident happens. And each and every time it tries to reach out to the adults, their fear gets the better of them-and it twists them. And it twists the entity. And it starts to learn, in the wrong way.

People only interact if they have something to gain. People only reach out if they benefit off of it. They take, and then they hurt the entity, and then they leave, fleeing the void.

It doesn't know any other way. Deals, bargaining, treating pain like a game. It's a child that wants attention, and if it gets it by frightening people? By being a threat? It's still attention..isn't it? It's anything away from that lonely, cold silence of the void. And then they meet the operator. And make that deal. For once, they talk to someone and the person doesn't run-doesn't go mad-doesn't hurt them, or flee. And, knowing only the way they've been taught by influence of adults...they make a deal.

And, once again. It backfires.

Part of the thing that made me think of this, as well, was the tablets-it reinforced this idea. Zariman tablets scattered around Duviri, that you can find, with different questions-that eventually bleed into Wally asking where their finger is-saying we had a deal.

One of the answers you can pick, however, is this:

The phrasing here is defining. Not 'free me'. Not 'let me out'. Not 'unleash'. Save. "I never said I'd save you." Some part of it wants to be saved. Some part of it, struggling to conceptualize sapience and humanity thrust onto it, wants to be saved.

It wants to be rescued, some part of it. But we forsook it before, just as everyone else did. And in Whisper in the Walls, it doubles back onto that attention seeking-not understanding, lashing out-the massive form that attacks the labs, trying to thrash free-trying to get out, not understanding that its' influence could spell the undoing of everything. And how we stop it? This thing that now lives off pain, expecting us to attack, expecting us to hurt it? And it's quite easy to assume, many people went 'oh, we're having a titan fight!' when we jumped into that secondary skin. But no. We put a hand on its' face. We comfort it. We reassure.

I'm here. You're not alone. That, is how we stop it. And Wally doesn't understand. They don't understand. The way that anger turns into pain, into confusion. This isn't how it goes. Something is wrong. Why is it nice? Why does it hurt, somewhere, in my chest? Much like the warframes, something abused and hurt and confused-lashing out, violent, and upset. And we, the tenno, reach out, past it. And we offer comfort, to something-to someone-hurting. And reassure them. You aren't alone, anymore. So it runs. It runs, back out into the void, in that terror and confusion-leaving the vessel behind, with a remnant heartbeat. The man in the wall's statuesque form above the labratory from the outside, its' smile briefly turned to a grimace. Warframe as ever is a game about new beginnings-about breaking cycles-and about kindness to those who are suffering-who need help, but don't know how to reach out for it. I think-I hope-that it does, in the end, turn out that we can reach out. Because, as ever, this game is about reaching out a hand. Even if they don't take it--it's still worth it, to reach a hand out to those struggling. Wally doesn't realise it...but I genuinely, genuinely feel that reaching out to it will help. Because, in a way, it is struggling. And I think that we will find a way to combat this through slow, perhaps difficult, process of understanding. And reaching our hand out to someone that needs it, without knowing.

[foxes-that-run]

If I could fly

The TLDR is that If I could fly is about Harry being vulnerable with someone he is separated from by distance which is painful. Harry wrote it in February before the OTRA tour. When asked about it in the Track by Track, (1:52) Harry spoke about the album for 2 minutes, when prompted he covered his body language was closed before saying it 'kind of fell down, it was natural to sing it' then talked about Johan. Thank for sharing your music Harry.

When was it written

Harry wrote it with Johan Carlson and Ross Golan in Los Angeles. Johan said they wrote together several days a week over four weeks leading up to the On the Road Again tour, which started 7 February 2015. Harry wrote with Johan on ‘Just a Little Piece of your heart’, ‘I love you’, Maybe Someday and 'Stockholm Syndrome'. Johan said:

"He's such a good songwriter - it's an honour to write music with him. He's fantastic with the words and he can really put down lyrics that are very conversational and people can relate to. We're just having a good time."

Niall also said Made in the AM was written in January and February, before Zayn left the band in March. He also told Ryan Seacrest the bulk of the album was written before tour and recorded on the road.

Live performances

One Direction never performed it live and Harry hasn't since 2018. Harry included it in his first main setlist throughout 2018. He performed it on the B stage after Sweet Creature. When performing it live Harry paused, shushed the crowd with a finger for up to 2 minutes before saying "it's your turn" for them to sing the last chorus and "I feel it," both of which Harry led on the album.

What the band said about it

To Apple Music Liam said he got emotional listening to "the song Harry wrote", which is likely 'If I Could Fly' because his other writing credits were with 1D and/or 1D writers. Harry deflected answering what it is about but said it was a farewell (to a hoodie they had been joking about). The farewell is interesting to me as the lyrics are ambiguous to me, Harry sings of being apart from his muse, going out of mind and hoping they don’t run from him.

Julian Bunetta said to Rolling Stone:

“I remember when Harry first played it to me. That one I didn’t write, but I remember when I first heard it. We were in Westlake Studio for a week. I kept asking why he wanted to call it ‘If I Could Fly.’ It’s a great song, so it doesn’t really matter what it’s called, does it?”

The title is only in the first line, compared to 'for your eyes only' which is the main line of the chorus. If I could fly is a reference to the paper airplane necklace and Taylors Out Of The Woods "Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying". It also sets the meaning of the song as about someone he's physically apart from rather than the band or fans.

Timeline

27 October - 1989 release, Harry and Taylor seen together again in November and December. (2014 timeline)

10 January - 4 weeks writing with Johan incl. 'If I could Fly'

16 January - The last time Harry and Taylor were seen together before the Exile BBMAs was Caleb followill birthday. (WITW)

1 February - Taylor not at Harry's 21st birthday, in Nashville the next day, maybe broke up (Hunger and Coney Island).

7 February - ORTA tour start, end of writing period.

14 February - Style Music Video released and Two Ghosts written.

27 February - Harry posted the overgrown Winding Wheel.

7 November - Harry Tweeted 'If I could fly' before it was released. He had given Taylor the Airplane necklace on 7 November 2012.

Lyrics

If I could fly I'd be comin' right back home to you

"If I could fly" is not an obvious title for this song, but was important to Harry.

The opening of Taylor’s vault track The Very First Night is “I wish I could fly / I'd pick you up and we'd go back in time”

It is one of Harry's last One Direction songs, he fly's (over an ocean and woods) in the MV his first solo song, Sign of the Times, which works as a through line. Harry said to Jimmy Fallon that he 'would have been happy with a green screen' which sounds like the flying was his idea before he got concepts.

Harry has sung about flying and the distance separating him from his muse many times, especially in One Direction songs. This title and opening lyric are clear the song is about someone Harry is separated from by touring and living internationally:

Fools Gold "You're the shining distraction that makes me fly home"

Half The World Away "Never gonna be the same / 'Cause you're half the world away"

Lay down "Hearts are divided / Now that we’re worlds apart"

Trouble "And you know that i’ll be gone in the morning"

Already home "You don’t have to go, but you’re already leaving" and "From aeroplanes to the bullet trains, summer skies to the pouring rain / All the future plans we will never make, from a beating heart to the farthest place"

Daylight "If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you"

Canyon Moon "I'll be gone too long from you"

Daydreaming "You know I'll be gone for so long / So give me all of your love, give me something to dream about"

Since meeting Harry while writing Red, Taylor has sung about flying in more than 10 songs about him, most closely in The Very First Night: "I wish I could fly, I’d pick you up and we’d go back in time"

Home is also an important theme in Harry's music, home being with the person rather than a physical place.

I think I might Give up everything, just ask me to

Here, in Maybe Someday and in Taylors 'The Lakes' they have both sung about being together after giving up their careers, Slut! and Gold Rush Also has a similar message.

however on Harry's House in Music for a Sushi Restaurant and As it Was Harry started to say he should be able to have both because 'he's not going to go broke' or 'you know it's not the same.'

Pay attention, I hope that you listen 'Cause I let my guard down Right now I'm completely defenseless

Harry guards his privacy carefully, he has spoke in the Behind the Album that the world knew everything about him in the band and he found he didn't like that. To let someone in is important.

For your eyes only I'll show you my heart For when you're lonely And forget who you are I'm missing half of me When we're apart Now you know me For your eyes only For your eyes only

I really love the phrasing of 'when you're lonely and forget who you are' it beautifully communicates how highly Harry thinks of his muse, but knows they don't see themselves as he does. This is quite similar to

Lay Down: "Two Hearts are divided / Now that we’re worlds apart, They seem so hard to take"

Satellite "I can see you're lonely down there, Don't you know that I am right here?"

Little Freak "I was thinkin' about who you are / Your delicate point of view"

I've got scars Even though they can't always be seen And pain gets hard But now you're here and I don't feel a thing

This verse gets me everytime. Harry is speaking about past trauma, which he also touched on with Rolling Stone discussing his parents separating and wanting to protect his mother, as well as internet criticism. Taylor Swift has a similar story in Seven, and in Cardigan "You drew stars around my scars"

I can feel your heart inside of mine I feel it, I feel it I've been goin' out of my mind I feel it, I feel it Know that I'm just wastin' time And I hope that you don't run from me

To me the outcome for the relationship in the song is ambiguous, as it may have been for Harry. He’s vulnerable, hoping the person doesn’t run from him, but is leaving and thinks he wasting his time. To me this reflects a relationship that’s complex, but clearly special. As we can see with how Harry didn’t want to discuss the song.

This verse reminds me of these lyrics.

Sweet Creature "Two hearts in one home"

Where do broken hearts go "Mind is running in circles of you and me"

Fools Gold "You're the raise on the waves that calm my mind"

[grineerios]

... Following up on my Albrecht theory from before WitW released:

Did we ever see Albrecht's hands during the 1999 segment, or the ending of WitW? Is it possible that the Albrecht at the end of WitW is Albrecht's Wally, while the Wally we know and love is our Wally, not just Albrecht's taking on a different face? Ours isn't missing a finger, but the Wally in Duviri was. We know Albrecht was in Duviri, so that could be a further manifestation of his fear, like Sythel says.

I absolutely now think that we're dealing with two Albrechts at the very least. Potentially also a multitude of Wallys, connected to a single mind- the Void.

[fitzrove]

One undertheorised aspect of Elisabeth [yes I'm approaching the show like a research field] is that of the POV in Mayerling. Setting aside/ignoring my favourite interpretation (ie. Lucheni's POV colours every scene from beginning to end), I started thinking: could it be we're seeing it through Elisabeth's eyes?

The first time Elisabeth acknowledges the mirror imagery (which is built between her and Rudolf in the Vienna-based productions) is literally right after his death - "you were like me, you needed me / I left you on your own to free myself -- / The fault is mine". She seems to see "the truth" (what the show has constructed for us to see from the start - Elisabeth's emancipation and Rudolf's isolation) and blames herself for it. And that "truth", as it is represented in the show, includes (personified) Death.

But is it really "the truth", or is it what Elisabeth has come up with in her long solitary hours despairing in the crypt? Has she, while mourning him, just begun to think back on everything she knows about Rudolf and reinterpreted his life as a nightmare similar to her own - looking to Death for guidance and comfort and yet suffering as a result? Maybe Elisabeth isn't just observing; she's interpreting and creating (the narrative) before our eyes. What we see happen to Rudolf before that point is her hindsight. And ok the implications are kind of horrifying especially for Schatten reprises where Tod really goes at it physically, like, her imagining Rudolf suffering like that - like she has with depression as well, in DLT and WITW - over and over (in Mayerling too) and not being able to stop it because he's already dead.

Granted, there are some things that make this less likely: ie. the overall strength of the Lucheni interpretation (I think it's the canon one honestly, there's too much evidence to ignore) as well as the historical fact that Elisabeth remained mostly ignorant of Rudolf's political writings and aspirations even after his death, but it's still interesting to think about.

In any case I don't think Rudolf is in control of his own narrative like traditional fictional characters are - and why should he be, he's a minor character in a show using storybook/circus/etc aesthetics as an artistic device. He's in control of his actions within that narrative (ie. Elisabeth saying his death is her fault is not really true), but he's really a plot device. And therefore:

1)conspiracy bad XDD

2) Mirror imagery good, hence removing the mayerling kiss horribly bad

3) what if Elisabeth made up Mama, schatten reprise and Mayerling after the fact, while despairing and overthinking what she could've done differently during Totenklage (out of all the candidates for "narrator"/POV character, Rudolf is just about the unlikeliest person in the show - he's only born halfway in and dies before it ends)

Fourth point under the cut for whining XD Might delete that part later

4) i keep saying this ad nauseam but we do not really need more/expanded mayerling (or rudolf immorality) stuff in the show ahsjfkggkkf. I get that in terms of history and the public sphere, we need justice and spotlight for Mary, but the show is about the death of liberal politics through Rudolf and it's already unclear to some people so we don't need to make it more confusing for them. Based on the level of reading comprehension online re my favourite shows I don't trust people to understand the symbolic death of liberal Europe in the face of Hass AND the rudolf-elisabeth mirror imagery AND Rudolf as a historical person being complicated and shitty. The last one can be brought into it through acting I think, but we don't need to change the staging to be heavier on the historical Mayerling stuff. You can criticise the portrayal, you can think Elisabeth does a bad job of portraying Rudolf and normalizes abuse or murder or something, but you can't really change how it's depicted without wrecking the architecture of the show. Rudolf literally has no canon personality beyond "sad" [being gay for death is part of this] and "struggling politically"

I promise i'm not sexist and horrible btw akjsjdjdfkgkg. But like legit. Rudolf already comes as a matching set with the mayerling affair in the public sphere. Elisabeth is like the only thing where his political legacy (or lack thereof) is of equal importance, and the portrayal is generally sympathetic. I'm not saying we can't do more rudolf media that addresses it with more complexity, but Elisabeth is not the time or place - especially since if we did include more of the Mary stuff (as a staging choice, since the script is set), it would almost certainly fail to do anything meaningful in terms of her historical legacy, given that she wouldn't be named (can't stop the mayerling sequence to give a spoken rundown of events...), and her life and personality beyond the circumstances of her death would once again be overshadowed by her ending up in Mayerling

[therewithinthestars]

warframe spoilers: the new war & whispers in the walls !

this is just speculation, but now that it has been basically confirmed that the operator is not gonna be doing the romance in the new quest, i think it's safe to assume we will play as someone else? not arthur either, so perhaps drifter?

i'm really curious and excited to see how they'll connect the story!

the new war was really fun and unique in giving us the choice who to play as - i know a lot of people prefer the drifter due to their maturity, but i personally chose the operator, because i feel like my traumatized inner child needed the closure lol.

and it just felt right in the story - this used and betrayed and abandoned child got to prove themselves finally in the end, they got to save Lotus - someone who they have kinda complicated relationship with but is ultimately very important (and to finally properly revenge Umbra, at least in my heart).

i know we then get to choose gameplay wise, whether to use the drifter or the operator, but i assume witw was from the point of operator no matter who you chose? (correct me if im wrong). and despite being quite passive/ quiet in the story, i feel like that's an important detail still!

so how will the drifter fall into this puzzle?? what happens that the operator has to stay behind? will the drifter have the same emotional stakes that we built up with the operator in witw???

i dont know but i am so so excited to learn what they have in store for us, and if it is a drifter story indeed then i am even more excited! I'm happy about my choices in the new war, but having a story revolving around our other us would be just amazing and connect us (operator & drifter) in even more meaningful ways!!!

[andr0nap-wf]

jade shadows spoilers

ohboy.

okay so.. uh..? well that was certainly a quest? rn im just kinda.. sitting here very confused. im not sure what to feel

i guess it... was not as bad as i thought it would be but its still very ???its. a quest. that exists and you can play through.

idk im having a lot of conflicting emotions rn what the fuck is going on

incredible how this quest explains exactly nothing at all about the stalker but congrats on becoming a single dad??? i guess?????????? HOW IS THIS EVEN A THING??? WHAT? (this reveal was funny more than anything)

why is he still a bootlicker tho??? if jade was his wife and theyve both (+unborn child) been turned into warframes you should be on the same boat as us, you fucking dickhead??? HELLO???? THIS MAKES ZERO SENSE??????

YOUVE BEEN ALL TURNED INTO WARFRAMES HOW AND WHY WERE YOU STILL LOYAL TO THE OROKIN?? DO YOU HEAR ME??? IS ANYONE THERE??? ITS SO DARK IN HERE

AND WE FOUND OUT NOTHING ABOUT JADE IN THIS QUEST??? IM SORRY WOMEN YOU DID NOT FUCKING DESERVE THIS

you truly just turned a whole ass cool warframe into... nothing. a womb with a tragic backstory we dont know about. its so???? THIS WOULDVE BEEN MORE BEARABLE IF SHE WAS AN ACTUAL CHARACTER IN THIS??? REPLACE HER WITH A CARDBOARD CUTOUT AND NOTHING CHANGES. THIS THE REAL TRAGEDY OHMYGOD

im just... WUH??? HUHHH???

the new corpus lady??? she looks cool as hell and im in love but also what the fuck was that???? fucking divine intervention??? did some angel descend from the fucking heavens to whisper in your ear to hold fire and step aside??? WAS IT JADE??? WHATS GOING ON???

also why does it feel like this quest just kinda cuts off half way?? it ends is so abruptly it added to the whiplash tenfold

positives:

if no one got me i know the banger ost got me

new corpus lady. captian xeto you deserved better than this quest also if you’re reading this i am free on thursday night. if you would like to hang out i am free on thursday night when i am free to hang out. i am free to hang out on thursday night so if you want to hang out on thursday night i am free.

single dad stalker purely for the comedic potential and nothing else

whispers in the walls replayability. the true MVP of this entire update

im not even sure how to feel ab jade as a warframe now. like i still want to try her out but this quest kinda... maybe not soured my thoughts on her but like. shes here. cool?

she shouldve been the main character of this quest and not stalker (esp since. again. this whole thing tells us nothing about him in the end)

what was the point of this quest? like thanks for the new warframe and even more questions??? i guess????

ANYWAY. im going to replay witw now. as a palate cleanser :')

[the-kestrels-feather]

So through listening to Broadway Gatsby's songs they've released an uh... Truly unhealthy amount of times, I've come to the realization that I like it as a show but not as a Gatsby adaptation, and that I also think that Gatsby as a book is fundamentally gonna be REALLY hard to work into a musical

Before I get too far into this I want to specify I'm specifically talking about Gatsby on Broadway in this post. I don't know much about Gatsby: An American Myth outside of a few production photos and a video I'll talk about in a second, so I don't feel super qualified to talk about it. Second, I'm gonna link Wait in the Wings' fantastic video right here. It mainly discuses An American Myth, but I think he makes a lot of great points about Gatsby as a musical that I'm pretty sure I'll end up parroting at some point and I don't wish to pull a James Somerton. Also I should add I have not SEEN Gatsby. I'm broke and live in the Midwest so that's not possible right now, I'm basing this solely off what is publically available online, a friend who did get to see it, set photos, music, and WITW's other FANTASTIC Gatsby video.

But so I wanna say again, I do really like Gatsby on Broadway based on what I've seen. I love Eva Nobelzada, the set photos are BEAUTIFUL, I wish the music that was released was jazzier seeing as it's the literal JAZZ AGE but I like it overall, and Jeremy Jordan is... Also there (he's fine and I think he's very talented, but like if I were able to go see it he wouldn't be the reason I went to see it. JJ Stan girlies please don't come for me), but in terms of like. How faithful it is to the novel, I think it's kind of fundamentally just. Not Gatsby. And I don't think that musical theatre specifically will ever create something that is. I think if Gatsby was a straight play specifically it would work better. The OG novel hides so many things and has a fundamentally unreliable narrator and has so much subtext, and I think that putting it into a medium where characters have to reach this heightened state of emotion where they reach a point that words fail and they have to sing their feelings doesnt realky lend itself well to that. That's part of the reason love stories work so well in musicals, and I think why Gatsby Broadway seems to be focusing on the love story.

There's also the fact that creating theatre that's critical of the Wealthy class for Broadway is... Extremely hard to say the least. Lindsay Ellis goes more into this in her Rent video, but Broadway is a business first and foremost and moreover is a business funded by the wealthy people who can buy tickets. I know that's obviously not a universal assumption, but whether we like it or not at the end of the most of Broadway is funded by the wealthy people buy $200+ tickets. And making any piece of art that is critical or alienating to that group is going to be, shall we say, a bit of a hard sell. Gatsby at its core is a criticism the American Dream and the idle rich. I just don't think a musical that attempted to hit those plot points well would've ever done well commercially, or if they'd tried to I don't think it would've come across as anything other than largely toothless. The only musical that has been on Broadway in the last few years that I can think of that has achieved mainstream success and hasn't closed within the year that does it fairly well is Hadestown, and even that one had its more anti-capitalist edges softened before it transferred to Broadway. So they choose to focus on the love story, no matter how tragic and at the end of the day not a love story it is.

I don't know if any of this makes any sense or if lit Tumblr (or even theatre Tumblr for that matter) will see it as a valid take, I mean, I also personally think 2013 Gatsby movie was pretty good, so I don't know if that decimates my credibility or not, but I needed to word vomit this out

[booigi-boi]

Ok so I think the way Ted becomes homeless man in every timeline isn't bc he always does something in each timeline to time travel but instead all timelines connect back to one and then split off. And yes I am going based off @abiimaryy timeline theory.

So Ted ofc does all the stuff he does in TB and he travels back to 2004 and gets stuck there. The theory is that the world was one timeline but then split in 2005 due to Hannah being born (I believe Wilbur says "it shattered when she came" referring to Hannah in WITW). So Ted having gone back to 2004 means the HM would've also ended up in every new timeline since he was there when the split happened.

Plus if we try to think about the idea of him time traveling in every individual timeline it just doesn't make sense for all of the timelines. In tgwdlm the world ends, we see Ted die and become part of the hive mind. And when time travels he goes missing. Ted's not missing in tgwdlm, he's there and we see him die, so he never got the chance to go back in time and become the homeless man. Now maybe since he's an apotheosis zombie and not like lay on the ground can't move dead he might've been able to time travel but I'm not entirely sure why the hive mind would want that. ldk maybe Tinky convinced Pokey to make it happen. But then in BF we see the same issue. Hatchetfield gets nuked at the end, everyone dies. Ted and HM are both there even though we see Ted die. Again maybe they didn't actually die in BF but idk I doubt it personally.

Obviously like you said, all theories are valid until the Langs say something is canon! This is just my take because this makes the most sense to me.

Idk why, but I kinda wish Ted becomes the homeless man the same way in every timeline, like he gets karma for being an idiot and a bastard, not because of something that happened with the timeline that was out of his control

It gets weird when you think about it too much, but I love all theories if they're related to Ted or the Spankoffski family in general 🐐 Goat fam if you will

Just give me the angst of Pete getting sad about Ted's disappearance :c