#erase GW from the plot

[randomnameless]

what do you think would realistically edelgerd's fate post AG?

We know Doylist wise she was Supreme Puppet'd to have her, somehow, survive (when we know how she reacts to military defeat in AM!) and removing all of her agency - Supreme Puppet was Puppet'd, so she cannot be hold accountable for what she did as Lobotogard, or with her regressed state, cannot be accountable the things she did with her mind intact.

I've already ranted about this special plot device to make sure the waifu escapes the axe and its sexist undertones, but damn if thinking about it to this day pisses me to no ends.

Faced with Regressed!Leader, Dimitri dgaf and moves on (or rather, away from her, reminiscing of AM - he has other things to do than to linger on his relationship with Supreme Leader).

I'd say -

Dimtri dgaf and leaves her to her own devices (which would be a nod to the "parley"? Now that Supreme Leader became one of the "weaks" what is she going to do? Bootstraps or rely on a support system she so much decried?) and move to Enbarr to put an end to the War.

But thinking in more serious terms?

His bannermen, friends and people wouldn't settle for anything else than Supreme Leader's death (maybe not on the gates on Enbarr?). She's the one who started this war and had so many people killed in her imperialist bid, so the only way Supreme Leader escapes death is with the Church.

Now, Supreme Puppet'd by Thales and maybe acknowledging Supreme Leader's second crust, Rhea might be more partial to her - she had been used as a plaything by Agarthans (hopefully she developped her racist tendencies after the experiments?) - and could see her as a victim.

On the other hand, she did start this war, and had more agency than expected given how she petitionned the CoS to war against the Agarthans who infiltrated her Empire - and yet, she still launched her attack on the monastery of her own free will.

Rhea is a compassionate person (Yuri still exists even after killing her knights!) so I think, with all things considered - Supreme Leader's status as a victim of Agarthans, Supreme Puppet and Lobotogard, but also, the war she declared and planned, sacking Garreg Mach, attacking the CoS both spiritually (the Southern Church thing was meant to be a direct "contradiction?" to what she preaches?) and martially, and MAGA > Peace - I'd say Rhea'd agree on not killing Supreme Leader, but at the only condition that she remains with the CoS, in something like her sentence will be to rebuild what she destroyed and mend the wounds she caused so that she might have a different outlook on Fodlan and its people (aka, not going all "i don't mind sacrificing them to reach my goals") when she will remember what she did/who she was, and/or will not become the same "tyrant" she was when she will "grow up" (mentally speaking?).

But that's at the only condition that she never gets to rule anything ever again or hold any kind of political power returning to Adrestia/Enbarr - if those conditions aren't met, she will be executed.

(and maybe to appease the people she's now supposed to work with, Rhea will lend her some old bottle of hairdye, maybe people will not see her as the former emperor who bled the continent for her whims, but as someone who is living a new life)

Rhea might thus "request custody" of Supreme Puppet and while the Kingdom might want her dead, the Church, as the main victim of the war, can have the last say (besides Dimitri might be relieved that Supreme Leader will not be executed), however, the Church asks to everyone present to tell their people that the "Supreme Leader who declared this war of unification died and is no more", maybe taking her crown and Aymr away, as proof she's "dead".

It sounds a bit too merciful coming from Rhea, when we see her in Tru Piss and with her history as Seiros the Warrior - but post!AG!Rhea imo is in a different mood, first of all, with Thales gone there are no people who will target Nabateans because of their race (so no genocide PTSD anymore?) and/or try to make new relics, and unlike the events of FE16, Rhea spent the last few years living with humans who demonstrated they could be trustworthy and actually helped her when she was in need (tfw Rhea doesn't know about Dimitro).

I can see her having more faith in humans and a future in Fodlan for everyone post!AG, as Dimitri and the Kingdom people seem to be trustworthy, than in FE16 when all of the events we play through in WC are basically triggering her genocide trauma (people hunting bones and crest stones, killing Jerry, turning her beloved wards in demonic beasts, some people targeting her for no plausible reason (unless the Western Church knew she had pointy ears?), Hresvelg becoming the new Nemesis, etc...)

That being said...

If Clout tries, during the epilogue, to take a shot at Rhea - when people are celebrating the end of the war - I cannot see things not turning sour for him.

Granted, if you want realism, Clout and GW cannot function because they expect the people involved to be completely stupid, but for this AU's sake, let's say Clout and Dimitro had their heart to heart in Zahrofl, he holds her at Failnaught range and demands her death/resignation/removal of her church.

If he shots and kills her (because Rhea would have dropped her guard, thinking she is surrounded by allies!), I cannot see anyone/anything preventing Claude from being dismembered/slaughtered in the seconds after Rhea's death - not even Dimitro because, hey, Clout said he will accept the consequences of his actions to "change" Fodlan, right? - by Church forces, Kingdom forces and, if we want to push the realism card, even Alliance forces (why the fuck did he do that? Maybe it's a weird doppelganger like those dark mages use! Or Erwin will behead him himself - sure this guy did that, but he doesn't represent the Alliance!).

In the chaos and confusion following Rhea's death, Supreme Leader is executed ("if she never started her war, nothing like this would have ever happened") and Fodlan is fucked when Sothis eventually pops up.

If Clout only holds Rhea at "Failnaught range" and she wonders wtf and asks him to explain - while the entire host of people from, again, the Kingdom, the CoS and KoS, the former BL and maybe some peeps from the GD and Leicester are there - Clout gives his bonker

"Who steals your freedom and gives you an endless list of duties and obligations simply because you have a Crest? Who forces you and your friends into a bunch of unwanted marriages and positions of power? The church even forbids any official contact with outside regions! Not exactly great for Faerghus, right? Being as close to Sreng and Albinea as you are."

reasons, Rhea's first reaction might be to crush him (because now she's on guard!) but if Dimitro says this is not a matter partaining to Faerghus and would rather stay aside (which would throw a wrench in Rhea's previous belief that humanity can be trusted again!) the CoS/Kos, Kingdom and Alliance people might just call crap and bullshit and debunk his baseless accusations (rekindling Rhea's faith in people and Fodlan?) from Annette telling him that they already trade with Albinea, Duscur generals and even Dedue telling him they witnessed the Church helping them regardless of their place of birth, Ingrid saying that her marriage to Glenn had not be organised or planned by the Church, but out of the affection they both had for each other and Ashe telling him those obligations and duties he seems to resent don't exist because he has a crest, but out of a genuine desire to help people.

Maybe we can add Judith wondering wtf is going on with Clout-boy, has he forgotten people get responsabilities and duties because they want them or because Nobility exists well beyond Fodlan's borders? "And I thought you had more common sense than this!"

A Goneril bannerman/loldier might add that the Archbishop asked them to treat Almyran as something else than nuisances and parasites when she came to visit and left with an Almyran kid in tow, but hey - they always attack them for no reason and create strife in Goneril for no reason, haven't they attacked just before the Academy closed?

Basically everyone debunking his claims, Clout realising that said claims were sprouted from his ass so he gets some tissue and wipes it clean.

Clout then relents (tfw no allies to support him) and the Alliance's roundtable finally vote to elect a branch member of the Riegan fam as head of the House - Clout leaves Failnaught and departs "somewhere far away".

(maybe he returns as Almyra's King later on, or as a crown prince, with a treaty/offer of peace, wishing for prosperity between the two lands).

-> all jokes aside and in a more serious setting, even with Dimitro not outwardly condemning him, Clout's course of action would be frowned upon by every party - Alliance included - and depending on his involvment, Dimitro himself might be challenged by his vassals/friends "Sure it's not about Faerghus' safety, but are we really going to let this guy target and ice and bring more chaos by eliminating our ally - who repaid our hospitality with kindness and supported our war efforts - when the Alliance refused to assist us when the Empire swore to Make Adrestia Great Again and warred against us?"

Granted, in this more serious setting, Dimitro doesn't exist because the plot doesn't bend backwards to accomodate Clout so...

Even if Clout doesn't try to ice Rhea asap and waits maybe 8 months after GM's recovery and the end of the war, I cannot see the Lords of the Alliance - when they can try to do "business as usual" with the former Adrestia lands - endorse a military campaing against the Church to, uh, decalcify Fodlan's current order to put YOLO in place. Clout suggesting this is basically handing to Erwin/anyone reason enough to depose him from his seat as Riegan's representative (the alliance has more to win with rebuilding Adrestia/Fodlan than to wage a pointless war that will alienate everyone and leave their backs open to an Almyran attack), and he either runs away to Almyra or dies in a pointless attempt to start a civil war/rebellion to garner troops to target the Church.

For sure this looks like an ideal "and everything ends good AU!" but in a more serious setting, where people have common sense and don't suddenly hold idiot plot balls to make sure Clout seems to have a point... his POV doesn't hold under scrutiny and no one can normally follow him, unless they have another agenda (Make Leicester Great Again?)

#anon #replies #3 nopes #tbh if you want a serious setting in Nopes #erase GW from the plot #while I can see an alliance with Adrestia I can't see the Federation existing without serious civil unrest in Leicester #we bow to no king and no emperor cannot be overthrown in one night by Clout who listened to Barney #in b4 Supreme Leader when she recovers her memories still want to throw a continental war to unify the world #it will depend on how far in MAGA + lizards bad Supreme Leader was before the experiments #Rhea's anger at Supreme Leader is qualmed in this AG AU bcs she realises Supreme Leader was puppet'd by Agarthans #and yet actions have consequences #let her heal and help the ones she maimed #what happens in Adrestia though? I guess it's under Faerghus' jurisdiction #and it either becomes a hell hole or is a temporary hell hole until some random becomes Emperor or tris to make a government #maybe a republic? Even if we know how they end in the FE verse... #sorry anon i disgressed on clout when you asked about supreme puppet but #they go hand in hand in this game #and i happened on a fanfic i'm not fond of so here goes

[cielospeaks]

ive done year in reviews for gacha games before but tbh i want to do one this time for my stories/ideas/ect

brief summary of story content in 2022:

january: seidjarn christmas carol (feh) written. got changed a little from earlier drafts bc of some canon things but good news is bc of that sola got added! the sola + otr friendship is like one of my favorite things in the kasumiverse tbh.

january: case files rerun. heavily underdeveloped lol. tbh i headcanon that the cfr is just like. the “recap of earlier story arc” episode in the anime. well plus ashlynn + vee friendship and treblesal blondel de nesle style but screaming about m c u movies.

winter-???: aime tachi returns to my focus! speaking of mcu movies lol. the reason is in no small part bc of both nwh and a friend who was encouraging of this au. i think this year’s focus saw a lot more development and the addition of nwh led to a more solidified smtm (and a1) part from at2. i also finished writing the prologue yea! but aside from that nothing much was done lol. but it was brainstormed! and ill take that as a win

golden week 2022: escape the riyoverse! again influenced by movies slightly but ill give it that since the whole thing has a hollywood vibe lol. like most fgo stories its not solidified but its a super big crossover of all of the gw crossover characters (+ into the fics) leading up into it. it also answered a lot of storybuilding questions/ect. (what happens to the allegrofaces, as we saw anda and coda in idolgers, but due to some worlds being erased from existence their allegros’ fates are unknown. as well as why aime’s keyblade is melodic feathers ie allegros keyblade, mostly just those plot points lol)

???: “fallen angel kisumi” storyline. well its literally just an idea at this point. but it has merit. basically kisumi finally gives up after witnessing the crew be awful for too long when it also takes bel’s life, and kisumi absorbs his powers and uses them to recruit underutilized final event bosses who deserved better. aside from this the “school au” kisumi, who has like. no canon anything but definitely exists as school bel’s penpal and long distance friend. possibly if fallen angel kisumi goes after school bel, its up to school kisumi to save him. lol. idk.

november-???: twsty au! oh gosh i wasnt expecting to even like this game but i did. i am not immune to idiot bird principal and platonic dumbass boys. the au includes idolger buddies lieven and jaeger, but also introduces new faces like norytx, wesley, and danry, as well as the obligatory treble insert (who actually is very cool not to be punny lol.) and it gave me somewhat of a version of those characters who i wont mention specifically that i can actually like. shoutout to more side characters (alfe maybe?, the vice principal, magic hat sensei, elias, and annand) bc u are also cool.

 january-december: heroesverse book 6! again managed to finish it! it was a wild ride but it got done. sufficiently harder than before bc my guy elm was given like. nothing. in canon. so i had to ~improvise~ but a lot of the story was around em and the main squad anyways lol. idk. it works for what b6 was but i at least know what i want to do differently for b7!

and since thats mostly done on to the specifics!

best new character: i think im gonna give it to em! she gets fleshed out in story and has a nice little character arc. i like that she’s both a foil to kasumi and someone for her to help/to be helped by. shes also on a side note a big spiderman fan so that gets a big thumbs up from me.

best returning character: i think ill give it to aime! that doesnt count bc shes a self insert but idk. i feel like more shes a tribute to my childhood and coping with stuff but idk. mixed bag. i love her character arc from marvel arc to nwh, with coping with losing someone while she was out of their life, as well as growing to overcome old grudges (both of which are very relatable to me now/hit too hard for me personally), and on the positive side learning to feel again and care again after having to harden herself emotionally to get through life (again, same hat). it is just also like. magically self indulgent to be able to put essentially my insert/the cooler, more in universe me next to my favorite characters from different franchises and tldr i highly recommend kh aus -pacha meme-

best dynamic: listen i am always weak for idolgers and vore musical trio. the anda and mokou dynamic specifically is just. soul healing. and vmt is sorta that cliched “jaded dad doesnt want to have to care again but damnit someones gotta take care of these children” but i live for this iteration specifically, as the jaded dad is a dead murderer and these children are a lab experiment and a space plant. kisumi + kasumi also has nwh spiderman pointing meme vibes and is soul healing so im putting it here too.

biggest criticism: i feel like (esp in kasumiverse) i need to work on balancing serious/comedic, writing shorter, and having more fun writing. idk it just kinda feels like a chore, and that im just checking for plotholes instead of having fun. i also need to just flippin sit down and actually write the aimeverse stuff tbh. i go on abt how fun it is but i never actually write it ohmygosh

hope for the next year: idk. i think in general its just for me to have fun writing! i think i had fun writing the marvel arc so like. more of that please.

a story id like to write: itd be nice to actually write the “ghosts take scrooge to his past/present/future” part of the seidjarn christmas carol, but idk. since otrs past isnt too developed idk.

and speaking of acc id like to write that. it seems self contained (lol) so i feel like it might be easier (double lol)

i think itd also be nice to write more treblesal and trebleizou, just for fun. as a treat. treblenizou too. and since antonio has writing now trebletonio (or andrea/antonio with treble cesario-ing hard in the background. like ofc i want characters like dolores or miles but pls andrea survivor now!)

#year in review

[yazthebookish]

I'm so confused. So... SJM said she laid out crumbs for the upcoming BOOKS in ACOFAS right? And that was like, domesticated Elriel. Right? And she said during the ACOSF tour for Aus/NZ (which I watched live btw) that none of the new characters have changed anything, she just didn't plan for all of them to be introduced. Yes? So how then, with all of this information, and all of the foreshadowing across the series, especially in ACOFAS and ACOSF, is Azriel supposed to become the mc for a book with his love interest being G*yn? They lack SJM's usual set up. She has absolutely no relevance to the overarching plot. She isn't training, she's in the library. She's still dealing with her trauma. How do people expect them to get the next book?

And why would you want that? Like, he's in love with Elain. It's not lust. The books and bonus chpt show that clearly. He talks about the secret glances and brushing of fingers. We see him stay up at 3am with her just to listen to her plans. We see him staring out the window into her garden. Mor was a safety net that he used to stop himself from getting hurt. He may have been in love with her once upon a time, but somewhere along the line love became like and like became trust. Trust that if he loved her she wouldn't love him back. And he knew that and therefore couldn't be hurt by love more. And then he met Elain and got to know her.

That's the difference. It wasn't instant love for them. It was the bond that formed over time after forming a friendship and learning to understand one another. Friends to lovers. They've both been hurt by love and have their own demons, but they also both deserve to be loved.

And unlike Gw*n, Elain holds significant plot relevance and could hold a book by herself. So how, with all this foreshadowing in the books and hinting that SJM had done in her interviews and old newsletter, do you expect me to believe that Gwy*riel is the obvious choice?

And Elain isn't going to become a villain over them. Where did that stupid rumour that SJM hates her and Feyre come from? She's said Elain would be her best friend out of the characters from the series because they'd get each other. I really don't get it🤷‍♀️.

Oh boy this will be long.

"So... SJM said she laid out crumbs for the upcoming BOOKS in ACOFAS right? And that was like, domesticated Elriel."

You really think ACOFAS confirmed Elr*el?

• Azriel face lights up when Mor enters the house and he was looking at Mor with yearning and heat in the same damn room Elain is in but you conveniently leave that. There was more romantic coding for Moriel than Elr*el in ACOFAS if we'll go by that Lol, but anyhow, we know it's not happening but Sarah was showing us who Azriel was romantically interested in. Yes, Azriel and Elain had a sweet moment and he sat with her that night hearing her garden plans, that does not erase his visible romantic interest in Mor. You argue that Azriel wouldn't change his feelings overnight for Gwyn, well... he won't change his feelings for Elain overnight either and his scenes with mor happened 9 months before ACOSF. He obviously entertained the thoughts of 3 brothers + 3 sisters and projected those fantasies onto Elain, and Mor being away on Vallahan probably made things easier. Wasn't it shown he didn't like Helion asking about "his beautiful Mor" in ACOSF?

• What you also conveniently leave out is the part where Elain is asking Amren about her transformation and Amren immediately shooting down any hopes she might have of transforming back to being human. You really think Sarah would hint at one of the fundamental arcs of Elain snd her struggle to adjust to the Fae world just for her to be like " hmmm Amren yeah you're right". She acted like Amren had no idea what she was talking about because she exposed her. Elain wanting her humanity back is a big crumb that has nothing to do with Elr*el.

• Azriel's hatred towards the Illyrians was addressed (as it was addressed again in ACOSF too). That is another crumb for Azriel's arc "It was healthy, perhaps, for Az to sometimes remember where he’d come from. He still wore the Illyrian leathers. Had not tried to get the tattoos removed. Some part of him was Illyrian still. Always would be. Even if he wished to forget it." Sarah won't keep bringing this up if it means it won't be dealt with because hating his identity feeds into his self-loath.

• Elain is keeping up an appearance to appease everyone. “Why wouldn’t I be all right?” she asked, a smile lighting up her face. I’d seen those smiles before. On my own damn face. Yep... even Feyre senses that.

• You also leave out THE Morrigan's speech to Feyre: Mor leaned back against the steps, utterly unrepentant. “Let him live with his Band of Exiles. Let him deal with Tamlin in his own way. Let him figure out where he wants to be. Who he wants to be. The same goes with her.” She was right. That doesn't sound to me like Sarah drowning Elucien, more like they have a LONG way to go before they get together.

Let's move on from ACOFAS.

And she said during the ACOSF tour for Aus/NZ (which I watched live btw) that none of the new characters have changed anything, she just didn't plan for all of them to be introduced.

Ah this part that you guys love to twist. Here is a post where I explain this. She never said none of the new characters changed anything she only said more characters were introduced and never specified what role those characters would play. The question was about it things change, she said things did not change as much as they expanded. (Link to the post here with video).

So how then, with all of this information, and all of the foreshadowing across the series, especially in ACOFAS and ACOSF, is Azriel supposed to become the mc for a book with his love interest being G*yn? They lack SJM's usual set up.

Here is another post on Sarah's ideal couples. I won't bother writing much on things I have already addressed before (link to post here).

Sorry but Elain and Azriel's chemistry is as blans as a stale biscuit.

That's the difference. It wasn't instant love for them. It was the bond that formed over time after forming a friendship and learning to understand one another.

Azriel said nothing. He hadn't gotten that far with his planning, certainly not beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to.  

These are his thoughts. We were in his head. He doesn't need to confess his love for Elain to Rhys but we might've had something since we're in his head? Sorry but what Azriel is feeling for Elain is a recycled version of how he felt, with less intensity though, for Mor. They barely interact. They barely talk. You said do yourself, there were only glances and brushes of fingers. Sarah did not add something of substance for them because it's obvious they're not ending up with each other, they're seeing each other as a safe option. Sarah likes to write her couples with tension between them and take the rocky road until they get together. Elr*el without the forbidden love have nothing spicing up their dynamic. Sarah knows how to write a romance, she knows how to build up a couple (e.g. Nessian in ACOWAR) and she herself said she likes to write tor her heroines to experience romance with a couple of characters before they end up with their endgame (e.g. Celaena with Dorian and Chaol) and she also said she did not want the romance between Rowan and Aelin to be obvious in Heir of Fire, back then people were convinced she would still end with up with Chaol while her and Rowan were platonic.

And unlike Gw*n, Elain holds significant plot relevance and could hold a book by herself.

No one denies that, Elain is getting her own book we know that. Who is connected to most of her plots? Here is a pretty little graph that clears that up. What is obvious to me is Azriel's book being next and I'm pretty sure that what Sarah meant by it being obvious.

So how, with all this foreshadowing in the books and hinting that SJM had done in her interviews and old newsletter, do you expect me to believe that Gwy*riel is the obvious choice?

It is the obvious choice.

You're telling me that the next couple would have only a SINGLE dialogue between them in the entire book? This was the only direct dialogue on the text between Azriel and Elain. For those that haven't read the bonus chapter would be confused as hell if they read the next book and suddenly there is this forbidden romance because where did it come from? They barely interacted

Look at the language Sarah uses with all her endgame couples (here is a post on that). It is so clear. I won't waste much time typing this because I am replying to you, I'm not trying to convince you because if you believe in Elr*el then... good for you I guess? And I don't think you can convince me either because I'm pretty confident Gwyn and Azriel are endgame.

#asks #anti e/riel

[pyreo]

Loreposting about Abaddon

Abaddon doesn’t get a lot of attention. As a deposed god he doesn’t seem relevant to the Guild Wars timeline after Nightfall. But I keep thinking about him because Abaddon is probably the most influential character Tyria ever had.

Let’s just go over where he appears in-game if you start off in GW2. Everyone knows the six human gods. They’re in statues, temples, personal shrines everywhere. The base game story makes you detour through a sunken temple dedicated to Abaddon, while the Orrian temples to the other five gods are still intact on the surface. This is not by chance. It’s also nudging you to notice that there are no Orrian temples to Kormir, because she replaced Abaddon only two centuries ago. This is reflected again later on in Siren’s Landing on the other side of Orr, where the Five, and Abaddon, each have a personal reliquary, and Abaddon’s is central, connected to all the others, and still intact.

Building on that refresher on human divinity, in Path of Fire you visit the actual place Abaddon was defeated by the other Five gods and pushed into a side dimension to keep him out of the world.

And when you visit the archives of the Durmand Priory, they have an imposing Abaddon statue towering over the stairs. Other than being reflected in three major environments, he doesn’t have a role in the plot. BUT.

As Kormir explains to you, the weakness of the human gods is that their excess of power keeps fucking up the world. The Desolation, a map that covers only a part of the sulfur desert, is completely uninhabitable because Abaddon was destroyed there. This happened because Abaddon, who was actually the most powerful of the Six and the leader of the group, wanted humans to share in the gift of magic. He was the god of knowledge, after all. This proved disastrous and the other gods reduced and compartmentalised the magic, and Abaddon went on a whole attempt to overthrow them and become one, single god of all.

The destruction of Abaddon’s temples and relics was intentional. He was wiped from memory. The pantheon was called The Five until Nightfall, wherein the existence of Abaddon was revealed as he tried to drag himself back into the mortal plane. As a god his spheres of power were water and knowledge. Erasing knowledge of him was what made him powerless. (Interestingly, the Priory’s special collections contains the Scroll of the Five True Gods, an ancient record of what the human gods knew about the Elder Dragons, but one dragon is missing - the water dragon, who like Abaddon, has a damaged and erased history. The six Elder Dragons and six human gods have many respective connections.)

When he lived, Abaddon’s followers were the Margonites, who believed him the only real god and worshipped him exclusively, unlike other humans who revere all the Six together. They were rewarded with transformation into etheral beings with an extremely long lifespan, and were imprisoned in Abaddon’s Realm, the Realm of Torment, when he was forced out of Tyria. As the god of knowledge he had a realm to himself, and when fallen, his sphere inversed. Knowledge became madness, the theme his realm embodies. Temples were sunk, records destroyed, because to remove all knowledge of the god of knowledge made him powerless.

I can’t remember where, but it’s implied that by Nightfall comes around a thousand years after his banishment, Abaddon is finally able to claw his way back into Tyria because people are starting to remember him. There’s one side quest that sticks out in my memory called The Search for Enlightenment about a scholar stealing scriptures from an Elonian library which leads to a massive raid by Margonites. The scholar was ‘babbling’ about a forgotten god. Proximity to knowledge about Abaddon seems to bestow insanity, the connection between Abaddon in his inverted realm and his hold over anyone who knows he exists. Though the Five Gods tried, they didn’t erase everything (hell, Trahearne and Sayeh al' Rajihd give you a guided tour of an Abaddon temple). Over a thousand years, relics popped up and people began to remember The Five was once The Six. As they did his influence returned until he was able to attempt to merge the Realm of Torment with Tyria and become a single, all powerful god in the absence of the others.

But wait how does that make a forgotten god the most influential character in both games?

Well.

Guild Wars lore is nothing if not completely linked together. Every single thing has cause and effect, every event is a domino. The story is consistent from Prophecies to this day. So let’s start with the first GW1 chapter, Prophecies.

It all starts at the Citadel of Flame.

It was built into the volcano Hrangmer. The charr had been displaced, pushed out of Ascalon by the successful expansion of humankind. 450 years before GW2 the Flame Legion found this volcano and, inside, Titans. You know how Mordremoth’s minions are Mordrem, Zhaitan’s minions are Risen, etc? Titans are Abaddon minions, left behind and hidden after his defeat. They change their appearance to suit their environment. In a jungle they’re vegetative, in mountains they’re made of ice, in the Realm of Torment they’re twisted constructs of flesh, in a volcano, they’re fire. The Flame Legion brings the Titans back to the charr, charr worship them, and in exchange, get immense fire powers. Flame Legion completely takes over charr society and makes it a theistic, misogynist nightmare with the Shamans at the top.

Abaddon has just restructured charr society.

Using their overpowered fire magic indirectly from a human god, charr, ironically, rally against the humans and nuke Ascalon to pieces. The few survivors escape to Kryta. Charr are now pretty much unstoppable and invade all the way to Orr. Vizier Khilbron used a powerful stolen scroll to repel the charr with magic, and it completely destroys Orr, collapsing the island into the ocean.

Abaddon has just wiped out two nations of the humans who used to worship him, with Orr as the final goal - to tear down the resplendent city of the Gods who betrayed him. This is referenced, if you know what you’re looking for, in GW2. You can scale the Vizier’s Tower, where he read the scroll that sank all of Orr, and on the wall...

A mural to the lost god, a testament to power that, a thousand years later, one who was expunged from history had a faithful likeness depicted.

Ascalon’s a burning hole and Orr is underwater. Now what? Those Ascalonian survivors in Kryta find the place is controlled by White Mantle. The White Mantle are committing mass murder via bloodstone sacrifice (bloodstones being the power curb the gods introduced after imbuing humans with magic) in order to halt the prophecy of a Chosen One opening the Door of Komalie. Vizier Khilbron turns up, shaking out some mysteriously wet boots don’t worry about that, and leads you against these genocidal cultists. Which, whoops, does lead to the Door of Komalie being opened - and it’s a doorway into Abbadon’s Realm of Torment, out of which Titans power through. This was the apocalypse planned for Kryta. Unlike the first two, this one is thwarted by the player. Kryta lives on. Vizier Khilbron is the final boss and turns out to have been a lich.

That’s 3 of the 5 human nations. What about Cantha and Elona?

GW: Factions is the Canthan chapter in which Shiro Tagachi, the emperor’s bodyguard, continually visits a fortune teller until she inflicts such paranoia on his mindset that he believes he needs to kill the emperor in self-defense. His defeat causes the Jade Wind that creates the Jade Sea. As a spirit, Shiro then engulfs Cantha in a plague that warps people into tumorous mutants. The fortune teller turns out to be an Abaddon minion whose task was the eventual destruction of Cantha. This one also is foiled by the player.

GW: Nightfall is the culmination chapter. Abaddon is now powerful enough, well known enough, to breach Tyria and try to come back. His agent is Varesh Ossa, who slowly transforms into a Margonite over the course of the game. The player confronts the breach between planes and finally enters the Realm of Torment, meeting the shades of Abaddon’s servants that came before, the lich form of Vizier Khilbron, and the spirit of Shiro Tagachi, before facing Abaddon himself.

And that’s the end of it. In Guild Wars magic cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred, so another god ascends in Abaddon’s place. They are once again The Six.

It’s Abaddon that ruined half the Elonian desert, Abaddon whose sinking of Orr gave Zhaitan the perfect mass grave to necromance, Abaddon who froze the Cantha sea into solid jade, and Abaddon whose final death and eruption of magic started waking Primordus, leading to the norn, dwarf and asuran alliance to stop it in 1078 AE-- introducing the norn and asura to the rest of Tyria, and making the dwarves extinct, cutting their entire race’s existence short. If it wasn’t for Abaddon, the charr wouldn’t have been taken over by their magic-toting shaman caste, only to come to their senses and rebel and ostracize the Flame Legion afterward. Hell, the current Flame Legion Imperators STILL style their horns in an homage to Abaddon, and probably don’t even remember why! To a human god, gone for over a thousand years, who used their race as pawns in a revenge attempt at wiping out every nation the humans had built!

And even after being thoroughly and completely destroyed, his magic STILL haunts Tyria enough for his statues to punish you for not showing the proper respect.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #long post #LONG fucking post (apologetic) #abaddon #guild wars 1 #had to get this out me brain there we go

[xenosgirlvents]

Great Work: Thoughts

Since this is about recent plot developments etc. etc. I'll put it under a read more tab. Spoilers below.

Overall thoughts: It isn't a bad book. 

So Great Work, I'm obviously focusing on the Xenos side of content here and there is quite a bit in 'The Great Work’ for a change. 

Overall the book isn't bad, good even. Honestly. It has some issues, sure, but that's always going to be there. By Black Library standards it's fine and someone who really likes Cawl will probably find it interesting. First a bit of a random list of just some relevant details:

The Pharos is a Necron Device powered by a C'tan Shard that allows them to navigate without the Warp. I'm a bit unsure of this too, the book seems to go back on the current Dolmen Gates into Webway approach and imply again the Necron had some non-Webway, non-Warp FTL so far as I can tell. The Pharos doesn't seem to be a psychic beacon at all but, instead, just manipulates physical reality via C'tan powers.

The C'tan shard in the Pharos implies humans were also supposed to be some sort of tool-species for the Old Ones in their war but that they have evolved into not at all what they were supposed to.

The C'tan calls the Machine god a lie, Chaos gods emergent consciousnesses, the Emperor a weapon. Basically not anything we didn't already know.

Honestly the big crux isn't that impressive to me. Cawl just wanted to download a map of the Blackstone deposits the Necron Empire knew about. His goal is just he wants to wipe out the Warp so that the galaxy goes back to how it was before the War in Heaven. He never mentions the Webway project so I don't know if he has any thoughts on how humans will communicate and travel without the Warp but eh.

So on to Xenos. I will discuss the two Xenos factions who appear in the book and the one who I'm sorely disappointed didn't appear:

Tyranids:

Definitely these come off best in the book and I'd honestly say the book does them well. The conquest of Sotha is shown in flashback and the Tyranid are brutally effective in it. What's more even the Genestealer Cultists do amazingly, the Fortress Monastery's Void Shield and Defence Batteries are sabotaged from within by a cell of GSC who take out the Marines guarding it and destroy it. Good stuff.

Then MAJOR kudos for the first time I've ever read a Patriarch not being a pathetic pushover. After the endless amounts of time I've had to read about Patriarchs being utterly worthless and dying to single Marines it is refreshing to have a Patriarch who is an actual monster again. The GSC Patriarch in this kills 5-6 Terminators in short order and slays the Chapter Master of the Scythes of the Emperor. The big thing is the book doesn't forget that the Patriarch is meant to be a powerful Psyker. Most books featuring Patriarchs just have Marines be able to grit their teeth and instantly defeat all their psychic powers. In this book, no, the Patriarch's ability to paralyze the Marines with Psychic is the key reason it succeeds because it gives it crucial seconds to close into combat with them.

It does die, sure, but that's fine. It dies killing an elite 6-man team and a Chapter Master and it only dies because it lapses into villain stupidity in the end and sniffs around it's last kill and drawing out their death. Oh, also, nice to have it remembered Tyranids don't experience fear. Yeah. F**king Seth, maybe that audio drama should have remembered that?

The only downside with the Tyranids role is a rather nauseating and old one. In classic 40k style, because the Marines are the focus, there are no women. What's more Cawl's entire supporting cast are also only men. The result is that there is a single important female character and she is solely consigned to flashbacks. She, of course, dies. 

Ugh.

Necron:

They get a little worse than the 'Nids. The good is that the C'tan Shard is not some loser who Cato Sicarius can kill in one line. The Potentate, as it is known, once released demonstrates instantly that it could kill everyone in the place if it wanted. Felix is knocked on his ass and helpless in seconds, Cawl's super-special-uber-mysterious-psychic Marine Primus get's chokeholded with ease. So the book does actually let the C'tan Shard just BE powerful.

Kudos.

Other than that there big downside is just that Cawl hacks and controls an entire Tomb Complex with ease and that is just nauseating.

Imagine how Imperium fans would react if O'vesa walked into a Space Marine Fortress Monastery and just hacked all it's systems with ease? Ugh. The thing is it takes the books waffling on about how ‘advanced’ and 'superior’ the Necron are look stupid when Cawl simply without any difficulty uses all their systems and hijacks them. Up to and including controlling Scarabs and Wraiths.

So then the third group who weren't involved to my chagrin.

Aeldari:

It really does feel like GW and BL want to basically erase the idea of the Ynnari-Imperium alliance from the entire story. Cawl makes no mention of the Ynnari once. Not to mention if he wanted Necron information he could literally just have asked Yvraine and she could have introduced him to Watcher in the Dark. Furthermore, we learn Cawl's been abducting and torturing Aeldari to get information out of them?

This is a BIG issue I have with this ‘alliance'. It only ever exists from the Ynnari's side because it is clear GW and BL consider it a sign of weakness. So they never have Guilliman, Felix or Cawl acknowledge it existing because they don't want to at all imply the Imperium actually is making compromise or engaging in foreign policy. They only want to showcases the Alliance when it's a case of the Imperium making demands and the Ynnari meekly submitting to them.

Ugh.

Last Xenos note: we can add a new Xenos species to the list of harmless species the Imperium just butchered. The Adrianians were a species literally deemed harmless by the Great Crusade itself and thus not subjected to military invasion...instead their entire species was melted down into goo to make life-extending formula with for humans.

Yay.

Anyway, just something I don't get, so in this book we meet the dude who says he invented Black Carapace cause no-one else could get it right but...why didn't the Emperor just invent Black Carapace? How could there even be a need to ‘invent’ anything in the Space Marine project? Couldn't the Emperor figure it all out on his own?

Also the book explains why they're the Adeptus Astartes. Some called Amaran Astartes was vital to the project. But apparently they did something to displease the Emperor later and thus were erased from history. 

Also Cawl's wacky origins isn't bad and doesn't matter to me but I guess some people might care. Cawl's actually the result of a super genius called Ezekiel Sedayne using some experimental brain-fusion technology to merge their minds together.

Also the Emperor likes Cawl. Like REALLY likes him/Sedayne. 

The book honestly isn't bad and is fine in isolation, I have  no complaints about it's own merits. It's only frustrating because we have just no Xenos novels to counter. It really is just depressing to me that Cawl gets a whole novel before Eldrad, Lelith or Ghazghkull do. 

#warhammer #Warhammer 40k #40k #Warhammer 40000 #Belisarius cawl #necron #tyranids

[tokupedia]

Kamen Rider 45th Anniversary File: Den-O WAZA! Part 1

2007:

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive airs on ABC related networks as the 6th entry of the Disney Era of Power Rangers. The Power Rangers franchise reached its 15th year and we saw the brief return of veteran rangers such as Adam Park in a 2-part crossover!

PORK CUBE STEW! The 31st entry of Super Sentai, Juken Sentai Gekiranger, airs alongside Den-O. The show is styled to motif kung-fu styles with an animal theme. An example of the kung-fu motif aside from combat is that the names of some of the masters the Gekirangers are trained by are parodies of actual kung-fu movie stars (Ex. Sharkie Chan, Bat Li etc.)

Ultraseven X, a dark revival of Ultraseven, airs on Japanese cable TV.

Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, a continuation of the Ultra Series set 500,000 years after Mebius, premieres on TV.

GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai is released on DVD. This film acts as a 30th anniversary crossover of past Rangers and introduces us to the living embodiment of the Red Warriors, AkaRed.

Let’s fight if you wanna be a soldier! ~  Kamen Rider: The Next, a sequel to the reboot movie Kamen Rider: The First, premieres in theaters.

“The Train of Time, DenLiner...will its next stop be The Past... or the Future?”

2017 is Kamen Rider Den-O’s 10th anniversary.

Den-O is a bit hard to talk about...because it is massive. This is, by far, the most commercially successful entry in the series ever. Seven movies featuring the cast, anime spinoffs, crossovers, multiple cameos and guest starring roles of the cast members in other films, and toys...lots and lots of toys.

Kamen Rider was always as part of its core, a sci-fi based TV series and one of the younger long runners of the genre. So given that, Time Travel has popped up as a plot every now and then. But now, this trope was going to be front and center as one of the story’s main elements.

It is an odd coincidence they chose now to do this, as a certain British show made its return 2 years ago and was taking the world by storm. Another is the choice of a train as the time vehicle that didn’t need 1.21 GW. Kamen Riders ride motorcycles or in rare cases sports cars, so a Train seemed like left field thinking, but it was propelled by a motorcycle. Because when you think of breaking the space-time continuum and controlling it at will, you apparently need a Honda. We can assume in this world that if Honda can make robots that can climb stairs and play soccer, they can make train pushing timebikes powered by chroniton-flux-inverse neutron technobabbly whatchamawhozits.

But, Japan loves trains as it is an integral part of their public transportation system and it is fast and reliable transport thanks to the bullet trains. Trains also capture the imaginations of young boys, which means there is money to be made for toymakers like Bandai.

Now after a few seasons full of dark subjects like suicide, people being eaten, betrayal and such, the Powers that Be decided to lighten the mood a bit and have a slightly more comedic series. Toei producers chose Yasuko Kobayashi to be the head writer for this series (whom Toonami anime fans might recognize later on as the head writer for the Attack on Titan anime). 

Den-O is a love or hate series depending on your tolerance for moments of nonsense and slapstick and having characters who in some fans minds have long overstayed their welcome. The TV series itself and the first few films are fine and even fun, its when the Toei staff decided to drag it out that things got tiresome to some.

The basis of this series, outside of the concept of time travel, is how humans perceive time itself: How we cherish it and how what we do can impact it no matter how great or small. Some of the victims of the villains, The Imagin, all have regrets about time: “What if I did something different back then?”, “How can I move on from that?, “How can I face the future knowing this is going to happen and there is nothing I can do to change it?”.

At one point, the universe of Kamen Rider is said to have a concept, part of how Time works is how humans perceive it, events that happen are remembered and stay in people’s minds and that becomes the reality. There is a bit of truth to this, some of the actions we make have consequences, some bigger than others. But also, the connections we make in the time we have and how we interact with others can shape the world. Still, the concept also sort-of does not work as Time is wibbly wobbly stuff and would exist with or without humans as a fundamental force of all creation that is absolute.

The passengers of time

The star lead, Takeru Satoh, made the show work as unlike his predecessors, Takeru portrayed a more average hero. Rather than be a chiseled shrine to masculinity or a man who is naturally gifted at being a warrior after a few fights. Ryotaro Nogami...is us if we were given the power of the belt.

He is clumsy, when he sees a monster for the first time, he freaks out and faints, he stumbles during fights and flails around his weapon. But then he grows as a person and becomes the hero we want him to be. Just as we do in life, we grow into something better if we strive for it. In essence, Ryotaro is one of the most human Kamen Riders in the series as he isn’t perfect, but his heart is in the right place.  Another factor of Takeru Satoh was his comedic timing and ability he had to play a character who had more than one character in his body at times.

Praise should also go to main suit actor Seiji Takaiwa, as this was one of his most difficult roles. He had to pretend to be anywhere from 2 to 6 characters sharing the exact same body on top of being another character and every form of Den-O. It was grueling on him as he had to move his limbs in different directions or posture in different ways or even act like he had voices in his head and try to remember who acted what way. As seen in a stage show interview, it could drain him to the point of exhaustion.

Some actors were from previous Kamen Rider shows, such as Rina Akiyama from Agito and Yuichi Nakamura from Hibiki.

Given the extension this series has gone through, it is only fair to show the other players in the story so newcomers don’t get lost before going onto the Riders. (Yes, plural but we’ll get to that later.)

The DenLiner Crew (lovingly named Team DenLiner by fans)

Owner

Owner is the..Owner of the DenLiner, a mysterious figure who holds authority on his train and is very eccentric. Often he speaks in riddles about time and only lets on those who have a ticket or a Rider Pass on his train. He, like the main hero, is a Singularity Point, a being who can exist outside of time and be unaffected by Imagin. He also does not like fighting on his train and will throw anyone off for doing so.

Naomi

Naomi is the stewardess of the DenLiner's dining car, which the gang frequents regularly. She is a sweet and bubbly young woman who serves coffee to the passengers of the train, though her coffee is terrible and only Imagin seem to like its taste. She does get moments to shine and help out when the chips are down, but even when she doesn’t take part of the action, she seems perfectly content taking orders for hungry passengers and meeting new faces like other Kamen Riders.

Hana

Warning: Spoilers!

Hana is Ryotaro’s niece from the future (though she doesn’t know this). She, like her uncle, is a Singularity Point. As a young woman, she time traveled to 2007 and bestowed her uncle a Rider Pass to become Den-O in order to protect and restore the future that the Imagin had destroyed.

Due to her future being rewritten/restored at a certain point in the show, she de-ages to a 10 year old, presumably because the restored time had a ripple effect and changed the year she would be born.

Yuto Sakurai/Kamen Rider Zeronos Altair Form

Yuto Sakurai is the fiance of Ryotaro’s sister Airi and Hana’s future father. Yuto is a bit headstrong, but he means well.

There are actually two of them during the TV show, one from the past and one from the future. The Zeronos System is one that involves personal sacrifice, as each time a Zeronos card is used, Yuto erases his own time or rather the memories made from his existence. He later gets red cards that use his own memories to become Zero Form, which along with the green/yelow cards eventually erases his future self.

The cards unlike many trinkets are expendable as they fade away after a certain period of use. Eventually, nobody outside of a Singularity Point remembers him and he loses the love of his life (but he hopes to return to her someday.). He defends time along with Den-O despite the risks along with his Imagin...

Deneb

Deneb is an Imagin who rebelled against his kind and decided to help Yuto fight by forming a contract with him. He is something of a butler to Yuto and takes care of him, but this often leads to embarrassing moments for Yuto. He is very polite and friendly but can be serious in battle, merging with Yuto to become Zeronos Vega form or the Denbick Buster cannon in Zero form.

Kotaro Nogami/New Den-O

Kotaro is another Rider from the Nogami family from the distant future. He is Ryotaro’s Grandson. When first meeting his grandfather in the past, he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. This is due to the fact he named him and by his time period, Kotaro is a country bumpkin name and he has inherited his grandfather’s infamous bad luck.  He eventually learns to respect his grandpa and takes over his role as Den-O when Ryotaro decides to step down.

Up Next...the Taros, the Hero and the villains!

The Climax is only getting started!

#kamen rider #45th anniversary #kamen rider den-o #denliner #train #time travel #superhero

[randomnameless]

I'd say Conquest's plot isn't even in the same league of stupidity as Golden Wildfire's tho, especially in regards to each route's mid-story twist; all the Nohrian royals were convinced Garon could still go back to being the good man he used to be if they kept doing as he said, meaning they wouldn't rebel against him solely on Corrin's say-so, especially when Azura's crystal ball only works for people with Vallite blood or exceptionally powerful magical talent like Leo, meaning Corrin would have had no evidence for their claim that Garon was actually a walking corpse who can never be redeemed and, as such, needed to be taken down, leaving them no choice but to try and get him to sit on the truth-revealing Hoshidan throne in order to get hard evidence for their accusations and convince the Nohrian siblings to turn on their father.

In contrast, Clout's plan (and, therefore, the entire rest of the story in GW) is idiotic and unnecessary on every conceivable level, to a much larger, more obvious and more consistent degree than Azura's plan in Chapter 15 of CQ; not only is allying with someone who's made it abundantly clear that she wants to conquer all of Fódlan, including his own territory, just because he thinks she cares about good PR and isn't going to keep the war going if she loses her initial publically-stated purpose for starting the conflict, stupid, so is thinking that the CoS is solely responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened in Fódlan, along with the notion that killing it's leader will just cause all those issues to disappear overnight and for everyone to be able to sing kumbaya together forever.

And for what it's worth, the CQ twist does have issues of it's own; the crystal ball, even if i defend it in regards to it having enough estabilished limitations to keep it from being of much use for anything other than what Azura used it for, is still a massively convenient asspull that's never brought up before or after the scene it's introduced in (and no, the Birthright scene doesn't count, needing to play through practically the entirety of a completely different route just for basic set-up on an important plot element would still be bad writing, especially when the game never tells you to play the routes in order of BR then CQ), and there should probably have been a few extra scenes at the end of the chapter of Corrin and Azura thinking over other possibilities and realizing that the latter's plan was the only realistic option they had, if only to make their reasoning clearer to the audience in-text instead of forcing them to infer it themselves, but even with those in mind, the combination of the plan in CQ being significantly more justified than in GW and the characters having actual reactions to what happens as a result makes it so CQ's plot is much less nonsensical than GW's, imo.

Well, tbh

Claude's GW stunt, imo, stings more because it's pretty obvious how the world, its characters and even lore are completely neutralised to make GW happen.

Say, in AG, when Dimitri takes the throne from his Uncle, we see and hear about revolts, and AG in general has him think a lot about Faerghus' stability, to make sure his people aren't embroiled in another civil war and can finally start living in peace.

Claudio pisses on the "no king no emperor" Alliance and turns it in a Federation, then sides with the imperialist who legit tried to conquer his land 5 months earlier - and we only hear in a footnote people being pissed but they're either erased in an auxilliary map or unheard of.

AG NPCs are learning to "adapt" and "accept" each others - Duscur with Faerghians, Church peeps with Kingdom peeps, etc. There used to be a conflict - lore wise - a few years ago (Regicide + revenge on Duscur) so there is a tension between Faerghus and Duscur, it's the topic of a few supports, and we see NPCs establish it : it exists.

Claudio's Federation?

Well, Almyrans were trying to force the border for funsies last month? Who cares, it's not like we have a Goneril NPC actually wondering why the fuck they are allied witl Almyrans or siding with Nader "I love to bring souvenirs!", one of the most well-known Almyran generals.

Apparently the CoS is so VeRy BaD that it forces people to be racist... but we don't see anyone, of the GW side, being miffed about fighting side by side with Almyrans. The party went to Sreng to arrange a surprise for the Kingdom? Again, no NPC, dialogue, support even suggests that anyone in the Alliance thinks the Srengese are BaD because they're not Fodlanese.

FFS GW bothered with giving us Holst, the leader of the Goneril vanguard and defence against Almyrans who are invading for funsies, but nothing he said is relevant to the conflict he is supposed to play a major part in.

We're left with Clout saying a lot of things that aren't shown on screen - and yet his sycophant allies buy everything and we end up with, well, what the route ends up as.

For the midtwist reveal...

Well, given how Clout (and Supreme Leader, but her plot is a special case) manages to get away with everything without having to work within the confines of Fodlan's foggy lore (just imagine if Dimitri, one day in AG, enrolled Sreng's most famous general in his troops and the Gautiers had nothing to say about that, not even the NPCs) - so him coming up with completely ridiculous plot and reasons/excuses to get rid of the Evil Lizard Lady - isn't more problematic as him calling Nader and his pals to his aid, since no one gives fuck about Almyran raiding Fodlan, why should people give a fuck about killing Rhea today because you had a strawberry jam toast this morning, or because Supreme Leader wants to use a pawn ?

Granted, credit where it is due, I once joked with friends about a NPC I arbitrarly called Padmé, who is, in GW, the only person who thought Clout was going to ally with the Kingdom and is puzzled and questions his choice to ally with the Empire instead.

GG Padmé.

At least in Conquest, we have the feeling we're playing the same game, with the same stakes, but reversed (in a way!) that the ones presented to us when we're playing BR : each time we invade a country, people call us traitors, we demolish a tribe of shifters and by the end of the story we're left with unfinished solutions - especially not helped by CQ - and Fates in general - being Treehouse'd !

Maybe this is the reason why the premise of Conquest - having Garon sit on the magic throne to reveal he's Gooron being the only thing that can make his children turn against him - felt really wrong to me - even if Treehouse downplayed how horribly fucked up the Nohrian royals were - because of the Camus effect : we have people being loyal/loving someone, despite starting a war and invading a neighbouring nation with all those things war entails, and they will still continue to fight no matter what - but if stars align a certain way and they realise their beloved leader is not the one they initially followed anymore, they will finally fight against him to try and stop the war?

Granted, I'm disgressing a bit here.

CQ ends on a similar story beat as GW - sort of, we have the conqueror of a nation wishing to make peace and sing kumbaya with the people he just invaded for, to those invaded people, no plausible reason, slaughtered key figures of the nations who were just trying to defend their lands and people, while having a puppet ruler (sure sure, Dimitri and Hinoka are rulers that exist in their own right, but can we seriously believe their actions wouldn't be monitored/restreigned by the Empire/Federation or Nohr?) in place.

And yet, unlike Golden Shower, CQ's end is not positive at all, because Azura disappears and... there are still things that moved the plot that aren't adressed at all, it's an ominous ending and Corrin, at least, knows it - especially as they see (iirc?) Azura disappearing!

Golden Shower's ending is as unconclusive as the rest of Nopes' endings - but there's no feeling of dread or anything similar we can get from CQ's ending "maybe the war will stop, or not" yeah sure.

Ultimately, I think the main difference between the two "plot twists" in those routes is, again, how divorced from the lore/world Clout's reasoning is - for his plan to actually make sense, it has to shoot itself in the leg (apparently Rhea BaD bcs people follow her religion and her religion make people marry, or whatever... but then, Judith says no one gives a fuck about her teachings in the Alliance :/) or, and worse imo, drags other characters down (just imagine a second Hinoka telling Takumi that, maybe they should let Garon sit on the throne so that would reduce the number of casualties, or Sakura confirming with Corrin that she will let Ryoma die to defend the capital, but only if that makes less Hoshidan civilians die).

So, in termes of nonsense, I agree, Golden Shower is way more nonsensical - not only because of Clout's ""plot"" twist, but because it bends the rest of the world (characters included!) for it to sort of make sense/be justified - than CQ's plot, even if I have my own grievances about it.

#sealofreconciliation #sorry i'm late replying to this #FE14 #sort of #3 Nopes

[randomnameless]

I had this thought regarding what you said about Edelgard's relationship to strength, and how it applies to Rhea. Edelgard views Byleth as strong and for that reason seeks to sway them to her side. But at the end of WC, Rhea swats Byleth away leaving them presumed dead. Rhea also escapes despite Edelgard's partnership with TWSITD. With this in mind, Edelgard wanting to destroy Rhea in CF makes sense. She knows Rhea is strong, perhaps seeing her as too strong to allow to live unlike in Hopes (where Rhea doesn't transform and instead flees) or the other routes in Houses (where Rhea is captured. Therefore, Edelgard wanting Rhea dead in CF may be because of Byleth.

This also works with her decision to go Hegemon. Dimitri crushed TWSITD by complete accident, people whose strength Edelgard thought she needed. Dimitri has made himself out to be someone strong, hence Edelgard resorting to desperate measures to fight him while at the same time making him the priority target.

Even her comment about feeling weak facing Byleth, it's not meant to be romantic. It's her feeling Byleth is stronger than her, making her feel like the inferior. Byleth can only be with Edelgard if they lose their powers, if they become weak which is very, very fucked up.

She doesn't respect Claude enough to view him as a threat, yet this would crate implications for SB's ending. Claude is strengthening the Alliance, Claude is gaining strength. Edelgard wouldn't like that, because it means he could potentially challenge her. Chances are, once the Kingdom is finished they turn on each other.

Pretty much,

After Supreme Bullshit - where she didn't lose anyone in the war, and won with a spectacular clean sheet - Rhea and Thales are "dead"! - Claude baring his fingers, or even existing, is a joke.

Isn't SB the only route where Claude can die? Supreme Leader will erase him if he becomes a nuisance, and if he wants to strengthen the Alliance/Federation/not bow his head to Adrestia anymore, she'll take it as defiance, and flatten it.

And I don't see the Kingdom rushing to his aid - after all he betrayed everything to side with her - so yep, post GW or post SB, Claude is fucked.

About the strength argument...

Rhea is a subhuman, thus has to die, but also, bar being a subhuman, she is also "strong" and someone who can potentially oppose her, or someone Supreme Leader can't rule over.

She cannot be Rhea's superior, and refuses to consider anyone else as her equal (only Billy is, and you guessed it, Billy humbles themselves to her "level", but we know they actually become her inferior).

In Hopes, iirc she has a line where she wants to make GM Rhea's tomb, so despite her PR here and there to look good compared to Claude and whoever else, Rhea's still on her death wishlist - not because she can become a pair of shiny daggers - but because she is a subhuman and an obstacle to her main goal : ruling over Fodlan.

In the paths where Rhea is captured, Supreme Leader only keeps her alive as an insurance against Uncle'n'pals - if she could she would erase her, like the remaining nabateans who cannot "rule over teh people" because they are nabateans - but she needs Uncle's help against whoever is preventing her from totally conquering Faerghus (Rodrigue'n'co?), part of the Alliance, the remnants of the Church and later on, Billy + the side they choose.

What she thinks of Billy though is fascinating - and imo factors on their "undisturbed sleep" during 5 years.

Sure we can throw idiot plot balls everywhere - but you won't make me believe that Supreme Leader (+Uncle), who spent more than say, 3 years, devising a plan to overthrow Faerghus and inflitrate the Monastery didn't know where to look for Sothis's unconscious host + the strongest relic around.

But if Supreme Leader was disappointed in Billy, it'd be another story. Billy who was supposed to be super strong and the Goddess reborn is swatted away by Rhea - who's only a child of the goddess - or Uncle himself - Uncle who apparently needed her to fight against the goddess can actually get rid of her vessel by snapping his fingers?? - so then what, is Billy super strong, or just a dud, and actually useless?

It'd be a cold reading of her character, but when Billy revealed to be useless (or not the strongest alive), she stopped caring about their potential abilities as a unit, let them be an ally, or an enemy. Rhea and Uncle are still more dangerous.

Which would be fit with her "facing you i grow weak uwu", she was mistaken on Billy's abilities - they are actually strong, and in SS/VW, stronger than her.

But I wouldn't erase the "uwu in luf with u" factor, because that's one of the most "human" points about Supreme Leader - she loves Billy, but does she love them as their own person, as a super strong unit who can support and help her, or as a cruel joke, because they're the goddess's vessel and she hates the goddess?

(idk if you know the katanagatari anime, but you have a similar white haired girl who uses a person - who thought he was a sword - and at the end of the anime, while she confesses she had been using him since day 1, she wonders, as she is dying, if she can now love him ? It made me think about Supreme Leader and Billy, what if she had been using them, later fell in love with them, but her goal was more important, and if she had to chose she'd always pick Billy's utility over her feelings for them?)

As for Dimitri, he not only crushed Uncle by parking his horse, but also got rid of Cornelia and managed to snag Faerghus, a land she was supposed to have control over!

Dimitri is "too strong" and she cannot rely on Uncle and his shinies anymore (tfw he didn't give her the password for getting Nemesis out of the freezer) so she uses Uncle's last present, and turns into Hegemon!gard.

#fantasyinvader #FE16 #3 Nopes #character rant #it's kind of sad though #Supreme Leader is all about MAGA to have a super strong Emperor ruling over Fodlan #a peerless emperor #when the first Emperor was a fucking holy knight #and his son 'died to an illness' and his descendant's claim to the throne was immediately challenged #Adrestia might have ruled over the world the Emperor had never been the peerless strongest evah figure Supreme Leader wants to be