#this part of the story dumps a lot of lore and speculation

[acesw]

UTTU Part 1: The Magazine

Welcome back to A.D. doing mega lore posting because good god this will never get old. But anyways, this post will be about UTTU and not only about their magazine, but also about their Flash Gathering. (This also counts as my birthday gift for Sonetto since she likes being info-dumped, probably. Happy Birthday Sonetto!)

“Standing in the shadow, we tell all the stories which were once unknown, like a weaver in silence, or a moth light trap in the dark night.” - Pandora Wilson, UTTU Journalist

First, who even is UTTU?

UTTU Magazine is an arcanist magazine organization that releases stories about notable arcanists. According to Blonney, they are "the greatest fashion and arcanist information magazine." They operate globally as well as privately, going so far as to hide the physical identities of their reporters and their main headquarters.

There’s not a lot of things known about how UTTU works, but what we do have is information about their magazine and their Flash Gathering event, which we can start off from there. But first, what does the name mean?

The name ‘Uttu’ comes from the Mesopotamian goddess of the same name, one of Sumerian origin. She was associated with weaving (and spiders but the claim of Uttu being envisioned as a spider is limited).

They sell their magazines in the form of seasonal subscriptions, advising to only purchase the subscription and not much else. From there, they create the articles and send out monthly updates.

UTTU also hosts “Flash Gatherings” for the game’s events as a reading club, where the arcanists are invited to see the UTTU market situated in the area of where the in-game event takes place; they can read the Flash Journal and FLASH:FAME, obtain FAME cards from retails, and get rewards. I’ll get into this in Part 2.

First, we'll explore the magazine since there's so much questions surrounding them.

UTTU Magazine

Of course, the magazine is the main brand of the organization. The magazine has properties in which only arcanists are able to read it (speculation), and it has a scheduled self-update to release new articles/artworks.

The reason why we are able to see such a large amount of information is because from what can be told, Vertin is an avid collector of this media, even being titled “Top Collector” in the introduction of the Green Lake Flash Gathering.

Anyway, the magazine has a very interesting way of how it works, and they even have their own reading guide, including instructions of how to manage the magazine and activate the self-update.

Reader’s Guide and Self-Updating system

Welcome to UTTU. This is a magazine.

Don’t skip this page. Unlike those useless prefaces filled with boring platitudes, this one is important.

1. Don't doubt the truth of UTTU. We only tell true stories that happened to real arcanists.

2. You only need one copy of UTTU. After you make the seasonal subscription, the copy will update itself on 15th every month.

3. Whenever the copy updates itself, please place it below a cupboard or the firewood in a fireplace, but do not leave any fire or light. Then step back to 8.8 feet away and wait for 10-15 minutes. It is normal to hear the sounds of sewing and crawling during the update.

4. Don't be confused about the interviews of the artworks. Please note that anything can be an artwork: they can be alive, or dead. Whoever has a story to tell can be deemed an artwork.

5. You might smell a fine aroma from the pages while reading an interview. This is normal.

6. Do not be shocked by live photographs, and do not let any of them come in contact with dark coffee or matches.

8. Keep UTTU away from fire. This is an arcanum magazine and is definitely not fireproof.

9. Although it's not fireproof, UTTU is waterproof, but please do not soak it in water for too long. If you do so by mistake, please prepare enough insect repellent.

10. Don't ask where article 7 is. (lmao)

11. If you see any ads about nightmare recycle on the attached pages, do not call the number on it or make any attempt to catch those monsters. If your children report strange goings-on to you, comfort them with one extra milk candy before bedtime.

12. Try to enjoy reading UTTU.

The way one could get the magazine is buying a seasonal subscription, and upon receiving it you’d have to take care of it regularly since it is delicate. When updating, you put it in a place where you’d most commonly find spiders. That way, these arcane weavers can multiply and add to the tapestry. Additionally, this magazine seems to be a live and interactive type of media, which does explain the “live photographs” and the spiders.

Magazine Contents

Now, what are the contents of the UTTU Magazine?

First, we look at our Role Atlas. Yes, the Role Atlas is involved in this too.

There are categories of our roster that classify them by what they are: Beyond, awakened, arcanist, mixed, and infected. Now, what are each of these?

Beyond: an Arcanist with unexplainable origins not found within Arcanum (Ex: Voyager and aliEn T are aliens born of supernatural causes rather than arcanum. Jessica is a hybrid species of a deer woman (a spirit in Native American myth) and a changeling (a supernatural creature in European folklore) )

Awakened: an Arcanist who was once an object and has been given sentience one way or another (Ex: Sputnik was a regular space probe as the real Sputnik 1 who gained sentience when entering orbit).

Arcanist: A general term for those who are born with a different physiology that makes them able to sense and use arcanum, this is not limited only to human arcanists. (Ex: Door was born of arcanum on Earth and was always sentient thus is not a Beyond nor Awakened arcanist)

Mixed: People who both have the genetics or blood of a Human and an Arcanist. (Ex: Pavia and Satsuki were implied to be born of a human and an arcanist)

Infected: Currently unknown, no arcanists within this category.

They also have a “Bound Volume”, which serves as a gallery collection of arcanists that Vertin has and has not met. Those she (and we) haven't met will be obscured.

The “Artwork”

Artworks in this game are basically the arcanists that UTTU chooses to write about. As long as there is one to tell, they will conduct an interview and report on it. For each artwork they contain: Exhibition details, Item Collection, and Story/Interview.

First, the cover. Made by my friend and fellow lore chat dweller Rabies En., this is what can be made out of what each part of the exhibition details mean:

And of course, the “Completion” date is their birthday.

When it comes to describing their inspiration, it tends to be left on a vague note and left for speculation. While concluding that the first half is the title of the arcanist’s afflatus, the second half has left most people confused. My speculation is that this latter half is something that is related to their job, hobby, skill, or interest.

For example, Balloon Party’s inspiration is quite straightforward: “Remains of a Rock Formation [Mineral] Bones Balloon.” It directly showcases her afflatus and what she is inspired by, which also goes hand in hand as to what her arcane skill is. Meanwhile, Sonetto’s is more vague and unique: “Trained Loyal Dogs [Mineral] Foreign Affairs.” These reflect her upbringing and main interest respectively. With this theory, I concluded that the afflatus and inspiration boost one’s arcanist’s medium, which in turn helps fuel their arcane skill.

Second, the items. All arcanists have a section that lists personal items that closely pertain to their character, usually, these things would be visible on their person. The author analyzes them and relates them to their story and character. And depending on the item, they are priced by clear drops.

Additionally, if a character has a garment that isn't their I2 (e.g. event garments), they will have a special section for a new set of items. (Ex. Sonetto's Parade Anthem garment isn't exactly her I2 outfit, thus she has another set of items that relate to the uniform.)

Lastly, the Story and Interview; Each and every arcanist is interviewed by Pandora Wilson, another fellow arcanist and one whose face is obscured to the world other than a pair of lips.

The first story is a retelling of their background and upbringing, the second is a story about their daily life or lifestyle, and the third is a transcripted segment of their interview. The interview segments usually starts with Pandora greeting and/or asking a few questions towards the interviewee, but occasionally they also include the end of these interviews.

They highlight parts that make the interviewee unique; It exhibits their distinction, their personality, and most importantly, their overall character and the life they lead. These help us learn about the arcanists in a more deeper level the more we bond with them, as well as learning about the world they live in considering how all of them come from different times.

Now, our magazine analysis ends here. Feel free to ask questions and Part 2 is linked below!

Part 2: The Flash Gathering

#reverse 1999 #uttu #lore analysis #say thank you to rabies en for the exhibition guide #heavy sonetto mentioning cause we love her

[childofcolors]

Ateez storyline

This is how I visualise the Ateez storyline using the MVs in a map-like drawing I created in order to hopefully help 🙃

Big disclaimer! Everything I’m typing here is theory or interpretation, but I am using the Diary entries from the Fever and The World albums as guide for the Ateez storyline. Everything else is pure theory/ speculation on my part.

I also feel the need to thank the team behing atiny.net for providing the diary entries online for everyone to access. And for the team @hala_loretiny on Twitter for providing a very detailed Masterdoc on Ateez lore.

With that being said, even tho I’ve read the Masterdoc a few times, there are things I don't really agree with. So I re-read the diary entries as if I have never seen a single Ateez theory before and came up with my own timeline.

So here we go:

As seen in the guide above, we have 2 main storylines:

The Ateez storyline: the music videos where only Ateez make an appearance.

The Pirates storyline: the music videos where only the og Black Pirates appear (Disclaimer! This part is pure speculation/theory on my part).

There are also two secondary storylines:

The Ateez & Pirates: the music videos where both groups are present.

The Witness p.o.v: Halazia music video that encapsulates a very important part of the story (I will ellaborate when I get to it).

The Diary film

In this short film, we are introduced to each member’s story before forming the friendgroup known as Ateez. There were a few missunderstandings between them that made the friendship fall appart, but after Hongjoong has been visited in his dream by the man in the black fedora (The Black Pirate) and is given the Cromer and the information that another world exists, the 8 friends get back together and the journey begins.

Inception

My interpretation of this MV is that Ateez are trying to understand how the Cromer works by trying to “fall asleep”.

The first one who is succesfull is Hongjoong at the end of the MV, when he is running towards himself sleeping and “falls into his sleep”.

After “falling asleep”, he ends up in a void-like room that can be also seen in Thanxx MV, but I will show it once we get to that part.

Thanxx

This is for the most part a rebellious song about teenagers not wanting their lives to be dictated by adults and that they will choose their own path (wich in their case is to go to this new dimension)

The part that stood out to me the most in the MV was when the sky turned from crear blue, to dark grey clouds:

And then, we see the 8 members in the same dark void-like room (that we also saw in Inception MV), along with a few other elements like cars, a dancing crew, a stage, big baloon animals (i am just as lost as you) and the most important part, the pirate ship (that will help them get from their world to New World).

Inception (left)

Thanxx (right)

The pirate ship:

Celebrate

The music video does give me the vibe that they are singing while on the ship to their destination, and it is a bit ironic how the song is about celebrating individuality, and the next thing you know, they end up in Strictland, a place where self expression thru music and art is forbidden.

As for the visuals of the MV itself, there is a clear shift in color that indicates when they genuinely arrived in Strictlang. Also they are wearing the same clothes that they wear in the Fireworks (I’m the one) MV wich is the very next song on the list.

The shift in color in the Celebrate MV:

The color and clothes similarity between Celebrate MV and Fireworks (I’m the one) MV:

Fireworks (I’m the one)

In terms of lore written in the diary entries, a lot happen so I suggest you read them, or listem to the audio version on Youtube 💕

But for the MV itself, not alot happens other than them arriving in what it’s assumed to be the Strictland garbage dump and The Black Pirates hideout, but no sign of the 8 pirates. This is where (in the books) we are introduced to a character known as Left Eye, the director of the Strictland dump, and the number 1 helper of The Black Pirates.

Strictland garbage dump (left)

The hideout of The Black Pirates (right)

This is the moment Ateez find out (in the books) that The Black Pirates are actually in prison, so Ateez need to go help them. They also learn that the prison (also known as the Android bunker) is on an island so they start saililng towards the island.

*More details are mentioned in the Fever ep. 3 diary entry at Mingi’s paragraph*

After arrival, they discover that the island it is an ex vacation resort, but due to the state the world is right now in New World, taking rest and vacations became meaningless.

*more in part 2*

#ateez #ateez scenarios #ateez lore #ateez seonghwa #ateez hongjoong #ateez yunho #ateez yeosang #ateez san #ateez mingi #ateez wooyoung #ateez jongho #ateez atiny #atz #seonghwa #hongjoong #yunho #yeosang #san #mingi #wooyoung #jongho #atinynet #atinylore #loretiny #kpop #kpoplore #ateez inception #ateez fever #ateez thanxx #ateez fireworks

[cruelsister-moved2]

Im the hater anon omg i didnt mean to lead u astray but i haven't finished it i'm just over half done. i probably will finish just so i can coherently say why i don't like it bc rn my thoughts are all over the place but  u hit all the major points im like nodding and taking notes rn.  Its very shallow lore wise like its all overly complex exposition that barely effects the plot. I could write about this for 100 years but basically it was boring and i just feel like it has nothing to say like theres no purpose or message and i think speculative stuff should have SOME weight behind it idk.  That paired w how the writing itself is like..not pretty or artful or anything………………….

And on top of that its not even actually funny. Instead of real jokes its just 100 million mcu quips awkwardly inserted so that no situation is ever treated genuinely or seriously or with depth. For example. My personal least favorite part beyond general quality so far is how often they bring up gideon being inappropriately horny… idk how else to word it.. Its one of her 3 personality traits. they mention her porn collection i swear every couple of pages. its played 4 jokes but like the rest of it its literally unfunny and feels so out of place. Like this is right when they just discovered an incinerated body → ”she looked troubled, which made Gideon sad, but she was also soaked right through to the skin, which made Gideon need a lie-down.” Its like if someone whose only point of reference was tiktok during that era where every vaguely masc woman got made fun of for being a quote hey mamas lesbian unquote tried to write a masc woman.  Reading it as a masc lesbian myself is just sort of embarrassing idk if other ppl feel differently but it just feels overplayed and goofy. 

Anyways… this is all very long and incoherent but thank u for complaining and vindicating me… i started reading it a couple days ago on a whim bc ive been seeing ppl talk abt it a lot lately and i was instantly SOOOOO disappointed. Part of it was definitely that i was expecting something very different because of how people talk about it but also its just like bad. Its insane. I also had no idea abt the roachpatrol thing so ummmmmm :(

hiiiiiiiiii omg so your suffering isn't even over yet my condolences.

the worldbuilding exposition industrial complex needs to end im so serious. I just had such a nice conversation with some writer friends about soft vs hard magic systems and world-building and how frustratingly common the assumption that more complex lore you dump the more sophisticated your story is at the moment. in reality many more sophisticated stories deliberately utilise abstraction and whimsy for thematic statements. v happy for brandon sanderson fans but again, a lot of those stories are basically like mystery novels except the magic is the mystery, whereas the speculative fiction authors who... actually speculate...are often using it as a tool to speculate about our own existence.

and the writing is so ugly like I've read a couple of chapters and I feel like i could get through a mid story if it's at least well written but it wasn't even inoffensive it was actively offputting like that prose was stinkyyyyyyyyy..... and the quips exactlyyy like who is laughing at none pizza with left beef anymore and the fact a lot of it isn't even the author being witty but just like. a reference to a meme? it's literally supposed to be like gritty but then everyone is memeing and quipping all the time how are you meant to take that seriously?

and okay the like sexualisation of Gideon had kind of been my suspicion but I hadn't read enough to make that claim for certain so. that's disappointing to have it confirmed. given that the author is a fem woman who calls herself a lesbian whilst being homestuck married to a guy, it really brings up some kind of discomfort in me to be using masc women that way and making a joke out of them and their sexuality and calling them himbos and shit like. it really doesn't seem like she actually knows any masc women??? and when that was a huge part of the marketing for the book it comes to feel exploitative.

one thing to be aware is that tor like. pushed it really hard marketing-wise for whatever reason. I guess they feel it symbolises a new era of sci-fi and like were using it as an outreach effort to engage the generation that mostly only reads fan fiction or whatever which I guess cheers if it achieves that. but the majority of negative reviews are specifically that it was nothing like what they expected it to be, because of the.... super gimmicky marketing.

the tagline being sword necromancer lesbians in space or something so lame 😭 and it really seems like the elements came first and the justification came second so it's never really explained why they use swords instead of more technologically advanced weapons (bc the answer is 'it sounds cool') or really why it needs to be in space at all (because the answer is 'it sounds cool'). even the necromancy is supposedly fairly tangential and ive seen people be underwhelmed how much actual lesbianism is involved too 💀

9mbut yeah the r0ach patr0l thing I wish people were more aware of because honestly above anything else, I've seen people who were fans and then found this out and felt super uncomfortable so I think people deserve to know what kind of background she has, and this is literally where she developed her writing and her name as a BNF so it's directly connected to her current career not just like a celebrity who tweeted something dumb when they were 14. like I think it's fair to take that into account + idk it's INTERESTING to me that she went from that to debuting with a masc lesbian whom she projects like comic hypersexuality onto it really is all much to think about truly

#ask #anon #I remember there was a bit that said smth like 'there was a sort of clanging sound' or something #and I just was like........................... has this not had any line editing stall #*at all #what do you mean SORT OF. #+ I feel like the author is that gross and is projecting it on butch women which like. category 5 fem woman moment #the homestuck het marriage is just so lame sorry im going to make fun of that #esp bc she used to also write the redacted redacted fanfic with that guy

[askfallenroyalty]

I can't imagine the therapist's reaction to Chara telling her/he/them EVERYTHING. Like. Just imagine being a therapist going from thinking "oh this kid just has a savior complex" to "oh this kid has a savior complex because of a PROPHECY and they DIED and got RESSURECTED and has TIME POWERS. ALSO THEIR SIBLING IS A FLOWER??" HFHHHF a wild day in office/clinic amiright?

// YEAH thats also a huge in-universe reason why some characters are avoidant to therapy because HOW DO YOU EVEN START EXPLAINING

// also. added problem to consider. i wish this was touched upon more in canon but like, monsterkind gets modern tech from the dump and by whatever resources they have. they obvs don't have human internet because otherwise they'd already establish first contact with humanity

// and while it's not IMPOSSIBLE they can't get books discussing health and science, it's far, far more likely they get their modern info from what they can reverse engineer and their own scientist can figure out

// this means they can have a fridge (or in undyne's case, a hot fridge) but not know the earth is round.

// do???? monsters??? know about modern understandings of mental health? we know they're not influenced by human bigotry so there's aspects of the underground that are very socially different already.

// AND THEN how does being monsters, beings made of magic, dust and love, have their mental health differ? because we ARE our brains. we are our hormones, blood, neurons. its a cause-effect loop of physical and social factors.

// monsters are (?) sentient magic that take the forms based on real world biological (and... sometimes not) creatures. this goes into where did monsters come from? we came from evolution. where... did say, tsundre plane come from. (i've seen speculation shes a ghost in a machine or was something Alphys made, since ya know, anime.)

// we're MISSING SO MUCH LORE and it kills me. ANYWAY BACK ON TOPIC LOL

// part of why chara's therapy doesn't fully help them is because they DO have to be secretive about shit. they actually DO like their therapist and want to talk about things but they don't want to be seen as delusional for believing themself to be A Literal Super Powered God who can control time. you can't even prove time travel without using it so up until the story kicks in, Chara didn't have that power for 5 years. without explaining that, there's huge chunks of their life they can't explain.

// that and chara is going thru the slow, deliberate process of trying what meds work better. in my verse, i have an explanation of how magic is cultivated and grown which then can be made into potions instead of food. (thanks to that one anon who came up with the potion = meds idea) so it depends on what herbs and emotional intent is used to create what potions. then those can act as mood regulators and fill in the "physical" make up portion that brain chemistry works with

// honestly. this would be frickin cool to cover. there's obvs not a LOT of room to put this into the story and how it'd be told organically, but like, it's possible!!! after the time skip, or maybe during the Christmas arc, we can see Chara take a potion and they can explain to the reader a bit of what that's like. (with a limited understanding of how it all works)

#ooc #tbd #not art

[adultswim2021]

The Venture Bros. #32: “The Invisible Hand Of Fate” | June 15, 2008 - 11:30PM | S03E03

This season is Venture Bros. leaning into itself. That’s a nicer way of saying that they’re going up their own ass, isn’t it? I usually point to this episode as an example of this self-indulgent shift in focus from mostly-episodic comedy-focused stories to a show that you should really pay attention to, and maybe take notes. This episode is like a litmus test. If you are a Venture Bros. fan, you tear up at the end. If this episode rubbed you the wrong way, you probably gave up on the series. The pacing IS a little weird, and it never stops feeling like a lore-dump. But, these are my guys, and I respect and feel for my guys.

In the previous season, there’s an episode where characters speculate how Billy Quizboy got his robotic arm and trade rumors about him having some kind of past relationship with Phantom Limb. At the end, somebody finally asks him about his arm. He replies saying “Excellent question, I have no idea”. Apparently Billy’s memory was wiped after receiving his metal arm, and after falling on his head he recovers what is essentially his entire origin story. Pete White conks Billy with their playstation 2 and brings him to the Venture compound so they can do appropriate damage control or rewipe his memories or whatever it is that is supposed to have happened after this episode ends. Most of the episode is dedicated to a flashback with very limited interruption from the present (including one scene that I didn’t realize wasn’t a flashback until I watched the DVD commentary). 

The plot, quickly I hope: Pete White was the host of Quiz Boys (hence Billy being called a Quiz Boy). He tried to help Billy cheat, but they get caught. Also I think Billy was lying about his age, being a little person and whatnot. Left with nothing but each other, they take to the road on a stolen game show prize moped and earn money on the underground quiz show circuit so they can travel cross country to try and work for Dr. Venture. He tells them to get lost. After an underground quiz show turns out to be a dogfight with Billy being entered to square off against one of those ITS THE BREEDER NOT THE BREED dogs. This is where Billy loses his arm and injures his eye. 

White and Billy have a falling out and as soon as they part ways, Brock and Hunter pick up Billy. They’re going to use him as an agent to gather intel on Professor Fantomas, who is Phantom Limb. They are linking him to a possible revival of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, then operating in secret after some lengthy hiatus. Billy winds up the future Phantom Limb’s lab assistant, where he assists in the very experiment that is responsible for his phantom limbs (in which we see Billy’s eyeball get sucked out of his skull). Sgt. Hatred, who is a high-ranking OSI officer at this time, punishes Brock for his shoddy fieldwork by assigning him to guard Dr. Venture. We see Hatred put on a Guild of Calamatous Intent ring and we see Brock drop Billy, memory now wiped, off at Pete White’s trailer by Brock. 

This episode has a lot going on for it, but the focus is definitely on information and not laughs. That’s fine! I’ll take it. I guess I just feel the same way about this as when MTV played Rocko’s Modern Life as a cross-promotion with Nick, and I got nervous thinking about teenager watching my then-favorite cartoon show and thinking it was "lame and gay". I picture people tuning into Cartoon Network and watching this and not knowing what to make of it. Not that anybody watches actual broadcast/cable television these days. I'm just saying that some of the humor seems like an afterthought. But that’s how it can be on this show. 

The episode’s pace is an issue; it’s so hefty with plot points that you don’t get any moments to breathe. The one* exception is the Nozzle scene, which is a really funny stand-alone scene in which Billy’s on-boarding process into the OSI involves him being scrutinized by “the nozzle”, which talks Billy through a procedure where he’s instructed to look into the nozzle, and not look away from the nozzle. I remember seeing this as a promo clip somewhere (the internet, probably), for some reason (to promote the show, probably).

*I guess there's two exceptions; the scene where Brock and Hunter play a road trip game involving spotting cows. I never played this game as a kid, but apparently it's real. Must be a regional thing.

According to the commentary, "the nozzle" originated as a real-life bit they wanted to do for when they had guests visiting their production facilities (AstroBase Go). Visitors would have to put on paper jumpsuits and sit in a booth and be subjected to a tape instructing them to stare up into a shower nozzle before they were allowed inside. 

We see a G.I. Joe-inspired OSI montage where they are seen fighting against an ancient Egyptian style terrorist army called S.P.H.I.N.X. S.P.H.I.N.X. figures into the show later on down the road. We also meet the flaming hot gay guy Shore Leave, who is snippy to Brock and the toast of the town. He becomes one of the bigger guys on here. There’s also cameos from Race Bannon (who appeared in season one), and Steve Summers, the Bionic Man (also from season one). The battle scene depicted here is from the Pyramid Wars. S.P.H.I.N.X. was credited for killing Dr. Jonas Venture Sr., among others, during the movie night massacre on Gargantua-1, the Venture's proprietary space station. This is expanded on in season seven, and not in this episode. 

I’ll note this here: the blu-rays kinda sharply edit the edges of the commercial breaks so they don’t necessarily read as ad breaks. You know what I mean, how you’ll watch a show on DVD or streaming and the fade-out is prolonged enough and the music is cliff-hangery enough that you can easily register where the commercials originally played during an episode? They don’t put single frame of black.

There’s a scene in the middle of the episode, which is meant to be the start of the second act/coming out of a commercial break. Pete White brings an unconscious Billy Quizboy to the Venture compound; a continuation of the pre-flashback scene where White knocks Billy out with their PS2. The scene was supposed to begin with a shot of Billy, still tangled up in the PS2 cords and unconscious from White’s walloping. Since we can’t see Billy in the sidecar and since the parallel flashback story has the pair separated at this point, it doesn’t read at all like a scene that’s meant to take place in the present. Whoopsie Daisy. But, writing-wise, showing him tangled up in the PS2 cords was a really smart way to communicate that it’s the present by having a somewhat modern device be the thing that caused Billy’s state, lying next to him. It’s truly regrettable that they cut this. I'm not pissed off or anything about, but it still a terrible shame.

Brock is seen in his football uniform from his first season flashback. In that season one flashback, Brock is seen in college, having killed his deaf teammate in a football-related accident. This is also mildly confusing; I had to remind myself that this episode is, in fact, a different time in which Brock was attending that college and wearing that football uniform, and not meant to be set during his actual college years. The explosion caused by Phantom Limb’s experiment is different from the time The Monarch blew up the science lab in an attempt to kill Dr. Venture at college. Dr. Venture is a new father and a young professional scientist at this time. Okay? It’s IMPORTANT. This is all the most important stuff in the whole world. 

Okay, let’s wrap this shit up. This aired third, but appears fourth on the DVD/blu-ray release. I don’t know how HBOMax has it, I forget. Okay! Probably broadcast order. I prefer the blu-ray order; before this one we get Sgt. Hatred showing up to arch Venture for the first time. We needed a reminder for who he was, since he was just a one-joke/minor character in season two. 

The end of the episode uses a piece of stock music from the Turner library. Apparently they wanted to try and clear “Not the First Time” by Neil Innes, or “These are the Ghosts” by the Bees. Ken Plume edited them back into the scene and posted them in a thread on twitter. It doesn’t fit perfectly, but I’m guessing the animation was retimed to the song they actually wound up using. They sound really heartbroken in the commentary for the fact that they couldn’t afford the songs they wanted, but I ultimately really like the ending just how it is.

Finally, Delete scenes are somewhat plentiful for this one. Professor Impossible was meant to be shown getting fired from the university for dating a student (Sally, whom he marries). Oh, Dr. Girlfriend is a college student in this one. I forgot to say that earlier. Okay, back to this paragraph. Another deleted scene had a joke that made me laugh out loud, where Hunter ominously references the Burger King Kid’s Club, which doesn’t exist “yet”, implying that the creation of the Burger King Kids’ Club was some sort of psyop.

This one has baggage, but I really do like it. For better (mostly better) or worse, this is essential Venture Bros. The lore. You know. You just gotta have that lore.

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #the venture bros.

[ratbubos]

🌹 note: this ~may not~ be very at all fun to read

*Lore Dump* I love being a lil story teller. Idk if you could tell, but aging is off right now. I am in the depths with Lucie. And so, I’m gonna drag you in.

When first meeting Ben, I mentioned how he’s a pretty prominent political figure in San Myshuno. In my mind, I’ve always had it that when Ben and Lucie started dating, the media had a bit of a field day with it. An upcoming mayoral candidate is dating someone who just so happens to be in charity work.. that’s kinda good for his image. And per speculation via the press, it is the only reason they are dating.

Lucie and Ben are both in the kitchen when the person on the tv makes a brief mention of Lucie. Lucie: I get the value of watching coverage of yourself, but I really don’t like it when I’m involved :/ Ben: Yeah... you can change it if you want. Lucie switches the channel. Ben: After a while you learn to brush off small things like that. Though, they do actually make a good point with you. Lucie: Huh? Ben: Do you get how advantageous it is for me to date you? Lucie: Ben, what the fuck did you just say to me? Ben: I mean, from an objective viewpoint, there’s a lot of extrinsic motivation for me to date you. Lucie: Don’t fucking talk about me like I’m a career move. Ben: Sorry, I didn’t know that would upset you so much. Lucie: Are you fucking dumb? You just insinuated that you’re not in this relationship because you care about me, but because you’re using me. Ben: Goddamn Lucie, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant and you know it. Lucie: No, Ben, I don’t, because you don’t say that shit. Ben: I said I’m sorry, what else do you want? Lucie: Do you seriously not see the issue with you saying that? Ben: No, there’s not an issue with me saying it, the issue is that you’re not listening to what I’m actually saying. I didn’t mean anything by it but you’re drawing stuff out of it. Lucie: No I-- Ben you literally admitted that me being an aid to you career is a reason why you’re in this relationship. Ben: I did not say that. I said from an objective viewpoint--from someone who isn’t me--there’s external benefits to our relationship. I never fucking said those benefits were even a part of why I’m with you--because they’re not! Lucie: ...I’m just gonna leave. Lucie turns to head toward the bedroom. Ben: Lucie, just stay, it’s fine. Ben takes hold of her arm and Lucie swiftly turns back to him before pulling it away. Lucie: Don’t fucking touch me! Ben: Goddamnit, Lucie. Stop acting like I’m the only one who ever does anything wrong! If you would just take a second to not fucking scream at me and run away, we could talk about shit. Lucie: Don’t act like you’re above screaming at each other, you’re literally yelling at me right now. I’m just so tired of all our fighting. Ben: God, cause I’m frustrated, Lucie, that you’re acting so immature you can’t just talk to me like a normal goddamn person. Lucie: Maybe I’d wanna talk if you didn’t yell at me every time we have a minor disagreement! You’re so fucking impossible to be with, I don’t even know why I’m here! Ben: Lucie, stop fucking screaming at me for a second. Lucie: ... Lucie: I’m gonna go. She mumbles the words before turning and walking towards the front door. Ben: Where the fuck are you going? Lucie: Anywhere that’s not here :,\ With that, Lucie slams Ben’s front door and walks towards the apartment across the hall.

:[] Can we ignore how the screenshots *do not* occur in the kitchen. Like with all their other fights, I did not know the details until afterwards okay tnx

#not so berry #s4 not so berry #sims 4 #sims 4 gameplay #s4 legacy #simblr #nsb gen 2 #nsb rose #nsb2 #nsb storie

[thevikingwoman]

Wayfarer Episode 2 launches tomorrow! (July 1st)

alright friends, as you may have noticed, I’ve been absolutely feral about Wayfarer the last month or so (I’ve been playing the patreon pre-release), so I’d thought I make a small post especially for all my Dragon Age friends about why you should play this game. 

Wayfarer is developed and written by @idrellegames, which is a one person team of Idrelle / Anna. Idrelle used to be very active in the Dragon Age community, and was one of the first persons I connected with when I poked my head into the fandom - she’s a great friend and this is both a disclaimer and selling point. She’s great people. 

Wayfarer is not a fanwork, but is inspired by Dragon Age (among other things). It’s a piece of interactive fiction, a text based role playing game of action and consequences, where you choose your own adventure. 

I’m new to IF, in fact I only play a few (as I’m quite picky), and maybe you’re new to IFs too. But I will promise you, if you’re a Dragon Age fan, there’s a high likelyhood you will like Wayfarer. 

Wayfarer is a plot focused game. I really want to emphasize this. Many IF/Choice games are romance centered, and of course that can be super fun, but what I really love about Wayfarer is the broad scope of the game. It’s a lot more like Dragon Age game. The Main Character is part of a story, and the story is at the center. You have companions, some of which you can romance, but it’s not the end goal to end up in a romantic relationship - you can develop deep friendships too and skip romance entirely. 

Because of the text based medium, however, the game’s branching and consequences of your actions are much wider than in a video game. There is so much possibilities, it’s incredible. 

This is getting super long, so let me list some of the things I love about Wayfarer

the writing is amazing. Idrelle is an amazing writer, that’s just a fact

the lore and worldbuilding is staggering. There are so many fun details to discover and discuss. This includes unique fantasy races along with elf-human-dwarf stable. (yes you can play as a pink half-mer person).

the story itself and the plot you’re dumped into is intriguing. In the first two episodes, we’re barely scratching the surface, and yet my brain can’t stop thinking of all the plot points and speculation. 

the emotional impact of the writing is just very good, and there is so much more to come. Prepare to be devastated, I am. 

the characters, both major and minor, are just so wonderful. Unique, interesting and I want to keep them all. 

the game is inherently queer, not just the Main Character (you can choose your gender identity and pronouns), but the whole gallery of characters. Gender identity and a wide spectrum of sexualities are all present in the characters you meet, seamlessly fitting into the world and the worldbuilding. This includes an ace romance option, and for the MC to make their own romantic and sexual choices as the story unfolds. 

lastly, the discord community for the game is really fun, and everyone loves talking about their choices (of which there are many and it’s always surprising to see how many variations there are!), their MCs, the wild theories and speculations about the plot. 

I’m going to tag @noire-pandora, because you say you were intrigued, and @galadrieljones, because my friend I think you’d enjoy it and also I’d love to scream to you about this 🤣 

#please do yourself a favor and play wayfarer #wayfarer #listen prepare for me to talk about this a lot #join me #I'm not going to be normal about this

[sindysugar]

Yume No Machi / City of Dreams Scanlation Chapter 4

Loads of lore to drop off starting with this chapter, be warned! And something else... !Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Aki, Oi and Maya discussing dogs:

Translation Credit to: @vocaotome​​ , who is doing translation commissions to JPN>ENG for anyone interested!

Read Online: Here

Download Chapter: Here

To keep track of posted chapters and updates, check my tag: Here  

Please tell me if you are having any issues viewing these!   (=^･ｪ･^=)

#City of Dreams #Yume no Machi #The Cat Returns #neko no ongaeshi #Whisper of the Heart #mimi wo sumaseba #baron humbert von gikkingen #aoi hiiragi #Studio Ghibli #fan translation #sorry for the shorter chapter #this part of the story dumps a lot of lore and speculation #that it can be a bit overwhelming #so figured i kept this part shorter than usual to let yall take everything in #before the storm comes

[saby-chan]

Why the ATLA comics fail when it comes to Zuko and his family

To whom ever took their time to actually stop and read this post, thank you in advance for not skipping my post and willing to stay and read my humble opinion! I hope I won’t disappoint you!

As a relatively newcomer to the ATLA fanbase since 2020, I’ve come across a lot of interesting debates, comments and rants about the show, characters and fandom in general, but nothing has captivated me as much as the dumpster-on-fire that are the ATLA comics, more specifically: The Promise and The Search. 

On one hand we have the hardcore fans who want them to be animated or serialized into the Netflix live action, praising the comics for the new views and subject matters they’ve brought into the show’s lore, while on the other hand we have the furious Azula fandom who is really angry for the fact that best girl didn’t get the redemption arc she rightfully deserved so much after the painful event that was the Last Agni Kai and the even more angry fans of the Urzai ship (yeah, the people who actually ship Zuko’s parents unironically) who hated the retconning of the show’s cannon since the comics basically took a huge fat dump on what was previously established as official cannon, when the Search entered the scene, but between these two sides, who has the more valid point? In the end, are the comics good cannon or bad written fanfiction?

Well... Here are my two cents on this matter since I myself happen to be an Azula and Zuko fan and had huge expectations from these comics (since I wanted more from my fave hot-headed fiery siblings duo) but ended up disappointed: the comics are indeed a huge mess and actually bad written fanfiction when it comes to Zuko and his family! Don’t click off yet, because I actually documented the reasons why exactly the comics fail in this area:

1. The author of these comics is not part of the BryKe duo

Yes, I would like to start with the fact that if you actually take a second to look up who in the heck took the time to write these two books, you won’t find Bryan, nor Mike, but a fellow man named Gene Yang. This is important because while the wiki of both The Promise and The Search state BryKe as the creators, that doesn’t mean that they were the actual minds behind these comics, but rather because ATLA is their “baby” and these comics involve their characters, over which they have copyright. Mr. Yang here is the actual brain behind the plot, as the main writer, which explains why we find huuuuge inconsistencies between the show lore and the comics, especially Zuko wise.

My main issue with Mr. Yang isn’t that he isn’t BryKe specifically, but because he did an unforgivable mistake in his writing process: He projected himself into Zuko’s character, based on the relationship Zuko had with his father. This is a documented fact from an interview in which he explains that he sees himself and his dad’s relationship into Zuko and Ozai and used that when writing their interactions and built Zuko’s character in the comics. And this is wrong because when you have an already very developed and complex character such as Zuko, you can’t just come in and be like “Oh, I was an angsty teen just like him in my teenage years, fighting with my dad and whatnot, so he must have the same thought process as me!”. NO! This is bad fanfiction writer behavior! Zuko has his own personality and philosophy, which he developed over the course of 3 seasons and is not defined by only 1 unfortunate aspect of his past, so you can’t just base his whole mindset and actions off of your own personal experience just because you had the same daddy issues he had!

2. The whole “Promise that you will kill me if I turn out like my dad!” nonsense in The Promise

Reason number 2 why these comics fail and go under the category of “bad fanfiction” is because they fail to convey the core essence of the source material. The whole point of Zuko’s redemption was that he realized the wrongdoings of his ancestors and his own mistakes. He outgrew his desire of gaining his father’s acknowledgement in favor of choosing his own destiny. Having him worry that he’ll turn into his father is utter nonsense and feels like poor angsty drama material for the sake of angst. At this point in time, Zuko has overcame that obstacle in his life a long time ago and should be at the level where he himself is the “Uncle Iroh” for other people and in no way someone concerned of becoming their own worst enemy!

Not only that, but the whole point of Aang’s journey and the story of the show as a whole was to teach us, the viewers, the importance of forgiveness, empathy and love in life. Aang didn’t spare Ozai, aka “the ultimate evil” just to flex in front of his pals or because he is a “ 12 y/o vegan pacifist monk kid”, but because he knew that killing someone, no matter of what they did or wanted to do, wouldn’t restore balance into the Universe, on the contrary, him killing the villain would have meant perpetuating the “endless cycle of hate” that plagued the world. So having Aang promise to kill his best friend in case “they turned into an evil maniac like their dad” contradicts Aang’s whole character and it’s a nonsense that throws into the trash what we’ve learnt throughout the entire TV series.

3. Azula deserved (and was supposed) to have a redemption ark

This might still be pure speculation, but I count it as a documented reason because I’ve heard quite a few people saying that there should’ve been a book 4 in the show, aka “Book 4: Air”, and no, it wasn’t The Search, but actually Zuko and Azula’s journey as Zuko helps his younger sister heal her broken mind by being her very own “Uncle Iroh”. Sure, they prolly were going to end up looking for Ursa, but the journey should’ve ended with them actually being happy and a family again and not the bs we got in The Search where a still very unstable Azula runs away and becomes the “Next Joker”! The only problem is that M. Night had to pop up and curse the world with his movie, which forced BryKe to delay the project (and eventually abandoned it in favor of Korra).

All in all, either if BryKe had this preplanned or not, it made sense for Azula to get a redemption ark, she deserved it because she was just a broken 14 y/o child! If Katara’s mom’s murderer deserved to be forgiven, so did this poor child who had no fault for what happened to her since she had a dysfunctional family! What Gene Yang did in his poorly written fanfiction was to just antagonize a broken child, turning her into a monster for the sake of friggin angst!

4. The Search is the worst of the two, being flat af character wise

And finally, getting to the point that I personally find the most annoying about these comics: The Search. This one... This one is a mess on a hella lot many levels, and just to list a few: characters are flat as fudge, being either black as vanta black (like Ozai and Azula) or pure white like Gene’s Gary Stue OC, Mr Ikem (or how I like to call him, IKEA man) and his ‘victim’ rendition of Ursa, Azula gets to suffer more for no reason (see reason number 3 to why I find this as a no no), Ursa’s whole character sucks ass (man, I could write a whole thesis on why Yang’s version of her is terrible and doesn’t match the strong woman we got in the show) and Zuko does morally wrong stuff (my man literally used his unstable sister to bribe their dad into spitting info about Ursa... Show Zuko would never do that!;-;)

Oh boy, as a person who’s seen a ton of anime and other media and read many books, I can’t begin on how much I despise this type of writing: flat characters are the worst!

 ATLA characters in the show are nothing close to being flat! What I mean by that is that none of them fall perfectly into pure white (aka goodest of good characters with no imperfections) or vanta black (aka lowest and darkest twisted monsters out there), each of them are various shades of grey (like Aang who is a very light grey because despite being a very kind and nice character, he still isn’t a “perfect hero” since he ran away from his duties, practiced tax fraud with Toph, had insecurities and even threatened to kill people on ocassions like with the sand benders who took Appa) and this is a good choice because that prevents them from becoming what’s globally known as Mary Sues and Gary Stues (aka those either “perfect” characters with no flaws and/or unlimited power, or the twisted monsters full of flaws).

And the other reason why many other people hate The Search: it literally negates previously established cannon. And here comes my short essay on why this comic fails Zuko’s family (since we’ve already talked enough about Zuko himself).

In cannon and even interviews with BryKe, it was clearly stated that Zuko’s family was “once happy”. Where is this “once happy” family in The Search? All I see is pain, deception, lies and betrayal, nothing close to anything that resembles happiness. Okay, some of you might come in and say that “It’s because it was never the case! It was only lies and Zuko trying to convince himself that he didn’t live in hell forever!” and here is WHERE YOU WERE ALL WRONG! And why? Because, my dear fella, where were depicted the flashbacks of Zuko’s “happy family” in The Beach? Ember Island. And what do we know and had been even quoted in the show?  "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." (direct quote from the show). Exactly, no matter who you are or how hard you try, you can’t hide your true self when you are on the Ember Island, best example being Azula, who’s impenetrable though shell cracked and revealed the true vulnerable child that was underneath. If Azula couldn’t resist the “spell of the island”, no one can. So this means that Zuko’s family was indeed happy once and yes, Ozai wasn’t always the douchebag we got to know in Season 3 (I have a whole nother essay on my theories regarding what could be his real past story and why he’s actually the “Zuko” of his generation, based on stuff I gathered from old wiki entries and character analyses I made, but that’s for another time, lemme know if ya’ll are interested).

And what I guess is the biggest proof why The Search did this family’s past trash is comics Ursa herself. My dude, if this woman were indeed the victim of years of endless abuse and never loved her husband, I guarantee you that she would’ve been closer to what we saw in Todoroki’s mom from BNHA and Zuko would’ve gotten that scar or even worse long before the Agni Kai, not from his “daddy dearest”, but from “mommy dearest” herself, because no sane woman would be soo affectionate and attached to a child that’s the perfect copy of their abuser, sepecially appearance wise (again see Todoroki’s mom’s case from BNHA because the stories are really similar) and in no way would’ve she been willing to sacrifice her life for said child’s sake. With this ocassion, I remind ya’ll folks that according to the ancient ATLA cannon wikis on Nick’s site, Ozai was designed with Zuko’s appearance in mind, being meant to be like a “grown up scarless version” of Zuko. So yeah, remember this with a grain of salt that whenever you simp over grown up Zuko, you involuntary simp for Ozai too.

So yeah, I guess this kinda concludes my “not so short” rant about why the comics fail and are bad fanfiction. Lemme hear your thoughts in the comments and if you agree, feel free to leave a like and even reblog.

Bye bye and remember that Momo is the true strongest character of the show!

 Saby out.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla comics #zuko #azula #ozai #ursa #fire siblings #the promise #the search #atla rant

[heavensenthale]

Also, in terms of Arcane - I would like to be spoiled and I'd rather have things spoiled for me by someone who is passionate about the game and story. It's much more interesting hearing/reading someone talk about what they love... than me going to Wikipedia and "researching." Do you relate to that at all? I mean, I could literally sit and listen to people talk about their passions (for the most part, unless it's a passion I have no interest in whatsoever... like a friend of mine who wouldn't stop talking about Rick & Morty... I appreciate the show but I couldn't watch it and didn't like hearing about it) for hours. I do that with mates all the time. People've listened to me, too. Haha

ok so I'm going to make this my Non-Official Guide to League of Legends Arcane-related Lore

@my dear mutuals who are interested in the show but don't want to be spoiled. Please be advised that this post will contain SPOILERS.

Seriously.

BIG ASS SPOILER ALERT.

k. bases covered. Let's do this.

Disclaimer: this post was written on December 9th and doesn't account for any retcons that might happen after that date.

So, first thing to be established here is that Arcane is happening slightly before the LoL canon, meaning there are a lot of things that are Known in the LoL extended universe but not in Arcane (either because they haven't happened or because the characters that Arcane follows don't know about it).

Runeterra Regions

So Runeterra is the plane of existence where most of the lore takes place. There's a lot going on but basically it is magic-made and it exists in the Physical Realm and the Spirit Realm. This may or may not be important in upcoming episodes so I think it is relevant to include for speculation purposes.

The ones marked with * are explicitly mentioned in Arcane. Places with ** are not mentioned yet but are important to the story indirectly.

These are the nations in Runeterra:

Bilgewater (Gang Syndicates)

Demacia (Feudal Monarchy)**

Freljord (Tribal Matriarchy)

Ionia (Regional Provinces)

Ixtal (Mage Autocracy)

Noxus (Expansionist Empire)*

Shurima (Divine Empire)

Targon (Tribal Theocracy)

These are some city-states in Runeterra:

Piltover*

Zaun*

These are places that do not have a government or that no longer exist as a unified nation

Bandle City**

Icathia

Shadow Isles

I'm not going to bore you with details on all the nations but here's a two-line explanation of those related to Arcane.

Piltover: here is where a big part of the story takes place. Piltover has always been characterized as the city of progress, as its growth and fame do not come from military prowess but science and invention.

Zaun: the undercity used to be part of Piltover (they were known as sister cities as well) and it grew as Piltover developed, however the expansion of Piltover saw Zaun develop into a dumping ground of unethical tech and pollution that has significantly worsened the lives of Zaun residents

Noxus: as I told my friend Mattie once: Noxus is like Bloodthirsty Nation. They're regarded by everyone in Runeterra as a War Empire BUT Noxus is surprisingly egalitarian and meritocratic. You're supposed to sympathize with the ppl who hate them but they're one of the few countries who don't despise magic or outlaw it in any way (and believe me, prohibition of magic is a Big Deal)

Bandle City: this is where the yordles come from. The Yordles? Yeah, Heimerdinger and that Lady that helped Vi in the Pleasure House, those are the yordles. I'm gonna be honest, I don't understand a big deal about them but they're pretty much Magic itself and also somewhat immortal.

Demacia: now, Demacia hasn't been explicitly mentioned but they're Noxus Enemy Number #1 and it's very likely that Mel's brother was killed by a demacian. This is pure speculation, but I think they're going to introduce them considering the Arcane finale and how Piltover's government will be essentially destroyed, etc.

But Mili, you may be thinking, there is so much going on here I don't want to know all these details.

Yeah, me neither but I was cursed with useless info and I will make it everyone else's problem.

So here are a bunch of wild speculations about the series that may or may not be important. I'm almost leaving out individual characters of this one and focusing in the power relationships between the countries because my Pol-Sci background tells me that's a nice approach to take sometimes and also because if we're going to speculate about Vander being Warwick, then I need an entire post devoted to that.

I'll keep this part under the cut because this is already long enough.

So, Piltover and Zaun.

Historically, when a nation is looking for independance and/or equal representation in the government, some people are not going to like it. In the show this is briefly addressed when characters say things like "the undercity is out of control, we need to enforce X, Y and Z" and even refuse to recognize the worth of the undercity citizens altogether (Jayce being praised by his inventions and discoveries while Viktor is left in the shadows and his Zaunite heritage is constantly undermined even by Jayce himself).

Something very interesting about how the series decided to approach the class conflict between Piltover and Zaun is that they didn't shy away from showing people who are completely unaware of it (Caitlyn) and people who actively take advantage of it (the nobles Jayce speaks to in the theater scene). They showed us class struggle and the dehumanization of those considered to be inferior (it even happens between Zaunites with the crime lords that control the undercity economy giving zero fucks about the undercity being poisoned as long as they could breath their fresh air).

So this sets up an interesting landscape of political unrest that will come back to bite Piltover in the ass when they inevitably take actions against the undercity after Jinx's final attack in season 1.

The introduction of Noxus, an expasionist empire that keeps looking to grow at the moment of the series, via Ambessa Medarda could hint at a possible Noxus invasion in season 2 (specially if Ambessa dies in the final attack, which we don't know yet so). As I said before, Demacia is Noxus Enemy #1 and they might get involved out of sheer desire to fight Noxus (a very USA move if you ask me) or if Piltover goes to them for help (which may or may not happen because Piltover believes itself to be independent and might see it as a weakness).

Now here's where I should say that Piltover is not above creating instruments of war. In the series we see Mel push Jayce to develop weapons (something that pre-Jinx attack might've been considered extreme and that post-Jinx attack will probably be encouraged), and that takes me to Camille, a champ that has not yet been introduced but that might already exist within the universe.

According to the LoL lore, Camille is the Principal Intelligencer of Clan Ferros—an elite agent who ensures the Piltover machine and its Zaunite counterpart runs smoothly. Camille has been weaponized with Hextech body augmentation, something that we see Viktor trying to develop during the series but at the moment is having mixed results.

I say Camille might already exist in the universe because the Lore tells us she was born in 916 AN and Mel was born between 963 AN - 966 AN (she is said to be 31-34 years old meaning the "present" in Arcane is the year 997 AN). So it is possible that while Viktor is working on incorporating Hextech to his own body, there is someone, somewhere in Piltover also working in it. Or Riot could decide to retcon this tiny detail and make me sound crazy.

This also means that Orianna (a Piltover girl whose body had to be replaced with clockwork piece by piece after an accident in Zaun) might be shown as well. Orianna is also considered a Piltover weapon.

Here I'd like to come back to the political landscape that will probably facilitate the rapid development of Hextech post-Jinx attack.

In the parley scene between Silco and Jayce, Jayce asks Silco to halt Shimmer production. Yes, Shimmer is a drug and it's used for unethical human experiments, but Shimmer is also the main source of weaponry for Zaun, which means that Jayce wanted Zaun under Piltover's control anyway (sure, he agrees to sovereignty for Zaun but what's the point of sovereignty here if Zaun will depend on Piltover's Hextech technology for further development? Something, something, paralells to the decolonization of Africa, etc)

Jayce acknowledges that Silco is needed to keep Zaun under control because the rest of the crimelords will not listen to anyone else. Jinx killed Silco. At the moment, there is absolutely no one ruling over Zaun and all the shit that went unchecked because it benefitted Silco is now going to try to secure an important position in Zaun's political landscape.

Considering the Jinx attack, it is unlikely that Piltover will be quick to fight alongside Zaun over their shared history and desire to see Jinx behind bars or dead, so a civil war WILL break out between Piltover and Zaun (you could draw similarities between this and the Syrian civil war where there are multiple fronts with different goals against a govenment. Or in this case, the different crimelords of Zaun and Piltover).

Now you can see how Noxus and Demacia could become major plot points in season 2.

Was I going anywhere with this? I don't know, I just know that the history between the different regions is incredibly interesting and the more you investigate about the relationships between the characters and their place in the nations of this world, the more interesting it gets.

I could go on the Noxus attack of Ionia, its consequences and how this could be happening parallel to the Zaun and Piltover story (Akali, for example, is said to be born in 977 AN and at the Arcane "present" she should be 20 years old. In her lore, the Order of Shadow is already active and important, meaning that the big Noxus Attack on Ionia already happened. The Kinkou, the Navori Brotherhood and the aforementioned Order of Shadow have all developed to the point of rising tension in the islands. The idea of revenge against Noxus is taking shape etc etc), but I am tired and I should be writing a malec fic, not overanalyzing the politics of ficitonal lands.

#damn this is LONG #arcane #arcane spoilers #league of legends #SOMEONE PLS ASK ME ABOUT VIKTOR I CAN TALK ABOUT VIKTOR FOR 26 HOURS STRAIGHT #yes mom obviously my years in uni were not wasted i am using my pol-sci and literature knowlegde for important things #if you know how i get why do you invite me to the party etc #lore #replies #the-prince-of-tides

[fanfic-cave]

Jedi Q&A

Rating: SFW/PG-13

Word Count: 2.3k

Pairing: Hunter x Fem Jedi!OC

Warnings: Kinda a lore dump/backstory on my OC. Mentions of death and war flashbacks. Fluff at the end though you know I cant resist ;)

Summary: Sera answers the bad batches questions about her Jedi past. How did she survive Order 66?

Authors note: Again, just more story coming to my head that I had to type out. Hope you guys like it! (and I have a lot of the backstory mapped out, so this is just like tip of the iceberg)

Tags: @mangoberry99

Sera sat down in her chair, at the far end of the room. She saw six expectant clones watch her, anxiously ready to ask her questions.

The deviant clones now knew Sera was a Jedi. Eventually they started to ask her questions, and it was time Sera answered them once and for all.

How am I going to do this? Sera contemplated internally. Just like, ‘Time for a Jedi Q&A! Only 20 questions though, so make them count!’

She shook her head at the thought. Someone’s coughing brought her attention back to the present. She jerked her head up and saw Hunter look at her expectantly, then gesture his head back to the rest of the group, who all sat behind him, at different chairs in Sera’s relatively small home.

“Alright, you know why you’re here. I want to answer all your questions here and now, so,” Sera lengthened the so, and looked at everyone’s faces. “Ask away.” She raised her hands up, palms facing the ceiling, almost in a shrug.

“What are Jedi?” Omega asked.

“Seriously?” Sera countered in deadpan. Her eyes shot to Echo, who averted from her gaze. Next she looked at Hunter, making a face. Why doesn’t she know what Jedi are?? She thought as she stared him down.

“We thought it would be best coming from you.” Hunter offered an answer, not meeting her gaze similarly to Echo.

She sighed, then straightened up and looked Omega in the eye. “Well, the Jedi fought in the clone wars along with the Republic. Jedi are peacekeepers-“ she frowned at that. “Or they’re supposed to be. They’re a part of the ancient Jedi order. They use lightsabers, which you saw, have the ability to sense and use the force-”

“The force?” Omega cut in. She looked confused.

“That’s kinda a long story, but it allows them to do, well, unique things.” Sera tilted her head as she spoke, deciding now to avoid going into a whole lecture on what the force is and who the Jedi were.

“And as I’m sure you know, the Jedi, they all… died.” Sera paused before saying that word. Omega nodded understandingly. Sera felt cold remembering the death of the Jedi, along with the order. She tried to remain devoid of emotion as she spoke.

There is no emotion.

She hadn’t expected to think about the code again. The cold feeling spread up her arms from her hands.

She shivered. “Alright, next question?” She looked around to the rest of the boys.

“You don’t have your lightsaber right now, do you?” Crosshair asked suspiciously. He stood in the corner, leaning on the wall. He was the only one in the group who was standing, like he wasn't quite comfortable. Sera had seen he had brought his rifle.

“No, of course not.” She said it forcefully, and shot daggers at him. Who did he take her for?

He returned her gaze unflinchingly.

A liar, maybe.

“You were a General, right?” This time Wrecker spoke.

Sera turned away from Crosshair, and nodded at Wrecker. “Was. I’m not a General, or a Jedi anymore. There is no Grand Army of the Republic.” Sera took a deep breath. “Or Jedi.” She exhaled that last part. Wrecker almost seemed disappointed at her refusal to be called General.

“I assume you had a command?” Tech asked. He held a data pad in his hand. It looked like he was taking notes with dedication, which made Sera a bit nervous. It’s Tech. What else did you expect?

“Yes, the 411th.” Sera answered carefully. She hoped to avoid the topic of her battalion.

“I know that battalion,” Echo spoke up, recognition crossing his face. “They were, Shadow Troopers?” Echo finished, trying to pull from his memory. He looked up trying to recall, then glanced around to his brothers for confirmation.

“Yes. The troopers earned the name from their highly successful stealth operations.” Tech already had the information pulled up on his data pad about the battalion. Oh boy. Sera felt anxiety squeeze in her chest tight.

“Although I do not see Sera’s name here listed as general-”

“Bril.” Sera cut in. Tech looked up to her. “Bril Halcyon was my name. I couldn’t exactly keep using it.” She shrugged, trying to seem casual. She caught out of the corner of her eye that Hunter was watching her closely, his brooding expression set onto his face.

“How come you’re not, you know,” Echo spoke, trying to find the right words.

“Dead. Like the rest of them.” Crosshair spoke bluntly, and watched Sera closely, similarly to Hunter. He seemed a bit more malicious, or maybe guarded was the better word. He must’ve had a bad experience with Jedi, Sera speculated.

Sera didn’t answer and drew a sharp breath in. Tech was scrolling on the data pad. “Reports indicate the entire battalion was wiped out while landing on Umbara, along with-“ Tech stopped, and looked closer at the datapad, rereading what he saw.

“What?” Hunter asked, not looking away from Sera.

“They died, along with Jedi General Bril Halcyon.” Tech read aloud. Everyone looked at her, shocked and confused. Hunter’s eyes left Sera’s for a moment, and then he looked back at her questioningly.

“But, you’re not dead?” Wrecker asked, seemingly confused. He scratched his head as he thought.

Sera felt the anxiety squeezing tighter inside her chest. She took a deep breath. “No, I'm not dead.” She said in agreement, not offering more of an answer than that.

“What happened on Umbara?” Hunter's voice spoke. Sera looked over to him, hesitation written all over her face. Hunter's eyes met her, but his expression was a mix of gentle and firm. Sera could tell he wanted a straight answer, but he seemed to recognize that she was uneasy with this topic.

She glanced at everyone else, and could see they were all waiting for her answer. She took a shaky breath in, preparing herself to recount the story.

“My men and I were sent to reinforce the effort in Umbara to retake it.” She began. Sera was looking down towards the ground, not wanting to look anybody in the eye. She pushed away the images that came through her mind of the slaughter on Umbara. “While the ships were coming to the surface, we were shot down. I thought our position was safe, but I was wrong. We were picked off.” Her face darkened. “The Umbarans were ruthless, none of my men made it long.” The unwelcomed images flashed through her head. Feeling the ship plummet out of the sky, her captain's lifeless hand in hers, her own shaking hands trying to patch up her wounds whilst grinding her teeth through the pain and tears.

“How did you survive?” A voice asked. She thought it might be Techs. She shook her head, and sniffled a bit, rubbing her nose. “I was just lucky. Kept myself alive long enough to leave.” She didn't realize it, but while she had been speaking she had reflexively stuck her hand inside her pack and was now holding onto her mask.

“So you deserted?” Crosshair answered. He never would let up on her, would he?

“Yes, I did.” She felt anger bubble up as she answered him. She looked at him and stood up, taking a few steps forward. Her hands balled up into fists, and they shook as she spoke. “The clones I served with were my friends. When they died-” her voice faltered a bit, but she only paused briefly to recollect herself. “They didn’t have burials. Nobody would know their names, or even remember them.” Crosshair had averted from her gaze now, seemingly caught off guard by her confrontational response. She looked around to everyone else and saw the boys shared a somber expression on their faces. They must have understood what she said. They were clones too, after all. Sera tried to calm herself down, and released the fists her hands made.

“I was just a padawan when it all started, the war, and I thought what the Jedi were doing was right. But the more I fought, the more I became a soldier, it didn’t feel right.” Her tone of voice wasn’t as aggressive anymore, and it was quieter. She began to sit back down, bringing her chair up to where she was standing. “Seeing what I saw on Umbara made me feel like we made a mistake. I couldn’t commit myself to fight for a cause I didn’t believe in anymore.” She looked at everyone's face now, speaking calmly and confidently. Letting it all out was actually relieving, not at all what she imagined. She breathed evenly as she stared at them.

She looked down and realized her mask was still in her hand, now out of her pack. She sat it on her lap, being very gentle with it now. “The mask. Do any of you recognize it?” She looked up when she finished. Everyone looked down to the mask.

“It appears to contain pieces of a clone troopers helmet.” Tech answered her after a brief look. She suspected he had already known. Sera nodded. “It was my captains.” She looked back down to it, a scowl forming on her face. She began thinking of when she took it from her captain, and had fashioned it into the mask that now laid in front of her. “I wanted to remember them, even if I had failed them.” She closed her eyes and sighed. She felt a hand touch her shoulder.

“You were trying to honor them.” She opened her eyes and saw Hunter had reached out and patted her shoulder, addressing her now. She moved away from his touch and looked around to everyone else, still scowling.

“None of you are upset that I deserted a war you fought so hard for?” Sera asked questioningly. She had expected them to be angry with her, disgusted even. Everyone seemed calm, and she felt no anger from them. She was confused.

Crosshair shrugged. “We all left the army too.” Wrecker replied this time, smiling confidently at Sera. His answer made Sera stop and think. That was true, and she hadn’t thought of it.

“Well, look where our fight got us.” Hunter gestured around him. The other clones were silent in agreement. “From what it looks like, you figured it out sooner than the rest of us.”

“Figured out what?” Sera asked, leaning in closer. Hunter was just to her left, and she was about a foot away. Their knees started to bump into each other.

“Well, we all thought we would win the war for the Republic.” Hunter answered.

“The Republic certainly did not win, despite what everyone else believes,” Tech jumped in “The Separatists did not win either-“

“Just the Empire” Echo spoke that time.

Sera felt her eyebrows knit together as she pondered their words. She pushed her thoughts away and came back to the present. “Well, anything else?” She asked, making sure nobody else had anymore questions.

“Is it possible I could examine your lightsaber?” Tech asked curiously. He looked a bit nervous, and his demeanor made it seem like he couldn’t help but ask. Sera laughed at his question. “Why the hell not.” She shook her head as she laughed too. Tech looked shocked, then excited by her answer. “Excellent.” He looked back down to his datapad.

The questions began to die down, venturing into less serious territory, like why is your lightsaber green? And, why didn’t the Jedi give the clones lightsabers? After everyone exhausted the topic of Jedi, the clones began to depart.

“See you later Sera!” Omega waved goodbye as she ran left with Wrecker, following closely behind him. Only Hunter lingered now.

“Got something for me Sergeant?” Sera asked with a smirk on her face. Unlike Sera though, Hunter didn’t seem to mind his old military rank being brought up.

Hunter stood and looked to the door, then back to Sera. “I just wanted you to know, for what it’s worth, It was good that you left the army.” Sera looked up to him questioningly.

“What makes you think so?” She asked, wanting to know more behind his reasoning. She also wanted to see where this conversation would go.

“It kept you alive. And I’m glad you’re not dead.” A soft expression grew on his face, an uncommon sight when Hunter was the person in question.

Sera smiled and held back a laugh. She cleared her throat a bit. “Thanks for not wanting me dead.” She stifled another laugh after she spoke.

Hunter didn’t seem to understand her humor, but he laughed as he watched her giggling fit. “You’ve got some dark humor, huh?” He acknowledged. Sera shrugged. “It’s better than the alternative.” They shared a moment of eye contact, smiling at each other. Sera enjoyed seeing him like this. She felt her heart pound harder as she stared at him, examining his face.

Suddenly she felt awkward about the eye contact, and Hunter seemed to have the same feeling at the same time. She looked away and moved a few strands of hair out of her face, trying to conceal a blush. Hunter cleared his throat and looked away from her too.

“I didn’t think of that, but you’re right. It’s possible things would’ve happened differently if I had stayed with the army and the Jedi order.” Sera spoke in reference to Hunters previous comment. He only nodded at her, still standing between her and the door. Sera smiled at him adoringly. For being so tough and brooding, he’s actually sort of sensitive and kind. Sera smiled more as the thought crossed her head. She stood up and approached him, patting his shoulder.

Hunter looked at her hand, then up to her face. He seemed to freeze from her touch. He then finally spoke to her after the moment of silence. “Well, I should be going. I- we’ll see you around.” Hunter nodded to her and left.

There is no emotion. There is only peace.

The Jedi code crossed Sera’s thoughts again as she watched Hunter leave.

She remembered another reason why she left the order and she felt a warm feeling settle in her chest.

I like these emotions though.

Couldn’t she have her emotions and peace?

She hoped so.

#tbb #tcw #star wars #the bad batch #the clone wars #clone force 99 #hunter x reader #hunter x jedi #tbb x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #OC story #oc

[yostresswritinggirl]

Scholars’ Chit Chat Prologue Submission

XXX

Cyno x Reader (Platonic, possibly romantic in the future)

*Lore dump warning

*Spoilers for all the Archon Quests and speculations of Teyvat

*Really it’s all serious talk

XXX

This is basically how you and Cyno met

XXX

The libraries of Sumeru are quiet, like how they’re suppose to be.

It is a new semester after all, the freshmen are still getting a grasp of the large campus, though Cyno does guess that soon enough they will be awed of this place.

Walking among the tall shelves, he tries to locate the section he had been researching on, but a voice calls out to him, breaking his concentration.

“Hey, you ever thought of why were you given a Vision?”

He turns to the source of the voice, only to see you there, sitting on top of one of the book shelves as your legs dangled from it.

“I would say that it is a question worth discovering with my entire life.”

“Huh, to think that you would answer so naturally… Wouldn’t one first ask who I am or ask why would I want to know that?”

“Because, first, I know who you are and second, those who come to this place seek knowledge.”

“Oh, so I had become the talk of school despite me being here for the first day?”

“Indeed, you were known as one who had declared to not take part in any sort of Mysticism studies yet aim to unveil the mysteries of this world. They called you naive yet you had earned the highest scholarship obtainable. It’s kind of hard to not let such news spread out.”

“Well, there are certainly advantages and disadvantages with this commotion, but that’s not my main focus anyways.”

“And may I ask what that would be?”

“To search for answers to fulfil my contract with the God of Wisdom.”

“Contract?”he questions, not capable of following your conversation, you slyly smiled at this.

“Unfortunately, this upcoming topic requires a fee to unlock~ I don’t mind sharing my findings to others, but when it comes to something as rare as words from an archon….”

“You get the idea, a price is required for everything after all.”

“…”

Cyno stared at you as if you were pulling his leg, but his reaction made you smirk even more.

“Oh, I won’t be asking for much, something like… Your name, perhaps?”

Suddenly realising that he hadn’t introduced himself yet and was reminded in such a playful matter, Cyno couldn’t help but let out an embarrassed chuckle.

“My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Cyno, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hmm… You know that one’s name is important, right? Names hold power, not necessary the one given by your parents but the one that defines your soul. There are quite a few stories mentioning that giving your name to someone is the same as giving a part of their soul to them.”

The male however lets out a laugh at your advice.

“Thanks for the warning, I’ll keep that on mind.”

“It was nothing, and to the end of my bargain, yes…’ you began as you jumped off the shelf, landing right in front of him. “Well, it’s more like a bet than a contract if I’m being honest.”

“Which is?”

“To find out the truth behind Khaen-riah’s fall, or more specifically, the reason behind the alchemist Gold’s fall, before I graduate.”

“?!”

The kingdom that had technology and Mysticism developed greatly even without an archon, then was destroyed five hundred years ago.

Not much is known about Khaen-riah, and yet...

Cyno, was shocked, no, shocked isn’t enough to describe how he’s feeling.

“That’s... nearly impossible, isn’t it? Just what sort of offer did he gave you to tip the scales-”

“If I succeeded, he would answer me anything I want to know about.”

“A-Anything?”

“That’s right~”

...

“What happens... If you fail?”

Everything comes with a price, as you had said.

“Then my life would be in his hands, for him to decide my fate.”

Despite only knowing you for not long, Cyno cannot believe what you had risked.

“Are you out of your mind?! What would you possibly want to know that you’re willing to-”

“To understand the laws of this world.” You answered one a simple matter.

“It has been so long that the human race had been existing and yet none of us came close in finding the truth of the world...”

“Or perhaps someone did, and they failed to tell anyone?”

“Even Khaen-riah itself is advance with Alchemy, history tells us that their greatest alchemist Gold fell and became quite a threat... But why...?”

“...”

“What I’m trying to say is that we’re too trusting towards the gods cause we’re told to do so since we were born, you know what I had learnt after being tricked once? Doubt everything when you first see it, question it’s existence and see if you can use another point of view to perceive it.”

“Why do you doubt the gods?”

“That’s because I believe in humanity’s wisdom. I believe that even without the gods, humanity can still take care of themselves as fine.”

“If you need to rely on someone else in order to live, then what’s the meaning of living in the first place?”

“This is... quite a lot...” Cyno mumbled.

“It is a lot to take in, I agree.” You nodded as you leaned against a shelf.

“Our senior Lisa left this place after mere two years and went to Mondstadt to be a librarian despite her being a genius the Academia hasn’t seen for 200 years... Is it because she saw something that nobody else realised?”

“So what you’re saying is... There’s more to the bigger picture?” Cyno guessed as you snapped your fingers. “Bingo.”

“But that being said, questioning the gods is the same thing as raging treason against this world... “ Cyno pointed out with worry. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Indeed, *I’m trying to understand the rules of this chess game, so that humanity, the supposed audience of this game gets the chance to participate in it.”

“And if we can win this chess game or not, is entirely up to our legacy...”

“You have too much belief in humanity... Or should I say you have no intention of losing in the first place?”Cyno predicted with a sigh.

“Hm, seeing that you’re being so interested in our bet, perhaps you would like to become my partner in crime?”

Hearing this, Cyno finally realised that he was tricked at the point when he answered your question about his Vision.

“So that was what you were going after for all along, huh?”

“Haha, yup~ I mean, our archon didn’t state anything about not able to team up with others, so why not?”

“Able to ask anything from the God of Wisdom himself, what else more can a scholar wish for?”

Cyno understand that your words are trying to lure him, but in truth, who can give up this opportunity?

“I mean, even if we fail, I’m the only one who would lose anything so it really sounds like a pretty good deal to me~”

“And would you mind me asking for a warrant from you for the time I would be spending on this?”Cyno requested, surprising you for a bit.

“Well, how about my name? You’ve heard about me but haven’t known that yet, correct? With a part of our souls in each other’s hands, no one can run off easily, don’t you think so?”

“Alright I accept the of your con-”

“It’s a promise, not a contract.”

Cyno pauses at your sudden seriousness, he then takes notice of the frown on your face.

“...”

“You want this partnership to be built on trust and not just a piece of paper?” He guessed.

You softly nodded, trying not to meet him in the eyes.

But there’s no way that he would accept that, you two only just met after all-

“Then I promise, that I will be your partner in crime upon this bet against the Dendro Archon.”

Wha-?!

Cyno offers you a small smile. “Everyone has their own reasons, I too wish that I can understand you better within these few years... That is if you wish, of course.”

I’m glad.

“Yeah, likewise, Cyno.”

“I also by offering my name, promise that we will find out the laws of this world and allow humanity to earn the chance to be a part of this chess game.”

“My name is-“

XXX

*The chess game is referencing The Feynman Lectures on Physics, it is also referenced from Honkai Impact 3rd (another game of MiHoYo) Honkai Quest event by the character Delta, it is possible that it works as well for the world of Teyvat.

(One way that's kind of a fun analogy to try to get some idea of what we're doing here to try to understand nature is to imagine that the gods are playing some great game like chess. Let's say a chess game. And you don't know the rules of the game, but you're allowed to look at the board from time to time, in a little corner, perhaps. And from these observations, you try to figure out what the rules are of the game, what [are] the rules of the pieces moving.

You might discover after a bit, for example, that when there's only one bishop around on the board, that the bishop maintains its color. Later on you might discover the law for the bishop is that it moves on a diagonal, which would explain the law that you understood before, that it maintains its color. And that would be analogous we discover one law and later find a deeper understanding of it.

Ah, then things can happen--everything's going good, you've got all the laws, it looks very good--and then all of a sudden some strange phenomenon occurs in some corner, so you begin to investigate that, to look for it. It's castling--something you didn't expect.)

And welp, Exiled, mind me adding this?

-To their future child(ren)

And this is how your parents met//slap

With the Gnosis shaped as chess pieces and with MiHoYo’s other games referencing this...

Well theories will be theories until they’re truly revealed.

Until then Snowdrop’s gonna freak out on what the heck I just wrote

There will be continuations... Just please don’t look forward to it... OwO

Oh I do NOT mind AT ALL, Snowdrop. CONTINUE. This series looks so freakin cool and refreshing even!

#exiled community #genshin impact x reader #Cyno x reader #Snowdrop anon #exile.flower #exile.pocketwatch #Good shit #gender neutral #submission

[vake-hunter]

What is Salt?

Salt is probably one of the most uh complex parts of Fallen London lore so buckle up. I’m going to keep this as simple as possible because there is A LOT. 

!!Spoilers for Sunless Sea and Seeking Endings!!

Who IS Salt as of Right Now In The Neath 

Salt is one of the three Gods of The Unterzee. It is usually noted as being responsible for the strange flow of time in the Neath and memories in general. It is also called the Traveller Returning or just the Traveller. Its messenger is a white bat. Its blessings are usually that of sudden revelations or help to get home (but not always YOUR home…) Its curses however are extreme, erasing of memories, taking loved ones, undoing achievements, even erasing your whole existence. Better not to upset it. 

It's said Salt resides to the East, farther than anyone dares to travel. 

But who WAS Salt?

“the White: Recall who sent you here. That fierce old thing in the dark: "Find her," he said to you, "and you will find the treasures. Go down. You need only take a little. [...]" The light of his nimbus guttered, as if he were laughing. You knew nothing of the Neath, then. Perhaps you would never have come, if you did. [...] You remember the starlight.”

Salt is a Judgement, specifically one who worked as a spy for another Judgement, the White. 

Salt’s name was not always Salt. Its true name is long forgotten but may be found in the depths of Frostfound (Frostfound is a whole different essay). It has a strange name of seven letters, which is dangerous in the Correspondence. It’s name roughly translates to The Name-Which-Burns and it is also one of the sigils found near the Avid Horizon in art. (Its name is hard for humans to comprehend and depending on what options you choose, you can either pick to believe Salt was a human or was a Judgement. Everything about Judgements is almost impossible for humans to understand, thus you can pick a more ‘simple’ translation. Both endings still result in you going East.)

Salt was sent to the Neath by the White (more on that in speculation). It was a painful journey and sometime during its time in the Neath, Salt decided it no longer wished to serve the White. Salt travelled around the Zee to forget itself. It left parts of itself in Frostfound, Kingeater’s Castle, Irem, and finally it went East. It built these places and abandoned its Name, its Need, its Memories and, finally, itself. 

TRAVELLER RETURNING

“The Name is yours. Perhaps it always was - perhaps you're only coming home. [...] Other memories of other voyages press in on you [...]” 

Salt is every Traveller and the Traveller is always Returning. Salt beckons others to follow its path. To take up its name. To join it East. In Frostfound, you find Salt’s name and it is your name. You gain Salt’s memories and Name, you become Salt and you go East. There are others there, all others who followed the path. 

But why?

“The Gate is open, the Judgments have seen, but you have other plans. There is no Sequence for this. Rise and depart. [...] You failed, you succeeded. This was only the first element. It is a terrible pity about the Runt. If you could have saved him, you would. But all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. Contact the others. Let them know what the White intended. Continue.”

That tells me absolutely nothing.

AK is no longer a part of FBG and so this may not be canon anymore but he wrote on Reddit about Salt and the White. 

"The Liberation of Night stained the Deep Wilderness long, long before it touched the Earth, and the White feared - reasonably that its metastasising rapture would darken the hearts of too many stars for it ever to be contained. [This is lore I'd have explored more in Sunless Skies as it was originally conceived, but Failbetter have gone, I believe, in a completely different direction, and this is no longer continuity.] He resorted to the Neath, that notorious half-secret laboratory of stellar secrets. The Bazaar is developing its own Counsel to soothe and cheer the Sun; the White hoped to find or foment a final argument of despair which would quell the rebellious hearts of any Liberated star it touched. It would also quell the hearts of any loyalist Judgements, but the White would rather see an empty universe than a disordered one. Of course the White couldn't know that the Counsel of Peace might threaten Histories beyond its own, but the White is the White, and it's unlikely that this would have dissuaded it."

So about the Bazaar. Messages written on it can affect those who read them. We see this in humans who feel love and such when near the Bazaar or talking about the Bazaar and Cups in Nemesis was trying to inscribe stories of revenge onto the Bazaar to make it and the sun suffer. It is implied this is from the Bazaar experimenting on itself and various surgeries it had done in the First City, although all Couriers have this power to a lesser degree (seen in Skies at Faith’s Fall).

SPECULATION

Even if you ignore what AK said the White wanted to find something in the Neath and sent Salt to find it. The White would rather kill Judgements rather than let them turn to Night. It scribe messages of Hate and Grief onto the Bazaar to turn others away from the Liberation. In both of the other two endings of Seeking, you would become fuel for the White’s plan. Both of these endings have Nicator react happily when you pick your question, saying that the White will come to fulfill his frozen Law, while asking Who is Salt has Nicator react in fear and confusion, saying you are going against the White’s plan. 

“I don’t understand. Who do you think will come, when you call? Tell – please tell me – you will bring light to the Neath. The White’s plan–”

Salt was sent to spy for the White and find a weapon, but turned away from the White’s plan. It’s implied then, that it is trying to build an army to kill the White. In Seeking, you knock, open the Neath to the White and then fly East to your army. You lured him to the Neath to kill him.

So this brings us to Candles. I am unsure of the actual connection the two have, although they very clearly have one. It is very possible the White had a hand in Candles’ death in order to further his plan. So let’s jump STRAIGHT into speculation. We know Veils had its claws in the Great Game and was on the Surface enough that it was one of its strongest personality parts so it could be that the White somehow told Veils to betray Candles, offering Veils something in return.

One of my special interests is religion so let’s dump some of that in here. There are plenty of comparisons of Candles and Veils to Jesus and Judas. Even the game does it. Judgements are gods. In the book of Judas, Jesus knew Judas would betray him and God himself told Judas to do so, because it was part of the plan to have Jesus die for the sins of humanity. So Jesus is Candles, God is the White and the Holy Spirit is Salt. It fits, as Salt is in every Traveller. Fucking weird but a good way to try and comprehend them. 

I personally really like the idea of Salt and Candles being Binary Stars!! Candles lowered itself first and Salt was sent by the White to find it.

#fallen london #salt #mr candles #seeking mr eaten's name #smen spoilers #fl spoilers #lore

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Genetics

If any of my Deconstruction posts were going to turn heads, I had a hunch it would be this one. You’ll probably find this topic incongruous with the others simply because—unlike Aura, Semblances, Dust, and Grimm—genetics isn’t one of RWBY’s unique gimmicks. If I’m being entirely honest, part of why this post exists is because I still had some miscellaneous talking points to address, but lacked a proper heading to file them under. Call it what it is: a dumping ground for wayward thoughts.

But there’s a bit more to it than just that. The reason why I want to talk about this is because, much like the other mechanical aspects, genetics does have a bearing on RWBY’s worldbuilding, and the stories that were subsequently built around it. It has an undeniable impact on the sociopolitical human-Faunus schism that set the stage for Remnant’s immediate past, and the present-day terrorist acts committed by the White Fang. Genetics is also an extension of RWBY’s adherence to color theory, reflected in the hair and eye color choices of the ensemble cast.

Before we can finally conclude Part 1 of the Worldbuilding posts, we need to discuss this topic from both a narrative and a production standpoint. Genetics is firmly rooted in the development and design choices of the writers—choices which, as you’ll quickly see, had long-lasting consequences for the show.

Today we’re going to be dividing this topic into two sections. Since I’m sure it’s already on your mind, let’s get the obvious one out of the way first:

The Genetics of the Faunus

The Faunus are going to have an entire post dedicated just to them, but it’s impossible to talk about genetics without at least a passing mention of one of Remnant’s two main species.

Subspecies.

Races?

Yeah. You can quickly see where this is going.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me provide some context. Just like the conception of the Maidens, the Faunus can trace their developmental history to a rather impulsive design choice:

“Monty really wanted a character with cat ears,” admits Miles Luna. Shawcross expands on how Blake Belladonna’s look resulted in a cornerstone of the show’s lore. “So if Blake has cat ears, does that mean anyone can have cat ears? Could they have other animal traits? It’d be cool to see someone with scales or a fox tail…” [1]

Let me clarify by saying that there’s nothing wrong with basing a decision on aesthetics (in principle, anyway). And RWBY isn’t the only franchise guilty of doing this. It only takes a few seconds of consulting TV Tropes to see that zoomorphism is extremely pervasive. And while I have a tendency to complain a lot on this blog, I’m not such a kvetch that I’ll deny that animal-people with lion tails and ram horns look fucking sweet.

The problem I have with Faunus (from a genetic standpoint) is the way they’re inconsistently described in relation to humans. While Qrow unambiguously refers to them as a separate species, [2] we have Faunus characters that contradict him by describing themselves as a race. [3] This leads to the inevitable issue of whose account do we trust? On one hand, the information provided to us by Qrow is through World of Remnant, a spin-off series whose entire purpose is to clarify information and teach the audience about core worldbuilding concepts. On the other hand, what we’re told about the Faunus being a race comes directly from Ghira Belladonna. In this context, who would you expect to be the better authority on Faunus—a human, or a Faunus?

Even if we set aside the complicated implications of an outgroup member talking over a minority, we’re still left with the issue of well, which is it? Are they a race or a species? And why does it even matter?

Before we can answer any of those questions, let’s quickly define both terms:

A species is a taxonomic rank used for classifying groups of organisms together on the basis of being able to participate in genetic interchange via sexual reproduction, to produce fertile offspring.

A race (in biology) is an informal/unrecognized taxonomic rank below subspecies, defined as unique subgroups with either geographic, physiological, or genetic distinctions from other subgroups within their species. In anthropology, however, a race is typically regarded as a social construct. In this case, it refers to an identity held by members of a population that share physical or social qualities that are seen as categorically distinct.

The answer, if we’re being objective, is probably something along the lines of “RWBY’s writers thought that the two terms were interchangeable, or they didn’t think the distinction mattered enough to do the research and settle on a definition.” Unless someone specifically reached out to a Rooster Teeth employee and asked, we’ll never truly know. Speculation will only get us so far, and where this blog is concerned, we need a definitive answer—or at the very least, we need to talk about why the distinction matters to us.

So, are Faunus their own race? Meaning, are they a self-identifying ethnic group with a common language, ancestry, history, culture, nation, or social treatment within their residing area?

Common language: That’s a definite no. RWBY still hasn’t managed to explain how everyone across the four kingdoms speaks the same language, let alone develop any conlangs.

Ancestry: We actually don’t have a canon answer for this. The show has yet to tell us where the Faunus came from, so we can’t make any assumptions about how related they are to one another.

History: Technically, yes. But the series has a gross tendency to homogenize the experience of Faunus across Remnant, so the history of Faunus in Vale is virtually identical to that of Mistral. This trend results in storytelling discrepancies, like the Faunus in culturally-unprejudiced Vacuo [4] being equally threatened by and involved with the Faunus Rights Revolution, when there shouldn’t have been an in-world basis for this scenario.

Culture: Don’t make me laugh. RWBY couldn’t even be bothered to give any of its four kingdoms distinct cultures. Apart from a few scenes in Menagerie where you see a bunch of background characters hanging out in the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, there really isn’t anything culturally unique to the Faunus.

Nation: I guess? I personally wouldn’t consider Menagerie a nation, simply because it’s not one the Faunus originated from, but were rather given in the aftermath of the Great War. As far as we know, Faunus have always been just as widespread across Remnant as humans.

Social treatment: We’re told that social treatment for the Faunus as a whole is shitty, but that the degree of shittiness varies from place to place. Forgive me if I don’t buy that. Not after we’ve seen students in Vale physically harass a Faunus, [5] shops in Mistral refuse service to Faunus, [6] and companies in Atlas extract labor from Faunus. [7] If social treatment is contingent on shared experiences, then why are we told that these experiences change depending on the kingdom? And if the kingdoms vary in levels of racial acceptance, then why are we repeatedly shown the exact opposite?

Based on the aforementioned criteria, I’m inclined to say that Faunus don’t fit the definition of race.

So, are the Faunus a separate species from humans?

“History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a—a biological standpoint.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

That’s a resounding no.

As much as the taxonomist in me wants to talk about things like the multiple competing species concepts, or the fact that plants frequently violate the definition of species by producing fertile hybrids through polyploidy (chromosomal doubling), I have to restrain myself. For simplicity’s sake, we’re accepting that Faunus and humans are members of the same species on the basis that they’re not reproductively isolated.

The reason why genetics matters in regards to the race-species discourse is because we have yet to learn what the Faunus truly are. If we ignore the fact that they exist because Monty Oum wanted to stick cat ears on a girl, then we have to figure out what their existence means to Remnant’s past: Did the Brother Gods intervene in the early evolution of Humanity v2.0, by creating a subset of people with animal traits that would sow discord, for the sole purpose of giving Ozma another obstacle to overcome? Did Salem (who watched Humanity v2.0 evolve) try to influence their evolution, and somehow managed to bestow animalistic traits upon select groups of early hominids? Is Dust like a magically-radioactive fossil fuel that by pure chance mutated early people through exposure, resulting in their animalistic traits? Are the Faunus’ animal traits completely irrelevant to the plot, and are only there for the sake of style?

That’s why the Faunus’ genetic background matters—because as the story progresses, it’s going to inform what questions the audience asks.

There’s a good chance that all of this will end up being nitpicky conjecture, and there won’t be any storytelling payoff. But I think it’s still important to address, if for no other reason than to illustrate why pre-production worldbuilding is essential for telling a coherent story. But I digress.

Genetics, and Its Relationship with Color Theory

It goes without saying that RWBY is defined by color. It’s reflected in nearly every facet of the franchise—team names, wardrobe, Dust color, Aura color, emblems, characters’ names, even the show’s title—and it’s just as important from a worldbuilding standpoint as it is from a narrative one. [8]

Where color theory and genetics cross paths is in the field of character appearance—specifically, hair and eye color. For the moment, let’s set aside eye color as a visual device for foiling and paralleling characters (like Yang Xiao Long’s purple eyes compared to Blake Belladonna’s yellow eyes). Instead, we’re going to talk about these phenotypes from a hereditary perspective.

We’re going to streamline this discussion a bit by focusing on hair for the moment, and picking three colors that would be considered unnatural by our world’s standards. Let’s go with blue, green, and pink. Here’s a handful of characters who have these traits:

Blue hair: Neptune Vasilias, Ciel Soleil, Henry Marigold, May Marigold, Nebula Violette, Sky Lark, Trifa

Green hair: Emerald Sustrai, Marrow Amin, Bartholomew Oobleck, Reese Chloris, Russel Thrush, Sage Ayana

Pink hair: An Ren, May Zedong, Nadir Shiko

Now we’re going to take those lists and swap out the characters’ names for their inferred country of origin:

Blue hair: Mistral, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie

Green hair: Vale, Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vale, Mistral

Pink hair: Mistral, Vacuo, Mistral

We can conclude that these hair colors are natural on the basis that we never see characters dying their hair, and that similarly unusual eye colors (red, pink, purple, yellow) would also be natural in Remnant. Unless we’re assuming that everyone is wearing custom contact lenses, then it’s safe to say they’re legit. With the example of hair color, you’ll notice that they’re distributed across a wide number of nationalities, with little hint of consistency among them.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to write this off as “the writers wanted to have cool character designs and not have to think too hard about the worldbuilding implications behind them.” But there is a worldbuilding implication behind them, and it’s one that I’ll be focusing on in later Deconstruction and Amendment posts, so I want to make sure we talk about it now:

RWBY has repeatedly shown us that people are fairly geographically isolated from each other, and travel between kingdoms has always been difficult due to the Grimm. It wasn’t until eighty years ago, when the Great War ended, that a combo of international political cooperation and technological advancements made travel safer and more commonplace. Keep in mind that when populations of humans are geographically isolated from each other over prolonged periods of time, it results in those populations evolving specific anatomical traits.

Let me give you a few real world examples. Epicanthic folds are predominantly found in East Asian, Polynesian, and North Asian ethnic groups. Red hair, while not exclusive to any one nationality, is statistically highest in people of Northwestern European ancestry. Darker complexion is most common in equatorial populations, where high melanin production (especially eumelanin) protects against UVR exposure.

RWBY has every reason under the sun to ascribe certain phenotypes to the ethnicities of each kingdom, and for some reason it just doesn’t. Like, why not make green hair a trait common to people with Sanus ancestry? How about red eyes originating from Anima?

Avatar: The Last Airbender pulled this off by making dark skin, brown hair, and blue/gray eyes features of the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation, to reflect its broader geographic distribution, has a much wider range of phenotypes, with both light and dark skin tones and black or brown hair. However, it still retained golden, amber, and bronze eyes as a distinguishing characteristic of people descended from this ancestry. Frankly, I love that the show took the time to establish those traits among its ethnic groups. Not only was it a great way to visually communicate to the audience the ethnicity of the characters, but those traits took on entirely new meanings in the sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. When we meet the brothers Mako and Bolin for the first time and see their respective eye colors—amber and green—we’re immediately able to deduce that they’re the products of successful multiculturalism, something that would’ve seemed impossible seventy years ago when the world was gripped by war. It’s a powerful statement that was conveyed through careful attention to detail and excellent worldbuilding. Given that RWBY also takes place several decades after a global war, the writers had the opportunity to pull off a similar feat. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them once.

At the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing RWBY could’ve done. I think I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities. The show already has so little going for it when it comes to shaping the identities of its four main kingdoms, so with color being such a vital motif for the show, this feels like it should have been a natural progression of those ideas.

On a more positive note, we’ve finally reached the end of Worldbuilding (Part I) - Mechanical Aspects! Next time, we’ll get to introduce the second section of worldbuilding topics: history.

-

[1] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 42.

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 3: “Unforeseen Complications.” Ghira Belladonna: “[Adam’s] actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race.”

[4] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 4: “Vacuo.”

[5] Volume 1, Episode 11: “Jaunedice - Part 1.”

[6] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[7] Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

[8] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 44.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #genetics #oh thank god it's done #time to go slither off to bed

[carabas]

So I’ve just finished reading the Dragon Age Tevinter Nights anthology, and short reaction: enjoyably hit and miss right up until that final extremely thorough direct hit, thank you Patrick Weekes.

Much, much longer version:

1. I don’t know how reasonable it is to try to extrapolate about what’s going to be in the next game based on a random short story collection, but hey, the novels that came out before DAI were about the mage rebellion, the Orlesian civil war, and eluvians, so.

So things I’m now expecting to see in the next game, aside from the Tevinter-Qunari conflict and Solas of course: Nevarran necromancy, Antivan Crows, Wardens who are struggling with decimated numbers after DAO and DAI (would be the perfect time for Razikale and Lusacan to both wake up at once really), and the Lords of Fortune, a never-before-mentioned Rivaini treasure hunting organization which appeared in I think three different stories here. 

Plus a few stories were very much signalling This Specific New Character Will Be Showing Up Again, whether in the games or elsewhere; I'll be shocked if Lucanis the “Demon,” reluctant heir apparent of the Antivan Crows who just got into a cliffhanger conflict with a Tevinter magister, doesn’t have more to do.

2. THERE IS A MAP, there is a great big fantasy map surrounded by nifty little illustrative details to poke at.

There’s a label reading “White Spire,” not in Val Royeaux, but on a mountain beyond the Arlathan Forest. Is that an error or is there really a White Spire mountain? If not an error, has it always been named that or is that new, possibly a new center for the mages after the war, after the original Spire fell? At no point is either Spire mentioned in this book aside from this map.

Lots of astrological sun and moon patterns prominently featured around the edges. Is that one moon chart depicting moon phases or an eclipse? Is it too conspiracy theory of me to be counting the nine dark moons (or spheres? like in that DA4 idol illustration’s seven slots?) on the dragon’s wing? Probably. Or are those spheres a reference to the second moon that never seems to actually be visible, is that missing moon actually deliberate. 

Most of the astrological charts are fairly straightforwardly showing sun/moon phases but what is the crowned figure in the one on the lower right meant to represent? The Maker? What’s going on with the horizontal lines passing through it/behind it? The two moons beneath it - is that an illustration of the moon in two phases or being separated into two (metaphorical moon in that case, presumably), do those horizontal lines also indicate separation, do I need to move on from the astrological depictions here, definitely.

Love the big horseshoe crab sea monster.

3. Patrick Weekes’s first story in the collection: halla shapeshifting! An elf named Strife who I fully expected to be revealed as an agent of Fen’harel mimicking ancient elven names like Sorrow and Pride, though I was wrong - would it be charming or just annoyingly unsubtle if that became a thing among his agents. An ancient forest guardian with lyrium blades who hunts magic in a way that struck me an awful lot like a forest-themed equivalent of a golem, though I may be wildly off base with that one.

4. Nevarran necromancy story. An odd bit of the chant to highlight for a funeral: “And the Maker, clad in the majesty of the sky, set foot to earth, and at His touch all warring ceased.” I continue to squint suspiciously at overlaps between Maker and elven god imagery. Also, evidently mortalitasi believe that when someone dies, an inhuman spirit is pushed out from the Fade into the physical world, and that’s part of the reason behind their housing spirits in bodies - neat! The existence of Curiosity spirits, also neat!

5. Is Ghilan’nain’s horrible body horror place supposed to be spelled Hormak like in the title and previous canon references, or Hormok like throughout the text here? I know this was just a mistake but maybe I’ll use this to say that in-world there’s multiple ways of transliterating Dwarven.

6. Lukas Kristjanson story #1, the one featuring approximately a million minor Inquisition character cameos and a meditation on Solas’s regrets, introduces a character with the phrase “free mage by special commendation,” and I was briefly thrown by that little signal that we are Not In My Worldstate, that the mages aren’t all free by default - except then the story went on to destroy Solas’s fresco so I wound up quite grateful for that little heads up that this isn’t my worldstate actually.

(Unfortunately I can’t get into this guy’s writing style at all, which is a shame because it’s one of the big Solas stories in the book.)

7. There’s a little plot point in the Wigmaker Job story that demonstrates those elven artifacts Solas had us activate all over Thedas do indeed strengthen the Veil - like, he wasn’t lying to us about what those orbs do, that is how they work, here we see a Crow stab one in order to deactivate it, weaken the Veil and unleash a horde of vengeful demons. Nice confirmation.

8. Genitivi is the Randy Dowager. (Possibly. At least, Philliam wrote a scene in which Genitivi alludes to being the Randy Dowager. I do appreciate an unreliable narrator but after a certain point it does make the lore hard to keep straight.)

9. By the time we got to the story about adventurers stealing an incredibly powerful healing amulet just to donate it to a mysterious contact at a makeshift hospital trying to help people where the Qunari-Tevinter war has spilled over, I knew better than to expect any cameos from DAO/DA2 characters. And with the mention of the squire, I was pretty sure the mysterious contact was going to be Vaea, and it was. Still. Anders would approve. And for a moment I was fantasizing that it would turn out to be him, or connected to him. A new mental setting for him and Hawke post-mage-freedom - makeshift hospitals at the edge of the invasion, secretly sponsored by a certain pair of absurdly overpowered, dungeon-crawling, treasure-hunting fugitives.

Yes, my Dragon Age interpreting is still all about Anders even when he’s not remotely present.

10. You know, I really expected the leaders of the Crows to be a bit more ruthlessly competent than this. Someone is setting up a grand demonstration, recreating infamous historical assassinations carried out by the Crows but now with the leaders of the Crows themselves as the victims, incredibly flashy, incredibly clearly sending a message, and yet not one of the characters trying to figure out whodunit is speculating about the meaning behind that message??? the motive in going to all that trouble??? it’s all, hm, perhaps it’s the qunari invaders. hm, this one was posed with a pearl necklace just like the one in the historical murder it’s recreating, i bet the culprit owns a pearl-fishing business! I know they’re assassins not detectives but at least show the professional courtesy of paying attention to the message in the show your fellow assassin is putting on for you, geez.

Anyway. Interesting Crow details: they talked about neutral ground and territories divided between the Crow households here, does that just apply to Antiva or like, does Arainai have claim to all jobs in Ferelden? 

And the line “Teia's back was bare except for a tattoo marking her as a member of House Cantori” puts Zevran’s tattoos in a slightly different light for me - he’s mentioned that some symbols are sacred to the Crows, and logically it follows that having that symbol tattooed on him would indeed mark him as a Crow to other people in the know, but that his tattoos mark him as belonging to House Arainai is a thing that did not hit me from that.

11. An agent of Fen’harel muttering “Felassan” to activate a rune. In memoriam? Charming. I mean it’s a rune that’s intended to kill an entire city, so possibly the more literal slow arrow is meant, but I’m still charmed.

12. PATRICK WEEKES CLOSING OUT THE BOOK BY JUST DUMPING THE CONTINUING DREAD WOLF HUNT PLOT ON US. 

So much. 

An actual giant wolf in the Fade, I’m so happy for tumblr user corseque. 

A character again raising the possibility that Solas is not an ancient elf but rather a young elf who stumbled onto old magic, a theory I thought debunked by Trespasser but here we are considering it again. 

A minor side note that a lot of Kirkwall’s templars went rogue after the explosion - that’s not relevant to the post-DAI plot really, I’m just noting it for my generally-DA2-focused fanfic purposes. 

The possibility that somniari (presumably) can kill even dwarves who don’t dream in their sleep. Somniari in general or did Solas personally step in here?

A ritual involving the red lyrium idol resulting in the phrase “As if we were the blood and the cavern the body through which it flowed” right before the POV character enters the Fade, which is a rather Titan-esque turn of phrase. 

The Dread Wolf again asserting that all creation is in danger and he’s trying to fix that. A biased POV character recognizing that, huh, funny how those spirits around the Dread Wolf which surely must be demons actually look an awful lot like Justice and Valor. 

And Charter’s notes at the end, so direct, not only spelling out the new details on the idol for us (that the figure represents a crowned figure comforting another) but thoroughly hitting us over the head with Solas’s essential characterization in his own words, as if Weekes is still trying to clear up any possible lingering misinterpretations there. (Prideful, hotheaded, foolish. Doing what he must. Sympathetic to elves. Said that he was sorry.)

And the quiet simplicity of Solas coming to this meeting of spies in person because, pause, “...the Inquisition was involved,” written in such a way that you could read all sorts of things into that pause, whatever the Inquisition and the Inquisitor might mean to him.

The book would have been worth reading for this last story alone, what a note to end on.

#dragon age #tevinter nights #inquisition #da4 speculation #this is a deeply inquisition- and post-inquisition focused book #lots of neat continuing plot stuff and cameos from DAI or comics characters #no updates on your favorite DAO/DA2 companions

[choco-myth]

May I ask for your prediction on what’s next in twst ch5?

oh hell yeah!! predictions hmm?

tbh ever since neige came up, my entire "epel is vil's snow white" theory was tossed out of the window and i have noooo idea whats gonna happen next lol

(someday i will talk about the allusions. but alas, today is not that day)

what i think will happen broadly

deuce and epel get together (heh) on a bonding field trip and either encourage each and go back to vils team OR renounce their positions and idk challenge vil to a duel or something. id prefer the former rather than the latter, mostly because i dont see it going well for either of them if it gets that far ahdjsjs. but either way, we'll definitely get epel characterization, probably find out more about his thoughts on pomefiore and vil as a whole. maybe some of his upbringing or his ideals, and if we're lucky we'll get some sweet deuce character development too! (hnfnhsh it might. just be the ace bias talking but id love to see ace like, regret being an asshole for a bit and maybe apologize too, but highly doubt it since chara development gets shafted a lot in the main story in favor of side stories hehe. but who knows!! maybe itll happen)

i also expect to see more mentions of rook sabotaging! whether he already did it by inviting adeuce or he has more up his sleeve, it's definitely going to be addressed in the upcoming parts. im also speculating he knows neige personally somehow, otherwise....... why else would he be sabotaging yknow?? but that ones more of a speculation really.

i am also expecting this to be the lore chapter! with snow white being the first disney movie and pomefiore being the oldest dorm, it would be either here or diasomnia in which we get the lore dump. also more crowley stuff too!! whether hes really the evil queen's raven or diablo is still up for grabs, itll definitely be confirmed or debunked by pomefiores end. (or at the very least, alluded to!) but yea, i expect lore in this chapter with all the snow white and apple imagery in the pv and whatnot

this next one is more of a want, but i would love to see more of the pyroxene gang since vil is going to be the centerfocus. part one has been disappointing in that aspect so far, but theres always a chance theyll pick it up in the later parts (i highly doubt it though if its been this far and we have barely anything but uh yKNOWWW) srsly though, cater development got shafted in the first chapter to establish the world and riddles story, and i really thought at least jack would show up since he knew vil in his childhood and to set up the first year gang!! but alas ... at least we have epel.

OH

and someones definitely getting poisoned

as if that shot wasnt an indicator of anything, just think of snow white. think of all the obs were heinous crimes were being committed. poisoning is gonna go down in this chapter and i am so freaking excited for it

thank you so much for bearing with me anon! tumblrs weird but i got it all in the end :D

thank you for asking!

#ask #anonymous #twst #rambling #twisted wonderland