#wandersong spoilers

[maroisedot]

One of my first thoughts upon meeting Loop was that they would be BESTIES with Eyala. Like literally gossiping about the universe kinda besties. Love that for them.

(I drew this back when I was still in act 2)

(you know... before the horrors)

#wandersong #in stars and time #isat #wandersong kiwi #wandersong eyala #isat siffrin #isat loop #I just noticed my act 2 comment could theoretcally apply to both games haha #my art #wandersong spoilers #kinda with the black and white thing?

[songwings]

HAPPY ECLIPSE DAY!!!!!!!!!!! WHEREVER YOU ARE!

#wandersong spoilers #viridianposts #wandersong #miriam wandersong #sun fairy #moon fairy

[magicwhiskers29]

I can't believe I haven't talked about this before, but augh, I've been rotating stuff about the Beast at Ichor Mountain and Audrey in the brain -- namely how I think you can draw some interesting parallels between the King of Hearts and Audrey.

Firstly, to get it out of the way, the nomenclature Audrey Redheart. Who is the beast at Ichor Mountain? The names clearly link our two suspects, and I think it's interesting that Audrey is one of notably few characters to actually have a given surname, in this game. Miriam doesn't. The Bard doesn't. Heck, none of Hala's family do, because they don't need a surname to remind you they're all related. (Iirc, Audrey may actually be the only Wandersong character with a surname!) So why Audrey?

Why Audrey, the character who gets referred to by her epithet, the Hero, more than her name anyway?

Because it's important, of course. For one, it gives Audrey a stronger sense of identity, specifically of the identity Audrey worries people won't care about her for. Audrey tells us her own surname, clearly indicating that she thinks important you know exactly who she is. But also, and more importantly for what I want to talk about, what it means.

It identifies red as Audrey's colour, suggesting a sense of strength. And I don't specifically mean physically -- rather, because it's paired with "heart", I'd interpret it to be implying strong emotions which, yeah, tracks. Audrey is angry throughout the game just as much as she's smug or entitled. I think it's even that anger that defines her more, because the haughty attitude is an act to play up being the Hero, whereas her anger at the Bard and Miriam for interfering comes from a very genuine place of fear.

Contrast this to the King of Hearts, who's established to be represented by pink, along with a lot of the rest of Ichor Mountain. Or, namely, the outside of Ichor Mountain and the core. At the heart of the mountain is the Overseer's palace, pink like him. And he was initially kind, the kind of happy-go-lucky guy we see the Heart Fairy to be, presumably. A very different kind of strong emotion. So he's the heart of the mountain. Okay, then he must be the "Beast at Ichor Mountain", right?

I think the phrasing of this act's name is interesting. It's not the Beast of Ichor Mountain, or the Beast on Ichor Mountain, but the Beast at Ichor Mountain. It's incidental. The beast isn't necessarily a native; they're just there, the beast who's found themself haunting the mountain named after the blood of the gods.

So I'll ask again. Who is the Beast at Ichor Mountain?

Well, it's Audrey. The King of Hearts is scary. He chases you down, fights against you, snarls at you, and enacts horror movie tropes on you, but we know what he's supposed to be like because we meet the Heart Fairy -- the next Overseer of Hearts. And we see this in the King of Hearts when the Bard sings to him, and it works, somehow it works, to start calming him down. The Bard, ever the bleeding heart, does what they do best, and offers the King of Hearts their heart and soul in the form of a song, and it works!

Until Audrey cuts him down. Audrey, who's decided to devote herself to a mission that has to go against what her heart says, because we know her motivation for ending the world, and it's not because she believes in the cause, cuts down the King of Hearts in the middle of a mutual display of unconditional love and compassion. Audrey, who sat there at the heart of mountain finally confessing that she's being Eya's champion to end the world and finally escape being Audrey Redheart, a nobody, and promised right there to give compassion a chance and face her struggles rather than clinging to more than just a self-sabotaging, but a world-ending lifeline, kills the King of Hearts.

Audrey only allows herself to be vulnerable without her sword. She needs it to feel important and powerful, and only allows herself to feel things about her mission, and process things about herself, when she can't just go slicing through hoards of monsters to earn some surface-level adoration and praise from people she never stops to make an actual connection with. So when she gets it back... She can't return to being Audrey Redheart, someone who maybe could have fitted in on Ichor Mountain had she listened to the Bard and continued to follow their example. She has to be the Hero, even if that's the hero who becomes the beast at the mountain.

And because this is Wandersong, let's do a little musical analysis.

04:46-05:10, specifically. Why? This is the mash-up of the Heart and Hero motifs. Overpoweringly, we can hear the Hero motif blaring on guitars in the foreground, but also the sure and steady Heart motif from the Heart Fairy's theme in the background. The Hero motif is stronger because Audrey is clinging to it, absolutely, but also because two people are using it. And they always have been.

The Hero motif is first used in the prologue to be just that, a theme for the Hero. But then the Bard reclaims it in Chapter 2 for "I wanna be the Hero", and also "I'm going with you". These are the times the player is going to first notice it, because it's shown to them so clearly! It's only associated with the Hero, and Audrey, again later on, because it's a concept, not a person. It's a concept any character can cling to, and unlike the Bard, it's Audrey's whole identity. It becomes her motif by force.

So in this piece where it's used, it's Audrey, or more accurately, the Hero, vs the King of Hearts. And the music already shows us who will win. We've discussed which motif is played stronger.

So who is the Beast at Ichor Mountain? She's the one who takes her sword in hand and tries to slice her way through the heart of Ichor Mountain.

#Wandersong #Wandersong spoilers #audrey redheart #wandersong audrey #audrey wandersong #king of hearts wandersong #Whiskers rambles #Long post #Analysis

[tricksterwish]

#fanart #wandersong #wandersong spoilers #kiwi #bard #miriam #audrey redheart #this was for rp purposes so i didnt go in detail as much as i normally would with this stuff heehee!!!

[mxdraws]

SHAPES AND COLORS BAYBEEEEEEEEEEE

#wandersong #wandersong kiwi #wandersong bard #wandersong spoilers #wandersong au #beast kiwi au #eyestrain tw #eyestrain #tw eyestrain

[wybienova]

(wandersong spoilers again)

based on that comic about knuckles as well as this

#wybs art #wandersong #wandersong spoilers #wybie shitposts #hopefully that link works lol #i’m fucking. going insane about wandersong rn #i don’t really have many people to talk about it with the same energy that i have #but my brain has gotten past the notion of being cringe #so im just . exploding now #kiwi wandersong #miriam wandersong #audrey redheart #also this is a prime example of how i just cannot draw audrey consistently

[dragontamerkiwi]

Funny thing is that Wandersong did it first

#wandersong #wandersong king of hearts #wandersong spoilers #pokemon #zacian #please play wandersong

[florshedworf]

BUGS!!!

#worf opens their big mouth #wandersong spoilers #wandersong #20 #30 #50 #100

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

Mild Wandersong related spoilers, but here's something that I never hear people talk about or consider:

Whenever Audrey's theme is brought up, it's only a matter of time before someone brings up the point that- much like the Bard's self proclaimed title of 'hero'- she stole it away from them right under her nose. And yeah, we can argue that the 'hero' theme originates from the sword from the beginning of the game, and therefore is more symbolic of 'being the hero' than the Bard or Audrey themselves.

But what I want to talk about is how- even after discarding the sword- the Bard temporarily 'acquires' the hero motif through sheer emotional will when they sing to cure the troll. They pulled that song straight out of their goddamned heart. It's full of self doubt, it's full of hope, it's full of the desire to have a purpose in a world that sees you as obsolete, it's full of the desire to make something of yourself.

And really, I suppose what I'm asking here is that- since we don't see Audrey until after Eyala meets her- who's to say she didn't have a moment that exactly paralleled the Bard's? Especially when you take into consideration she also considered herself a useless nobody, and (at the time, before Bard crushed the illusion) she was also of the assumption that she was chosen to save the world.

All I'm saying is that for all we know, she earned that motif fair and square.

#wandersong #wandersong spoilers #audrey redheart #I'M JUST SAYING. there's something so dangerously revealing about audrey sharing that motif right after kiwi puts lyrics to it #and not JUST lyrics. emotionally vulnerable lyrics from a raw and genuine perspective #'my whole life no one's noticed or expected much of me' 'now the world is ending and i'm not gonna hide' #'i want to be the hero control my life's events [i'll use my song] to prove them wrong and make a difference' #FOR ALL THAT WE KNOW SHE COULD HAVE HAD A BARD MOMENT. is what i'm saying here. #maybe she earned it. originally #i mean granted even if she did earn it she also should have un-earned it at some point. but i digress.

[mothwingedmyths]

Hi I'm sobbing my eyes out for the fiftieth time

#wandersong #wandersong spoilers #this isn't even nearly all the screenshots i took of the ending #it's just the ones that were easy to get to and showed it off well

[dragondawdles]

know what sure. I'll put this on tumblr. compilation of nearly every chaotic audrey scribble of mine I can find to date

#wandersong #wandersong spoilers #audrey #audrey redheart #audrey wandersong #dragon doodles #underlining scribble btw this is like raw from my artfiles/sketchbooks #this is MUCH messier than I usually post on tumblr but. I kinda wanna try being looser about my personal art standards. also this is funny #some of these have contexts of aus (there's pmd au post-canon and I think a little bit of my roleswap aud?) #some of these have contexts of conversations from the wandersong discord #and some of these are because she's really fun to draw LOL #but this also accidentally became a pressurized catalogue of both how I stylize a character and where my art's been for the past few months

[maroisedot]

omg that's so audreycore

#wandersong #audrey redheart #my art #wandersong pmv #wandersong spoilers #I am so normal about her #*is shaking like a feral cat*

[songwings]

(Kyka) someone from the wishes unlimited discord pointed out the sun king in this scene and oh i just had to draw this!!!!!!!!

#wandersong #wandersong spoilers #sun king #kykaposts #i love him your honor i think he deserved more screentime #big thanks to ashycat i do not know if he has a tumblr but thank you ashycat

[magicwhiskers29]

This!!!! The Bard has endured a lot of crap from Audrey, but as soon as she starts badmouthing Miriam, that's it.

Miriam is their friend and Miriam cares about them, so they're not going to let Audrey twist the tale against her

#Whiskers's Wandersong mayhem #Wandersong spoilers #Arghghghhh the Bard and Miriam's friendship.... #🥺🥺🥺 #Wandersong

[snowyllama-art]

Audrey is a really interesting antagonist.

#wandersong #wandersong audrey #audrey redheart #audrey wandersong #wandersong spoilers

[mxdraws]

Pet pet

#beast kiwi au #wandersong #wandersong bard #wandersong kiwi #wandersong au #wandersong spoilers