#before trying to come up with analysis and lore and character studies as well

[qrichas]

btw! from twitter, some context from qforever and qcellbits convo

#qsmp #miscommunicatios bc of language barrier is gonna make me insane #as people has been saying around please take whats said in english by non native speakers with a grain of salt bc they sometimes #cant express their idea fully #qforever is very CLEAR abt what is his tought process in ptbr #but he fumbles a lot in english bc he doesnt have an extensive vocabulary to articualte well #(he even asked for cellbits help in the trial thing bc cellbit knows how to do this in english #but theire still more clear in ptbr #im asking this very nicely please consult anyone whos fluent in ptbr/esp/fr if youre a native english speaker and wants more context #before trying to come up with analysis and lore and character studies as well #bc the ccs explain to their audience in their native language important points abt their view #that can be very much lost #<- qbrs defender

[digital-dhampirs]

VnC 58: the case study of astolfo

After a whole year of suspense, the Case Study of Vanitas is back with a bang and so is this tumblr blog. Time isn’t real, so let’s pretend that this analysis came out when I wrote it after reading chapter 58 rather than the day before chapter 59. Let’s go!

As always, although it’s been a while, this post will contain massive spoilers for VnC 58 and is intended for those who have read up to this point in the manga!

intergalactic tea party

Chapter 58 begins with (an absolutely stunning shot of Vanitas’s tarte tatin) a quick recap of the plot so far and where the main cast is at the moment— Domi and Jeanne tragically finish their conversation offscreen; Domi and Noé have an adorable reunion; and Jeanne leaves the hotel alone, likely to report on her successful mission to a worried Luca. Jeanne looks adorably carefree as she heads out and I pray for a flashback to her conversation with Domi in the near future.

Moving rapidly along, we cut to the Archiviste Noé caught a glimpse of last chapter, traveling through the border between worlds. We learn that she’s familiar with Comte and likely Luna as well, and she and Comte sit down to have a very Pandora Hearts flavored tea break. Comte says that mystery Archiviste hasn’t travelled to the human world in ages, making it very unlikely that she was there explicitly to see Noé, although it’s possible she was (like Comte) waiting in the shadows to intervene if the fair fight reached a certain point.

Mystarchiviste in turn reveals that Comte’s existence is “unstable”. The only context we really have for that term is Vani and Misha, artificial followers of the blue moon lying somewhere between human and vampire… Comte certainly acts like a vampire, but maybe he’s actually something much more in between? My half-theory half-headcanon is that his obsession with Luna stems partially from feeling commonality with another being who doesn’t understand their own existence…

Speaking of Luna, Comte taking their form has interesting lore implications (can he take the form of anyone he’s met, or is there another requirement that has to be met first?) and also interesting fanfic implications but let’s move rapidly onwards to the real meat of chapter 58.

the chasseurs are insane

A majority of VnC 58 takes place in an extended flashback, as Astolfo reflects on his past. This flashback confirms a lot of what past chapters have implied about Astolfo— he was consumed by self hatred and guilt following the vampire attack, to the point of attempting suicide. The whole flashback could easily read as yet another parallel to Vanitas, who, after finding himself as the sole survivor a second time in a row, turned to a path he knew would culminate in his own death.

We meet two fun new characters during this section of the chapter— a guy wearing an earring (I was half-wondering if this was a younger version of Olivier’s assistant, but their eyebrows and earrings are different, so he’s probably one of Gano’s homeboys) and Charles.

Earring guy is suspicious. He might have some sort of plot relevant past (cough cough, No. 7- [i am escorted off the stage]), he might be an average chasseur with a vampire related incident in his history, or he might just be your standard issue psychopath. My favorite Mochijun Flavored Detail this chapter is the panel where, under the guise of breaking up Mira and Gano’s brawl, he moves to block Olivier’s line of sight and path to Astolfo. It’s just so Mochijun and i missed her so much—-

Charles is neato, but he sort of has this vibe where he’s not meant to be the star of the panels he’s in. It’s like Astolfo isn’t fully looking at him. Even though Charles is trying to inspire faith in Astolfo here, the only light Astolfo sees is Roland. In his double-page introductory panel Charles is exclusively lit by light coming in through the door as Roland opens it. Roland, meanwhile, looks like a savior, the light behind him blinding, and Astolfo bursts into tears when he sees him. I’m so excited to watch their relationship collapse as this flashback continues..!

Through Charles’s conversation with Astolfo, we learn a very interesting piece of lore: when a vampire bites someone they aren’t injecting an aphrodisiac or poison with their fangs— they’re actively rewriting their world formula, and sometimes these effects are permanent. I feel like I should’ve been able to riddle this out, given the whole mark of the blue moon thing, but the fact that this happens so frequently throughout the series, and that Jeanne has rewritten Vanitas, is feckin shocking and feels like it has some very interesting implications for the series. Perhaps Archivistes are unique in that, rather than rewriting with their bite, they read what’s already there.

I honestly don’t have many other thoughts on Charles. He gets carried around and nobody’s allowed see him, possibly implying that he’s become sicker/ his existence has gotten more unstable ;) since he originally became a paladin. Maybe he’s the head honcho Roland and Olivier are working against, maybe he’s actually dead by the time we hit the main plotline. At this point, it feels like he could move in any direction.

interpretation, extrapolation, being wrong, that’s the mochijuncycle

Vampires rewrite the world formula when they bite others, often leading to devastating and permanent consequences for those they’ve bitten. Misha and Vanitas aren’t the only two unstable beings in existence— while we’ve never heard of VnC vampires turning humans with their bite, maybe once a human has been rewritten enough times they too become unstable. Maybe Comte, in constantly changing his name and shape, has been rewriting himself to the point of instability. Maybe Noé struggles to rewrite because, as an Archiviste, he was born to simply read and record.

But you probably shouldn’t trust me on any of this because, as always, this is 100% my biased initial interpretation of Chapter 58! I hope you’re all as hyped to see this flashback play out as I am, and I’ll see you (hopefully somewhat) soon for VnC 59!

#vanitas no carte #vnc #meta-ish #the case study of vanitas #vanitas no shuki

[kae-karo]

Writer asks: 12 and 13, 30, 31, and 32?

AEWIN HELLO HI THANK U 🙏🙏 and thank u as well dear anon !!!! for context (x)

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

u know if u had told me before encountering zhongchi that i would fall in love with eggs/ovipos i would've told u u were out of ur mind but here we are lmao

ngl i think i also wasn't super into the idea of enemies to lovers in my og fandom? which makes sense cause i wrote phanfic and for me it just didn't make sense that they'd be enemies at all to begin with? but then i got hit with dabihawks and hoooooo boy now i adore enemies to lovers lmao

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

honestly i don't think i've lost my taste for anything in particular that i didn't already dislike? like i am truly struggling to come up with anything i liked at one point and now am not so into (even just like a shift to neutrality over liking it) and i am entirely at a loss lmao

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

yes absolutely !!!! the first time i wrote smut was a huge jump outside my comfort zone, and we all know how that turned out over time lmao. i tried out a bit of a wonky sci fi tale many moons ago and i think that really helped me solidify a base to build my emotional writing skills on.

near the end of my first fandom writing stretch, i switched from first person to 3rd person, and that basically...became my entire mode of writing from that point on. coincidentally, it helped me build new skills in eliciting strong emotions without relying on the benefits of first person narration

then when i switched fandoms, i tried my hand at my very first multi-ship fic, which sort of became the basis of some of the works and worlds i'm most proud of, and helped me flex my muscles with integrating relationships beyond just the main pairing into a story

this was also the first fandom for which i wrote stories that didn't have a happy ending (after living in a world where i promised happy endings, always) - ultimately i think this let me feel more comfortable exploring less wholesome emotions? not that everything i had before was wholesome, but being able to tell a story and be okay with it not having a happy ending was an interesting door to prop open [insert 'this is a surprise tool that'll help us later' image lmao]

i also pushed my worldbuilding limits in this fandom to produce what i consider one of my most complex fics from a worldbuilding perspective, it really tested my skills both in the art of translating canon lore to a unique world and investing in another multi-ship fic with 4 prominent romantic ships and at least 2 prominent platonic relationships, plus a myriad of less intensive platonic and familial relationships - overall i think that really helped me get a handle on worldbuilding in less complex scenarios? as well as incorporate tangential relationships to enhance a story or world

i also stretched my skills in canon-adjacent worldbuilding/future fic, which was a new territory to try to worldbuild in, so i had a lot of work around problem-solving within canon based on the path i was trying to go with the story. it ended up being an interesting dive into character study and analysis that lent itself well to what i consider a 'standard' method now for testing out new ships - starting in canon, with a scenario that interests me but wouldn't be wildly out of place in canon, and using that as a jumping point to get a handle on the dynamic. this was also my first attempt at ot3 fic, so that was good practice for future 3somes :)

shortly after i started writing genshin fic, i had an idea that really tested me quite a bit, partly because someone actually left quite an unkind comment and it made me reflect on the story - and what upset me wasn't their comment, per se, but that they discovered something about my story that, once i saw it, felt lacking. i think that although it was an uncomfortable situation, ultimately that helped me reflect more on my character arcs and motivations, and it's actually very much standard practice now when i get stuck somewhere while writing to pace out a character's motivation to help me keep my focus on their arc

long after i got into genshin, i wrote a fic for a character without a name. like. a whole entire almost 7k of a story where the pov character has no name. this taught me nothing cause i literally did it again lmao

i will also toss in my general cop-out commentary that any time i write a new pairing, it's outside my comfort zone! and it's always a good way to stretch my thoughts and approaches as i consider the nuances of a new dynamic, and i think it helps me too in looking at characters and dynamics i've written before with new skills in my pocket

31. What’s your ideal fic length to write?

hmm probably in the ~15k range? i feel like that's where i have enough range to really fully flesh out an idea and go through a broader story but not so long that there's complex worldbuilding involved? not that i don't love writing longfic, but the time and investment that goes into them can sometimes be overwhelming and it's not something i want every fic to entail lmao

32. What’s your ideal fic length to read?

under 10k!! this is like the super sweet spot for me to look at it and go 'yeah i'll leave that open in a tab to read during a short break or while i'm eating lunch or-' etc etc. more than that and i default to going 'oh i should mark that for later' and unfortunately those often disappear into the aether lmao

[send me fic/writing asks from this list!]

#ask #anon #aewinning #ask game #writing game

[winter-weepingwillow]

So maybe Kaeya replicates what he sees/learns???

I know I promised myself that I would keep my own theories hidden until the very end, but I really, really need to get at least this off my chest (since it will be a very long journey before the end of the game anyway): aside from the HUGE lore about Kaeya Alberich (concerning Nibelungenslied, Dainsleif, the sword, humanity, the Abyss and the power from beyond; the pawn from Khaenri'ah; the seemingly fake Vision – case AND orb–; Albedo, Klee, Rhinedottir/Gold, the Unknown God, and so on), I've seen very few people talk about Kaeya's abilities, voicelines and/or constellations. Or maybe I'm just a big dummy and I'm making castles in the air.

Anyway.

First off, MiHoyo isn't the tipe to forget or neglect or leave aside details, as we have several proofs in murals concerning different ancient languages and myths, two different languages and alphabets plus the hilichurian, the tiniest little specs about characters, environment, artifacts, even bosses, books, creatures and drops. Or Vision cases, for all we care (wink wonk), so it comes out as quite strange that Kaeya's second constellation, "Never-Ending performance" bears the same name as one of the OSTs in Childe's boss fight.

This doesn't quite add up and I actually don't have a real explication, aside from the speculation that both Childe and Kaeya are somehow connected to the Abyss. Or maybe they met before and/or already know each other.

Next up are the (in)famous English lines: "Dodge this" and "Freeze" during his Elemental Skill: this is a more popular opinion. We heard those lines already when we fight against the Treasure Hoarders.

This theory is a bit more straightforward as it is canon that Kaeya studies and observes them in secret, trying to conduct an investigation. So, he often comes in contact with them and maybe received their influence in language.

Oh and let's not forget about the line of the Cryogunner Legionnaire: "Don't get frostbite", the same one as Kaeya's burst...

Lastly for this rambling moment, we have the comparison between Kaeya's combact style and Bennett's: Kaeya moves similarly to Bennett in the first four hits and then he TELEPORTS [much like Rosaria's E (!!! Replicating that too?). Or maybe this mysterious "power from beyond" used in the Abyss].

Maybe this one is a bit of a stretch because perhaps Kaeya trained Bennett so I could be gloriously wrong.

I found this source on Reddit in which Kaeya is analysed under other aspects, for example that he might have grown in a twisted environment, his presence in the manga, his character, his connection to Khaenri'ah and not only that, but I'll let you read it.

Trust me, it's worth it and it explains really well a part of one of my own theories too.

So following this speculation and analysis, it is possible that, as we know well by now, Kaeya has connections all throughout Teyvat (hmm I wonder how? coff coff ley lines maybe coff coff) so it's very likely that he's been trying to adapt to his new life by mimicking (ahem) other's behaviour, way of living, etc.

Maybe to adapt, or maybe to feel more... human.

Oh and one more thing (but that's just partly related to the replicating-thing): his passive, Glacial Heart, had a different name before version 1.2... Heart of the Abyss. Yes, it is real. No, I am not kidding.

This, together with some of the loading screen's descriptions, falls all too well with the theory I just presented. One of them says: "Driven on by the Abyss, they covet the lives of those who live on the surface, and dream of overturning the rule of the gods".

Additionally, there are lots and lots of bits and pieces that I personally find a little too convenient (too many references to the ice and/or the cryo element while other characters simply don't have that often; his base attack name; his outfit and other voicelines, etc.), but I'll stop here: this was meant to be me blabbing and speculating about too many doubles.

As for the rest, I think I'll keep my own promise to myself (at least for now ;P)

That's it, it's over (until I bottle all up all over again and eventually explode once more) I swear. Sorry for the rambling :')

#genshin impact #speculation #genshin kaeya #kaeya alberich #genshin impact kaeya #genshin lore #genshin theory #ramblings #genshin rambles #kaeya analysis #i just love this man so much #i'll just leave this here

[undertale-data]

Closing Remarks

Feelings about the Survey

Ficus Licker: Thank you guys for taking our survey. When we started this project, it was just for fun, and I thought maybe a couple hundred or so people would take it. Receiving over 2500 responses was amazing and allowed us to view more accurate trends across the fandom. Everyone has been super nice and supportive throughout this project, including my fellow contributors. They’re great at reminding me to get sleep and not go too crazy stupid trying to do everything at once. There’s a limit to the amount of things you can do today, after all.

Vessel #1: I never expected this to get so big either. I’m just very glad for all the support we got throughout the event, both from the team, and every single one of you! It’s true that no research can be done without flaws, but this was a really good experience overall and I hope you guys liked being a part of it as much as we did.I felt like working with the team was amazing. Hell, I’m starting the Ficus Licker and Vessels [and redacted] fan club, because they’re brilliant people and it’s surprising they can still stand me. It’s like working on a group project where everyone does their part and it flows almost perfectly jsjsjs.

I’m excited to see how people react to our work, or if they motivate others to do their own events. Whatever it is, I’m rooting for all of you!

Vessel #2: Being a part of this survey has been a delight. I was technically the one who came up with the idea, but I wasn’t expecting my teammates to step up so hard and put it together so gorgeously. I think we all learned a lot about data analysis, different social media platforms, and graphic design, but for me, the biggest takeaway has been the overwhelming positivity of the fandom’s reactions. At first I was half joking about wanting to study the fandom because I thought statistics were cool, expecting this to be a niche project that a few friends responded to. Instead I was blown away by fans who were just as hyped about the data as I was. It was also the best feeling in the world to read through pages and pages of responses from all over the internet, and realize that so many different people have so much in common with me in their connections to this game. Thank you to everyone who participated, especially to my fantastic fellow Vessel and Ficus Licker, [and redacted if they would like to be credited] for turning my silly math ramblings into such a work of art. <3

Feelings about UNDERTALE

Ficus Licker: I never expected to get this deep into Undertale. I did not know anything about the game before playing it, except that there was a square robot named Mettaton, and that Sans was a meme. I only got it because it was on sale and I thought it would be a simple way to pass some time. And, well, here we are. I’m always a sucker for found family, as well as for video game mechanics influencing plot and/or lore, so it was no surprise that I ended up loving the game so much. I want a found family like the one in Undertale, even if I know that's not realistic haha.

Vessel #1: I honestly do not know what decisions led me here. Maybe it’s that when I played Undertale I was hooked. And I guess I also have a love for surveys, data and just… trying to understand people’s motivations. V2 said something about studying the fandom and I just exploded with the need to do it. Still, in general, Undertale and Deltarune meant a lot to me, they pushed me to be more creative, I found a huge community and met a lot of cool people (like FL, V2, and [redacted] even if they’re really far away). Oh! And as someone who’s terrible at video games, the game mechanics and story always made me stay determined. And that is not even mentioning the music, which is probably what motivated me to try out the games in the first place. Anyways… to cut it short, I love both the game, its story, and music and the people I’ve met because of it, thanks so much!

Vessel 2: I started playing Undertale because my friend was obsessed with it, and I’m so glad I did. The characters are all so fun and complex, and I think about them constantly. And the morals questions brought up by the game are so cool, I keep coming back to them. Still, it also manages to be a neat little game filled with friendly characters and a fabulous soundtrack. I love the depth and heartwrenching scenes, but more than that, I love that they are just… some guys. They are my some guys. Mettaton if you're out there you're doing fantastic.

-

If you would like to view all of the posts on this blog in google doc format, you are welcome to do so in this google drive folder. Also, our askbox will remain open if fans have questions on collecting fandom data. We will likely not answer all questions, but if you scream into the Void, the Void may scream back.

#closing remarks #undertale fandom census #ficus licker #vessel 1 #vessel 2

[popurikat]

Newtmas essay when?

Finally getting to this, thanks for waiting, I needed to go over a few bookmarks. (Warning, this post contains spoilers from the MAZE RUNNER book and FEVER CODE book, so if you haven’t read either or yet and want the jist of my analysis; just know that in general the fandom interpreting Newt as gay before it was revealed on a twitter post was not just a random headcanon and that Thomas in general is portrayed to have very strong unconditional love for Newt throughout the series; and it shows. To the point that even the director for the movie has stated that Newt and Thomas have a strong bond and portrays that in the movies. I will also preface that I am NOT adding personal opinion anywhere here, these are just backings from quotes and how they are thus meant to be taken/read as. My words are taken as a reader who is currently reading Scorch Trials has yet to fully read Death Cure or Crank Palace.) Anways, without further ado at 3AM today, I’ll try my best to explain how even though Dashner tries his best to make Thomas have other, female love interests; he creates a not so subtle gay subtext for Tommy boy here when in the context of interacting with Newt throughout the lore. Apologies beforehand for any grammar mistakes along the way.

To commence, I am going to start with FEVER CODE, as its supposed to act as the story’s preface to the actual events that play out later. Newt and Thomas upon meeting each other describe their presence as “familiar” and or as a “long lost friend” and they genuinely hit it off from the start to the point that Newt is okay with having Thomas see him cry over the fact that he and his sister are separated since he is doomed to be WCKD’s control analysis as he’s the only one lacking immunity from the flare itself. Once Newt is done being emotionally vulnerable we get our first instance of his personal nickname for Thomas: “That’s the way things are Tommy,’ he said his voice not quite steady. ‘The world outside’s gone to hell. Why should we expect any different here? [...] He said it as if they’d been friends for years” (ch. 14).   An interesting note here is that Thomas doesn’t bother to correct him or stifle the moment by feeling that all this information was too much, he genuinely wanted to hear Newt out and is fine with seeing this side of him; if not slightly taken aback by how natural it is that they can converse about such aspects of their lives. In fact, Newt makes such an impact on Thomas that Thomas ends up that same night dreaming of him: “Throughout his shortened night, he dreamed of Newt and Sonya. Of Newt and Lizzy“(Ch. 14). The thing with Thomas though is that the idea of comfort and connection is very foreign to him as he’s been basically isolated all his life with only the adults like Ava to talk to and the one exception being Teresa as his only kid companion. So Thomas didn’t even think he could make others like him for being himself unless they were vital to the overall production of WCKD. Seeing this portion right before the end of chapter 14: “Alby, Minho, Newt, Teresa. Thomas had friends.” shows that Thomas really had to deep dive to see how he deals with personal connections and why he was excited about the notion of friendship. He could’ve been happy with just Teresa, but only fully cemented her bond to him as “friend” when his circle grew and these kids he got to hang with taught him he can be himself, a concept he didn’t realize was possible when all his life was dictated on what he was supposed to learn or do. It becomes especially clear just how controlled his life is with the aspect of sentiment when later on Teresa’s mental communication evokes physcial pain and fear in Thomas. I’ll get back to that later as its more of a small tid bit of Thomas’ view on his forced love interest, Teresa. And yes, I say forced because multiple sentences with Thomas have him even wish he could cease all communication with her. Moving on, let’s talk about mimicking for a second. As humans, we mimic as a behavioral response to become closer to the person we care about. It’s the reason why yawning or laughter is contagious and or why we copy the posture of the person we converse with face to face. Thomas is seen to do this the most with Newt’s quirks. I’ll give the example in chapter 15: “Newt has been promising them that he was saving something special, and he did that annoying zipped-lipped sign every time [...] the little light in his eyes showed he enjoyed every second of their torture” versus Thomas: “Thomas did Newt’s zipped-lipped gesture, and that got him a sharp poke in the ribs”. So, we know enough that Thomas’ mannerisms are developing as a sign that he wants to be closer to Newt and to continue this sense of playfulness they both enjoy from the other. This is the start of their budding bond and a clear indication that they hold each other at greater fondness than the rest through this unconscious copying. Through this copying, they also pick up on emotional cues the other lets up on. Newt is especially good at noticing small things like when Thomas is anxious or overthinking: “He was just shocked that with all their exploring, the others hadn’t already discovered it on their own. And there were supposed to be TWO mazes. How had Newt and his friends not stumbled upon either one of them? ‘Tommy?’ Thomas realized Newt was staring straight at him, eyebrows raised. ‘Sorry,’ he said embarrassed, ‘wandered off for a second there what did you say?’ Newt shook his head in admonishment. ‘Try to keep up, Tommy Are you ready to see the grat outdoors?” (ch. 15). Also in chapter 23: “Tommy?’ It was Newt, breaking him out of his thoughts. ‘I can see your wheels spinnin’ up there.’ He tapped the side of his head”. This furthers Newts perceptiveness on his friend and Thomas’ ability to pick out when he is being looked after. And they bounce off each other really well in that aspect. To the point that Newt can crack a joke he knows will land right on Thomas’ sense of humor: “Newt waggled his fingers in front of Thomas’ face [...] A laugh exploded out of Thomas’ mouth that sent a spray everywhere. ‘Sorry’ he said, wiping his lips on his sleeve” (ch.15). It’s enjoyable to know that at least at a surface level, they have fun together and can cheer the other up if needed or know when to ground the other to reality. It is also through these instances that as a reader I pick up that Thomas’ nervous ticks perhaps allude to an anxiety disorder he has; of which Newt is aware of and never puts Thomas down on for exhibiting. He in fact understands it and deals with it accordingly as he himself has a similar circumstance. SO, what does all this paying attention lead to? Thomas’ devotion to protect Newt. Yeah, thats right I said devotion. Thomas’ actions are influenced by his developed instinct to protect Newt at all costs. Here is the biggest example that comes to mind: “What in the world happened to Newt? -- Less then two hours later, Thomas had spliced together a series of camera clips [...] Thomas turned off the feed. He couldn’t take it anymore...Newt, Newt, Newt, Thomas thought, feeling as if the very air around him were turning black.”(ch.52). Essentially, Thomas seeing Newt plummet to his near death by falling from the maze wall as a result of Newt’s ongoing depressive state, this is the moment that makes Thomas realize WICKD isn’t as good as they seem and that he is going into the maze to save Newt. Its admirable how much self sacrifice Thomas does for someone he cares so much about, to the point that their name is like a mantra. Thats a sensible area of passion and fighting spirit for someone who is “just a friend”.    Oh and, the feeling of fondness is mutual mind you if I haven’t been clear. After experiencing the horrors of cranks for the first time, realizing Newt was not immune, and watching Newt until they entered the pits it has been months since they last interacted; this is their first reunion: “What’s up Tommy?’ Newt exclaimed, his face filled with genuine happiness at the pleasant surprise that’s been sprung on him. Thomas couldn’t remember exactly how long it’d been since he’d seen Newt. ‘You look bloody fantastic for three in the morning” (ch. 23). I need to preface this that Newt DOES NOT mean that sarcastically and that out of all the people in the room (Minho, Chuck and Teresa are there in this scene), Thomas only reacts this way specifically toward seeing Newt is okay and back.   The characters are also not afraid of being physically close. “Well, look who the bloody copper dragged in,’ Newt said, pulling Thomas into a big hug” (ch.31), “They shook hands, and then the two of them set off...” (ch. 31), and my favorite: “Thomas jumped at the sound, then stumbled. Newt tripped over him, and then they were both laughing, legs and arms tangled in a pile on the ground”(ch.32). I don’t think this far in the novel, Thomas has been AS (emphasis on as) comfortable with touch  with anyone else other than Newt. And thats a big step forward on the aspect of trust in a relationship, being able to be comfortable with the presence of another person enough to be as intimate with them as shown here.  And all this, is just fever code itself. Mind you this is not the MEAT of the novels as it came out later. But even without it, lets look at Thomas in Maze now, I’ll try to keep this segment a lot more brief. Here’s Thomas looking respectively at boys his age: “A tall kid with blond hair and a square jaw...a thick, heavy muscled Asian kid folded his arms as he studied Thomas, his tight shirtsleeves rolled up to show off his biceps [...] Newt was taller than Alby too, but looked to be a year or so younger, His hair was blond and cut long, cascading over his T-shirt. Veins stuck out of his muscled arms”(ch. 2). Thomas’ initial reaction to being surrounded by boys is to deeply analyze their rugged good looks and heavily emphasize their best physical traits. When reading this the first time, my mind immediately thought this boy at the very least is supposed to be portrayed as bi, especially when later down the line Teresa gets a similar descriptor: “...despite her paleness, she was really pretty...silky hair, flawless skin, perfect lips, long legs.” So right off the bat, we know that be it boy or girl, Thomas emphasizes how attractive someone looks in his eyes when he truly does have a sense of attraction to them. Case closed. Within the same chapter we get Thomas also immediately clinging onto Newt for a sense of grounding, it is now ingrained in him at this point that the boy is his lifeline, a person to rely on. “Thomas looked over at Newt, hoping for help.” And help he does, Newt in this chapter helps ease his worries, explain a general idea of what the glade is and even pats him on the shoulder a bit to ease tension. And Thomas doesn’t bat an eye in the same way he’s weary of literally everyone else. In fact, he’s eager to stay put with him as shown with; “If Newt went up there, then I wanna talk to him.” And if none of that seals the deal, we got early bird Newt being so touch starved he flattens himself next to Thomas to wake him up at the crack of Dawn in chapter 6: “Someone shook Thomas awake. His eyes snapped open to see a too-close face staring down at him, everything around them still shadowed by the darkness of early morning...’Shh, Greenie. Don’t wanna be waking up Chuckie, now, do we?’ It was Newt --the guy who seemed second in command; the air reeked of his morning breath. Though Thomas was surprised, any alarm melted away immediately”. This whole scene follows firstly by Thomas once again impressed by how strong Newt is and then Newt giving him a rundown of what everyone else was too afraid to show Thomas, the grievers. And you know, this scene could’ve ended well and everything as totally platonic, but then we have “Newt turned to look at him dead in the eye. The first traces of dawn had crept up on them, and Thomas could see EVERY DETAIL OF NEWT’S FACE, HIS SKIN TIGHT, HIS BROW CREASED.” Now, look me in the eye and tell me there is a hetero explanation on looking at your best bro like they are the sun reincarnated themselves. But let’s not hog all the homosexual undertones with Thomas here. Wanna know what Newt’s initial reaction to having a girl in the glade was? “It’s a girl,’ he said [...] Newt shushed them again. ‘That’s not bloody half of it,’ he said, then pointed down into the box. ‘I think she’s dead” (ch.8). It’s actually a stark contrast to the other gladers eagerly wanting to know her age, how pretty she looked, and calling dibs to date her; Newt isn’t interested in any of that, he’s more perplexed on her status and not even bothering to remark on her looks, he was the only one not to and even remarks a few other instances that girls are more Thomas’ domain. For instance, he makes a joke in fever code when Thomas remarks that the girls in the institution were going to tackle him down, Newt proceeds to point out sarcastically something along the lines of “wait, isn’t that YOUR dream though?” So Newt is pretty out spoken of his disinterest in girls, and his full admiration and attention on Thomas. Oh, and yes, Newt immediately switches over to “Tommy” the moment Thomas mentions he hates being called greenie, and once again it just becomes a thing between only the two of them. Newt is also the one to be straight forward about the whole Runners business. He warns Thomas about the dangers and doesn’t necessarily turn him down on his desire to be one, he in fact encouraged him to just wait until the right moment. “No one said you couldn’t, but give it a rest for now”(ch. 15). So once again, Newt is the voice of confidence and reason for Thomas to prosper. In turn, this time around Thomas is the one to catch when something is bothering Newt. For instance, “Newt chewed his fingernails, something he hadn’t seen the older boy do before...he was genuinely concerned -- Newt was one of the few people in the Glade he actually liked ”(ch.16). Interesting how we went from fever code “friend” to “like”. And also, when Newt explains his concern about the runners not coming back yet, Thomas pieces together how scared Newt is of the Maze without being told and goes to stand next to him as a physical presence to ground Newt as they wait near the entrance. In fact, this piece is trivial to understand why Thomas does what he does next. When everyone else had given up on the Runners still outside with 2 minutes left til closing, and Newt was escorted away from the entrance, Thomas waited. And when Thomas saw them, he yells to Newt, realizes he’s too far to do anything, and makes a decision himself. He KNEW how much Newt cared about his fellow Gladers, they were like family or “kin” as its said in the book, so what does he do? “Don’t do it Tommy! Don’t you bloody do it!’ ... Thomas knew he had no choice. He moved. Forward. He squeezed past the connecting rods at the last second and stepped into the maze”(ch.16). Yes, Thomas does this because of his empathy for the Gladers, but the chain reaction of Newt’s concern is what sets his decision in stone. And yet again, Thomas enters the maze for Newt.  And that’s pretty much the constant for the rest of Maze Runner the book, Newt just sticking up for Thomas and Thomas in turn just being happy that: “He was at least relieved that Newt was there” (ch.17). And thats basically their entire dynamic. Newt just going: “If you really did help design the maze Tommy, it’s not your fault. You‘re a kid -- you can’t help what they forced you to do” to ease the survivor’s trauma Thomas has, as well as saying “I actually believe you. You just don’t have an ounce of lying in those eyes of yours. And I can’t bloody believe I’m about to say this...but I’m going back in there to convince those shanks we should go through the griever hole, just like you said”(ch.51); and I think thats the most romantic thing to hear from him. Just right out being all for supporting Thomas no matter what happens as long as he stays alive and continues to fight, he doesn’t care about what happened before. And Thomas eats that up because it fuels him even more to seek out a means to escape for the people (Newt) that deserve a life outside of running from monsters forever. So essentially, I’ll state again, it’s always been Newt the catalyst for Thomas to run head first into the Maze and seek freedom. And with all this I can clear that these two are shown to if not be romantically involved, at least have unconditional love for the other that transcends the author’s original intention.  And with that in mind, here’s the thing with Teresa as a love interest. I can list here quotes of every time she mind speaks to Thomas and how that affects him, but then this would be too long. And this is a newtmas post gosh darn it. Teresa is gleeful to humiliate, control, hurt, and force Thomas to believe they’re in love. In multiple instances we get her barging into his mind unwarranted making him understand that she has full access to his inner most thoughts. Theres nothing romantic about that, and I think its why Thomas ends up being so perceptive to the smallest of gestures that allow him to think on his own and feel like his own person. Something I’ve seen Brenda do later in scorch, and something I’ve seen Newt do since the very beginning is that they allow Thomas to come to his own conclusions in order to create his own opinions on the matters at hand. Thomas’ love language revolves around words of affirmation. He likes it when people confirm his thoughts are valid and that remind him that WICKD can’t hurt him anymore now that he has the power to be his own person. This is where Newt comes in very handy. He allows Thomas to grow in ways his female love interests have yet to show, sorry Brenda but I’ve heard you were trying to unite all immunes together to the safe haven by the end and in a sense still only using Thomas to get by; I still think she was the better call than teresa of course and I have no remorse for Teresa getting smushed by a boulder. But essentially my point here is that, how do you fail to make your initial love interests clash so badly where one has no real care about the others well being so long as everything goes according to WCKD by using a form of gaslighting and manipulation? AND THOMAS HAS STATED HIS DISCOMFORT ON THIS MULTIPLE TIMES, but the narrative always erases these instances from his mind in place of pity for Teresa’s well being (as you can tell, Teresa through this becomes my least favorite character, I can rant about her some othe time though with proper backing). The narrative in turn treats it all like a joke. I understand there are scenes where Thomas is worried about her and looks out to make sure shes ok, but even then he doesn’t know how to react with mental images of her kissing his cheek or when she screams the next minute that she doesn’t know who he is or how hes speaking into her mind. And thats because they can’t properly communicate their emotions to the other, not even in fever code could Thomas give a forward answer if he loved Teresa or not, she just assumed. Come to think of it, Thomas really doesn’t show much affection to Teresa of his own accord. So then, how DOES Thomas show his affection? Thomas provides acts of service as his love language, if he cares about you enough he will risk his life for you. Why? Because Thomas values putting the people he loves foremost knowing full well they are what help him have purpose and succeed in continuing on. In a way, Newt and Thomas’ dynamic works in this instance because they balance the other out and because they have seen each other at their worst and at their best. In a way, that's why knowing the ending of the books makes it harder to accept that Thomas would just easily take the shot...when all his life clung to Newt’s survival. But that’s a story for another time where I compare the movies (of which let me make that clear, yes I prefer) over the books. For now just know that the book may have done this by accident, maybe not, but at the end of the day theres solid proof that Thomas and Newt care about each other in a way that is separately portrayed from their connection to the other glade members, and have this consistency of soft moments running through the entirety of the series. In conclusion; newtmas. Newtmas. NEWTMAS, etc.

#Newtmas #long post #Skquill #ask #The ending gets a bit ranty with Teresa I must admit #but for the most part its just me recalling the best newtmas moments from the novels I've currently read #Please add on more newtmas proof to the thread

[genshinconfessions]

Hello! So, I’ve just come to discover the lore surrounding the Narukami’s weapon ascension materials and I’m here to, yet again, make another Baal analysis since the descriptions of the materials mainly surround her.

I’m not going to rewrite the descriptions to all of the materials, but I’ll summarize them as best as I can, since I somewhat struggled to understand certain parts.

Narukami’s Wisdom: The “Electro Misudomoe”, or better described as the Electro Vision’s design/the tattoo on Baal’s neck, was crafted from bent wood that was charred by lightening on Mt. Yuogou as an offer to Baal. The symbol is known to symbolize wisdom, favor, and might of electro, as well as the people that represent such values.

Narukami’s Joy: In the ancient past, those that were deeply trusted by Baal wore talismans with the hooked design of the Misudomoe. “Commission” in the past, meant to “joyfully serve” and those who received favor of Baal would return it with loyalty and love. To add a direct quote: “Yet, after a certain point in time, nothing would be the same as it was before.”

Narukami’s Affection: To simply put it, it is mentioned that all demons will be attracted to the sight of Baal. It mentions how, while their life is longer than most, they will eventually die and that if they yearn after eternity they can only pray that “eternity” remembers them. Baal had answered their prayers, remembering both friends and foes in her heart no matter what it was (in the description, they give a long list of possible “demons” that prayed to her). It is said that the tales rest within Baal’s heart and that they will shine again in “the eternal paradise of her dreams”.

Narukami’s Valor: It mentions that the treasure of the lord of thunder is her majesty (Baal), and that majesty is embodied in her valor and wrath that wrath comes from the love that persists in her heart, and the valor that supports her anger. Another direct quote: “Thus, whomsoever should block the path towards eternity or lay a finger on Inazuma’s people shall become her foe.” It goes on to mention how their were 4 great spirits, 3 divine foxes, and 2 great swords, “but that the symbol of Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, could only be a single strike, unsurpassed and brilliant as a meteor” (another direct quote).

Now, this is a little harder for me to study and write about. Certain words and lore trip me up here, but I want to do my best to decipher, theorize, and predict a lot that is mentioned in these descriptions (which I tried, and failed, to simplify).

Now to start of with Narukami’s Wisdom, I think this description is simply to give the backstory on how the “Electro Misoudomoe” came to be and what it symbolizes. I think it’s nice to learn a bit of history regarding how the symbol came to be made and named, but now my question is, does this confirm that that electro symbol was designed while Baal was the present archon?

Moving onto Narukami’s Joy, I think this is when we start to get a bit of understanding regarding Baal’s character. It mentions how people in the past used to “joyfully serve” Baal and how people that Baal deeply trusted wore the talismans with the hooked design. I also think it’s interesting how it mentions that those who were in her favor (one of the things the “Electro Misoudomoe’s” symbolizes) retuned the favor with love and loyalty, which some Inazuma citizens still seem to have based off of some gameplay. Now, to get to the real kicker, is when it mentions how after a certain point, everything had changed and was never like it was before (my guess is that this is in regards to Kitsune Sauguu).

(Spoilers for “Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual” quest!) Leading onto Narukami’s Affection, I like how they mention “demons” trying to achieve eternity and praying that said “eternity” (Baal) remembers them, and that she indeed does. Every single one, whether friends or foes. In the actual description, Kitsune Sauguu is mentioned, a women mentioned in the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual quest that was an ally to Baal and defended the people of Inazuma alongside her. The description, to quote, says “the Kitsune Sauguu who once walked by her side, but who eventually disappeared forever…” It is said that her body and mind were consumed by the Abyss. At the end of Narumami’s Affection, it mentions that all the tales will come to shine in the paradise of her dreams. I wonder if the dream is in reference to everything Baal is currently trying to achieve with Eternity.

Finally, Narukami’s Valor, the first part of this description really confuses me. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve yet to understand what it means, or if it’s because of the way it’s written, but my interpretation of it is basically that it means the anger that Baal feels comes from the love within her heart, and her valor supports the anger. Baal being mentioned as “the lord of thunder” also embodies said valor and wrath (??). Moving on from that specifically, the following part where it mentions how Baal will become enemies to anyone that lays a finger on Inazuma’s people or block her path to eternity intrigues me a lot. We are made to believe that Baal doesn’t care for the citizens of Inazuma and that her goal of Eternity is entirely selfish, and yet, this line somewhat proves otherwise. It shows that she does care, and the following line, “Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, could only be a single strike, unsurpassed and brilliant as a meteor,” gives a description as to just how powerful that Baal really is.

In conclusion- since I don’t want this to be too long -I think that something in Baal’s past has drastically changed the way that she rules Inazuma, but she still cares deeply for the people residing in it. I think that I won’t come to fully understand Baal’s actions until her backstory and motive is released, but the main thing that I can tell is that Baal is extremely powerful and I don’t know how anyone will be able to take her gnosis.

I know this wasn’t the best explanations for the Narukami’s weapon ascension materials, this is my first time actually looking deep into the lore of ascension materials/artifacts at all, and some of the words used really tripped me up. I hope somebody will come along and explain the meanings better than I did, but I wanted to share it while it was still on my mind.

I hope these long studies don’t bother anyone. 😅 I don’t really have anyone to share these with, and typing these out on anon make me a lot more comfortable than making my own post- for some reason -but I know I write stupidly long asks so I hope no one minds.

- Baal anon :)

SPOILERS FOR INAZUMA/BAAL/LORE!!!!

baal anon, i am so tired rn but this was super interesting and i had to read all of it.

first off, i must say that i don't think i've unlocked this domain yet and i especially do not keep up with artifact/material lore, but your analysis was so thorough!

i will not comment on all of it, but i will say that i doubt any god who rules a country truly wishes ill for their citizens. especially since, as we know from venti, their power is derived from how many people believe in them. if they really wished ill for their citizens, well, they would probably die too.

also, i think that it's quite common for people to look at baal and her vision decree and think that she's a cruel ruler with no regard for her people (paraphrasing dain @ tsaritsa here), but—and idk how far you are into the quest(s)—baal is implied to want eternity specifically to protect her people. she rarely interferes with normal civilian life (other than the vision stuff) and if you talk to some of the npcs, they’ll tell you that aside from the strict rules, inazuma is actually quite peaceful and would be a great place to settle later in life.

although of course we know that inazuma is teeming with enemies, most people would probably never venture that far out into the country to bump into anything really dangerous.

another point(?) to keep in mind is that this story is clearly based off of the shogunate in real life. the reason why japan began isolation (according to wikipedia) was to get rid of foreign influences, and as we all know, the americans ended up forcing them to open the country. take that as you will, but also with a grain of salt because i literally googled this in two seconds (also mihoyo ain’t really following History history here lol).

lastly, please never feel bad about sending in asks, long or short. we feel honored that you feel comfortable enough with us to share your opinions and theories, and we want you to continue to feel like that. this goes for everyone on our page as well!!

- katheryne from liyue

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin confessions #genshin headcanons #genshin theories #genshin lore #genshin baal #baal #raiden shogun

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Rewatch & Review: 1x04 Phantom Traveler

In this week’s analysis, I’ll be discussing the unfortunate introduction of Abrahamic mythology, the lamentable gender politics of Dean in his nightwear, and magic languages.

Supernatural’s fourth offering, 1x04 Phantom Traveler, (not a misspelling, 'traveller' is spelt like that in America) is a solid episode. It’s not fantastic, and Supernatural certainly has better to offer, but it’s still an entertaining watch which introduces demons into the Supernatural universe and continues developing Dean and Sam’s characters, making them more distinct.

It is also the first episode Robert Singer directed for Supernatural. I didn’t see much to particularly comment on in the direction for this episode (my two years of Media Studies were not wasted on me at all), but one interesting choice, however, is the tracking shot of Dean’s sleeping form straight after the title card. EscapingPurgatory podcast had a shrewd postulation: the intended audience was heterosexual educated men between the ages of roughly 15 and 39, but a lot of them would be watching with their girlfriends and wives etc, and Dean is the brother who’s available at the moment.

Returning to the plot of the show, the script does itself a major disservice as early as the cold open. This episode was broadcast in America four years after 9/11 (almost four and a half in Britain) and was right in the middle of the decades-long and still ongoing war on drugs. The atmosphere surrounding airfare has changed fundamentally. The air hostess clearly saw the man’s black eyes and was affected by it, and should have alerted somebody on the plane to her worries, because she would have thought he was on drugs of some variety at the very least, and possibly smuggling drugs on the plane. However, for the purposes of the plot she does not act on her misgivings, but simply gasps and goes about her day.

This raises the question of why the demon revealed its presence like that. Demons are usually incredibly stupid on Supernatural, but this level of dumb is difficult for me to believe. The air hostess could have very easily had the man thrown off the aeroplane, and then its plan would be scuppered. The most likely reason was to show the audience that the man was possessed, but the audience was going to find that out in about a minute’s time anyway, so why reveal it there? It breaks the fourth wall in a bad way.

Whilst on the aeroplane and the demon’s plan, the episode never makes the demon’s motivations explicit. Sure, Sam claims that demons like death and destruction for their own sake, but this doesn’t fit well with how demons behave later in the show. They are, forsooth, as thick as poo, but they usually have higher ups telling them what to do. Was the demon’s repeated downing of aeroplanes part of a higher up’s plan?

Before I go on, it’s worthwhile mentioning that this episode is the first one to introduce the idea of an actual Abrahamic Hell in the Supernatural universe. It’s not the only genre show of its kind to have included something like this, with Charmed having the Underworld where the Source of All Evil resided, and Buffy having various Hell dimensions, but those two examples weren’t Hell as depicted in the Bible.

Joss Whedon specifically avoided the idea of a Hell and employed dimensions ruled by demons and demon gods rather than Archangel Lucifer. Charmed used the Underworld as an equivalent of Hell, but it was not a place of punishment for human souls. While Charmed is definitely my least favourite fantasy/horror/sci-fi genre show (Prue notwithstanding), I appreciated that it took a step away from Abrahamic mythology. Buffy/Angel were even better, having their own mythology that had precious little to do with Middle Eastern religions and more to do with Dunsany, Lovecraft or sometimes even Tolkien.

Kripke, however, took the lazy route with Abrahamic, specifically Christian, mythology, a choice which I believe was to the show’s detriment. It’s supposed to be a show about American folklore and urban legends, but that stuff eventually gets thrown under the bus. Forget Native Americans, screw the Americanised versions of Scandiwegian lore, screw the Old West and the Gold Rush and all the tales revolving around America’s history. And Canada? Pfft. What even is Canada? And don’t even think about Mexico. Let’s just have yet more desert myths from 2-3000 years ago.

My distaste aside, this universe has a Hell (and a Heaven), and demons are made by torturing humans until all humanity is gone from them, or by letting the humans off the torture rack if they agree to become the torturers.

Knowing this, two possibilities come to mind. One is that this demon is repeating its own human death for some reason, and another is that it kills people and drags their souls to Hell to make more demons.

Repeating its own death is entirely speculative, but this episode mixes up demons with traits later associated with ghosts and death echoes. Never again is an EMF reader used to detect demonic activity, and unless I’ve forgotten a certain example, demons aren’t shown to act as specifically as this again.

The second option, that of dragging souls to Hell, doesn’t seem likely as it’s made clear that demon deals or trades are required in order for Hell to get its claws on human souls, at least in usual circumstances. There’s nothing saying that demons can’t just decide to drag certain souls to Hell, and there is an implication at the end of this episode that this might actually be the case, but it’s a stretch. If this were the case, however, it would give the demon a real motive and make the episode less of a stand-alone bit of fun with overt X-Files vibes.

Sticking with Hell events on the aeroplane for now, let’s skip to the end and the exorcism. Whilst trying to exorcise the demon, it tells Sam that Jessica is burning in Hell. Dean tries to reassure Sam by saying that demons read minds and that it was trying to get to him, but demons can only know the minds of people they possess. This then leaves three options: the demon was lying and Jess is in Heaven, it was telling the truth and Jess is in Hell, or the demon was just trying to get to Sam, but unbeknownst to him Jess actually was in Hell.

Technically speaking, Jess shouldn’t be in Hell. She didn’t make a deal (that we know of) and it’s established later in the show that most people go to Heaven anyway. But Kevin didn’t, neither did Eileen or Bobby. Mary did, even though she made a deal with Azazel, and she died under the same circumstances as Jess. As Jess is never mentioned as being in Hell by another demon in the show, and as Dean, Sam and Cas eventually visit Hell and find nothing of her there, we can assume Jessica went to Heaven.

The exorcism in this episode is strange compared to exorcisms in the rest of the show. The Doyle (external to the text) explanation is clearly that the writers didn’t know exactly how they wanted things to work yet, but the Watson (within the text) explanation could be that they used a different exorcism ritual. Later in the show, there is no intermediate stage between being expelled from the host body and being banished to Hell: they just go directly down. This version, though, forces the demon to manifest and thereby makes it much stronger and more dangerous. I personally think the version in this episode makes the demons more of a threat because it’s harder to exorcise them, but I can see why it became streamlined later in the show.

The fact the demon possessed the aeroplane, however, raises the question of why it didn’t do so in the first place. Maybe it’s more fun to possess a human first.

Speaking of the ritual, Jared tells us on the commentary that he had to have a Latin teacher from a local university instruct him in Ecclesiastical Latin because he learnt Classical Latin at school. As a language person, I’m left wondering why. It’s the same language, just pronounced differently. Does the spell need to be pronounced in a certain way in order to work? If so, would the Ancient Romans have been completely incapable of expelling demons with their own language? Would they have had to rely on Greek, Etruscan, Gaulish or Sumerian for the rituals? It’s just completely unnecessary, especially as we later see Rowena casting spells in Scottish Gaelic, Irish witches casting spells in Irish, Celtic ‛demons’ performing rituals in Gaulish…

At least the university teacher got a little bit of extra money, I suppose.

Sticking with the aeroplane a little bit longer, Dean’s fear of flying is a welcome expansion to his character, though it was clearly included with the intent of making fun of him. It could easily have been played as such, but Jensen’s comments on the commentary indicate he saw it as an opportunity to provide more depth to Dean, as his connection with Lucas through their shared childhood trauma did in 1x03 Dead in the Water. In these two episodes, Jensen begins taking Dean away from the writers and making him his own: he was supposed to be the sidekick, but Jensen said nope.

In making Dean afraid of flying, but having him so insistent upon flying in spite of it, The Show perhaps did itself a bit of a disservice in its mission of making Sam The Hero and Dean The Sidekick. Dean was terrified, but flew anyway. That is bravery, and it’s what the audience wants to see in a hero.

Sam, however, does not miss an opportunity to make me dislike him (you knew this was coming at some point, don’t look surprised). Not only is he incredibly unappreciative and derisive of Dean’s talents, such as making his own EMF from an old Walkman, but he was also derisive of Dean’s fear of flying.

Sorry, let me reword that. Derisive of Dean for being scared of flying. It’s perfectly rational to be afraid of being in a giant metal bird suspended miles above the ground, but Dean agreed to it anyway in order to save people. And Sam treats him like a child because he’s scared of take-off and turbulence. Dean’s fear is a rational one, something that a person who hasn’t been sheltered from reality would have. Sam’s greatest fear, however, is…

Clowns.

I get it, they’re brothers, and siblings are supposed to rib on each other like this (the siblings I still talk to aren’t like this with me or each other, so I find it difficult to relate to Dean and Sam’s relationship) but it makes Sam come across as an utter cunny-hole. If somebody is clearly terrified of something and on the edge of a panic attack, you don’t sneer and mock, and then demand he calm down. Sure, Dean needed to calm down and Sam was the only one who could do it, but talking to him like a child just reveals how little Sam knows of taking care of other people. He’s the pampered younger brother, and it really shows.

He also shows a lack of judgement when roughly putting a hand on Dean’s shoulder while he was distracted. Dean’s essentially a war child (and suffers C-PTSD) and you just shouldn’t do things like this to somebody like that. That’s how you trigger panic attacks or flashbacks. Ask a veteran, I’m sure s/he’ll agree.

Aside from that, the middle-aged man on the aeroplane winked at Dean – winked – when Dean was walking down the aisle with his EMF reader. A man winking at a man has sexual overtones nowadays, and has done for a long time. How many men wink at a built guy standing over them like that unless they’re sure they won’t be punched in the face? Dean had his EMF reader out at that moment, but he was simultaneously on somebody else’s radar. Something about Dean set sexual bells ringing in cameo middle-aged man’s head. Regarding Sam, there’s two important moments for him in this episode (Jess aside): when he discovers John talked about and praised him in his absence, and when he exorcises the demon. It’s made clear in a few episodes’ time that Sam never felt like he fit in with his family, and that he believed John was disappointed in him. Exactly how he came to this conclusion is uncertain, since John doted on Sam and afforded him liberties he never would have allowed Dean, but it’s clear their relationship is difficult. Going away to university was Sam’s attempt to run away from the dysfunctional family he felt an outsider in and to escape John (and Dean): that he apparently didn’t speak to either John or Dean during his time there says a lot.

He finds out, however, that John praised him, undermining somewhat Sam’s belief that John regarded him as a disappointment. Episode 1x05 Bloody Mary provides another moment of character growth for Sam that subtly changes the way he perceives himself, but all in due course.

Praise from parents is important for children, and it really shouldn’t be hard for parents to tell their children they’re proud of them, even if they don’t say it in as many words. In spite of his difficult relationship with John, Sam gets that by proxy in this episode (whilst Dean’s happily checking out all the men in the hangar) and it changes the way he sees himself and John, even if only slightly.

The other moment – discussed above – is his exorcism of the demon. I don’t mince my words about disliking Sam, but even I can see he had potential. He’s the weird kid who wanted a normal life, but because of cursed blood had that hope denied him. Series 4 shows us the beginning of what Sam could have turned into when his blood magic arc truly kicks off, and it could have been a riveting plotline if written and handled well. Think for example of Willow in Buffy and the journey she went on with her magic powers: there was real darkness in there, and a gargantuan struggle to overcome it and become stronger.

This exorcism reminds me of Willow’s first steps at witchcraft in 2x22 when she casts the spell to restore a certain character’s soul and we see the potential for true strength as she performs the spell with ease. This exorcism of Sam’s should have been something similar, and his demonic powers should not have been completely removed and forgotten about in 8x23. He could have been Supernatural’s answer to Willow, and the Dark!Sam arc in series 3-7 could have been the first in his descent into darkness and his fight back out to take control of his own powers and become the opposite of what Azazel wanted him to be.

But – and not for the last time – three words come to mind. Such potential, Supernatural.

You might remember I mentioned the tracking shot of Dean (and neglected to mention the revealing shot of his thighs and underwear). Paula R. Stiles’ suggestion that the fact the writers and director for this episode were men doesn’t cheapen it is one I don’t understand. Jensen is in my 100% objective and unbiased opinion one of the finest men alive, but exploiting that in order to draw in an audience does cheapen the show.

To be fair, Supernatural is hardly high culture and commercial television is about revenue, but things like that break the illusion of artistic integrity, just like not making Dean explicitly bisexual does because that’d scare away too much of the audience. If having scantily-clad women in a show or film is there for the male gaze and drawing in money, then so too are Dean’s thighs and buttocks, similarly cheapening the show. If the male gaze objectifies women, stripping them of their power and subjecting them to male desires, then the female gaze objectifies and strips men of any power they might have and subjects them to female desires.

If it’s bad for the gander, it should also be bad for the goose.

Neither do I think it matters one bit that the writer and director are men, or am I supposed to believe a woman has never encouraged or coerced another woman to flash a bit of boob in order to get men to empty their pockets? Claiming that presenting a person as an object of possible sexual attraction turns him into an ‛object’ is strange, and that claim’s only ever made when women are being presented for men’s enjoyment.

But let’s stick to Supernatural because I have work in the morning. To be honest, I never notice if a woman on screen is being subjected to a ‛male’ gaze because I have no sexual or romantic interest in women whatsoever: if a woman is supposed to be portrayed as appealing to men’s eyes, it’ll usually go straight over my head because it just doesn’t register as having anything to do with sex. Interesting, however, is that this begins the trend of treating Dean in certain ways that women are usually treated, or associating him with ‛feminine’ traits.

Some people go overboard with for example Dean’s association with and likeness to Mary, his taking on the parental (maternal?) role in Sam’s upbringing, his knack with children etc, and use it as evidence to suggest that any traditionally masculine behaviour – or masculine behaviour at all – from Dean is a performance to keep up an act so that he can hide how feminine he really is.

My take on this is quite different than the condescending viewpoint that a man behaving like a man is performing and pretending. Dean’s ‛feminine’ traits are not his ‛true’ self in opposition to his feigned masculine behaviour. There is absolutely no contradiction between Dean exhibiting ‛feminine’ traits such as being good with children, cooking, or trying his hardest to fill the role Mary would have filled, and being a masculine man who identifies very strongly with being male.

I do think it’s fascinating, though, and the complexity and depth of Dean as a male character is one of the reasons he is one of my favourite characters. We rarely get to see men who are very manly and also incredibly loving, loyal and paternal and who exhibit a normal range of human behaviours and interests, including ‛masculine’ and ‛feminine’. That’s what normal men are like, something television and film seem to have forgotten.

Regarding Dean in bed, note that he is a stomach sleeper (sleeping on your stomach keeps your tummy safe), and this is consistent throughout all fifteen years of the show. However, this early in the show he takes his trousers, outer shirts and shoes off, in contrast to sleeping fully dressed as he begins doing sometime rather soon. He’s alert and cautious this early in the show, but not yet quite so worn down that he can’t be bothered to get ready for bed.

Note also that both brothers have sleeping problems here. Dean knew Sam was still up at 3am, meaning Dean likely slept for less than three hours, having been woken up by Sam at 5:45.

The end of the episode presents the brothers with something to be hopeful about. John has a new mobile phone number, the first evidence they’ve had so far that he is very probably still alive. It’s not much to go on, and John does not answer Dean and Sam’s call, but it’s something the boys can latch on to and keep them searching for John. Whether or not they should be searching for John is another question altogether, though, but at least it got the plot going in 1x01.,

Phantom Traveler is a strong but flawed episode which builds on last week’s expansion of Dean’s character and role, as well as introducing demons and Hell into the lore. The cut scene where Dean has to remove all his concealed weapons before going into the airport really should have been kept in because it says a lot about his character, as does his sleeping with a blade under his pillow, but other than that, I’m happy to leave this episode now on a positive note.

#Michael's Supernatural Rewatch #SPN Rewatch #spn 1x04 #phantom traveler #sam winchester #john winchester #dean winchester #demons #hell #male gaze #female gaze #christian mythology

[violethowler]

The Heroine’s Journey of Sora

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks writing out my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts and the way the series follows the framework of the Heroine’s Journey. Rather than a bunch of drabbles or a single long-winded post, I’ve decided to break up my explanations of the Heroine’s Journey and the way Kingdom Hearts fits into it as a series of ten essays posted weekly. I will put up a masterpost once all of them are finished, and in the meantime I will have all of them on my blog under the tag ‘Kingdom Hearts and the Heroine’s Journey.’

Due to the length of this essay, I will be putting the full thing under a cut. 

What many Kingdom Hearts fans do not realize is that while Tetsuya Nomura does sometimes make up the details as he goes when it comes to the writing of Kingdom Hearts, he does do things with a plan. 

In the KH3 Ultimania [1], he talked about how he’d had the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Saga outlined by the end of Kingdom Hearts II’s development. In an April 2012 interview [2] with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, he indicated that he’d had a general framework up to Kingdom Hearts II planned out when the original game was first announced. And in a 2004 interview after the original Chain of Memories was released on GameBoy Advance, he mentioned that he’d already come up with the “last scene” that would serve as the definitive ending of the entire series[3]. 

So while some details may be hard to predict because Nomura comes up with lore and backstory details as he goes, he does have a plan in mind where the overall story is going. And the central arc of the series is entirely predictable once you understand the framework that the story fits into. 

Since the late 1800s, scholars have been studying the common patterns that repeat in stories, legends, and myths across different cultures around the world. One of the most well known templates developed from such research is the Hero’s Journey. In his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, literature professor Joseph Campbell published a 17 step formula of storytelling. Campbell held up this framework as the monomyth, an ultimate narrative archetype from which all other stories are derived, and in discussion of his work expressed his view of The Hero’s Journey as a universal framework that showed how people grow from youth into adulthood.

However in the 1980s, Maureen Murdock began work on her own narrative framework. Believing that Campbell’s view on the universality of the Hero’s Journey did not encompass the experiences of every identity like he claimed, Murdock developed what she called The Heroine’s Journey as a critique and response to Campbell’s monomyth. Other authors have shared their own variations of the Heroine’s Journey, but for the purposes of this analysis, I will be focusing on Murdock’s model. Hers is both the oldest one I know of, and the one that I personally have the most familiarity with. Though originally conceived as a therapy tool, the core concepts of Murdock’s template have resulted in its use in storytelling for narratives about protagonists overcoming the ingrained biases and preconceptions of society. 

Some notable examples of stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey template, albeit most with different formulas, include 

Beauty and the Beast

The Hunger Games trilogy

The Princess and the Frog

Tangled

Howl’s Moving Castle

Labyrinth 

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy*

Voltron: Legendary Defender*

*Note: Voltron: Legendary Defender and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy are examples of 3-act narratives that followed the Heroine’s Journey framework in the first 2 acts only for behind-the-scenes conflicts to result in the formula being abandoned in the final act. 

Despite the name, it is possible in theory to have a male protagonist follow the Heroine’s Journey, much like how you can have a female protagonist in a Hero’s Journey.  While nearly every story I know that follows the Heroine’s Journey template has a female protagonist in the lead role, Kingdom Hearts is the first example that I’ve discovered of a male protagonist following this formula. Sora’s arc across the series follows Murdock’s framework so precisely that I was able to correctly predict the broad strokes of how Re:Mind would go three months before the DLC was released. 

Part I: The Beginning

While the Heroine’s Journey mimics the Hero’s Journey in its early stages, it ultimately goes in its own direction. I plan to go into further detail about the differences between the two in a later essay, but for now I will say that while Campbell’s monomyth describes physical plot points and the themes they represent, the Heroine’s Journey formula focuses on the emotional conflict of the narrative and the psychological development of its main characters. The pattern of the Hero’s Journey is fluid and doesn’t have a fixed central theme, while the core element of the Heroine’s Journey is a protagonist coming of age in a society that consciously or not regards them as lesser because they do not fit in with the expectations of the dominant social group. 

I know that some people who decide to read further will be put off by the fact that the names and descriptions of the Heroine’s Journey feature gendered language and focus on discussions of masculinity and femininity, so allow me to explain. The reason for this is that in a Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist is attempting to conform to a set of traits that the audience’s culture values. In pursuing this external validation, the main character has to suppress a vital part of who they are, cutting themselves off from achieving their full potential. The traits they are suppressing are the ones which are often regarded as feminine, while the ones they are trying to conform to are typically associated with masculinity. We see this pattern frequently in movies where the female lead tries to succeed in a male-dominated career field, only to feel lonely and unfulfilled when she finally gets what she wants because she sacrificed the parts of herself that made her who she is along the way. 

Now that I’ve given you a relatively brief summary of the Heroine’s Journey, I can get down to business and walk people through the steps to this template and how it fits with the story of Kingdom Hearts. Note that this is only a basic rundown of the steps of the Heroine’s Journey and how it relates to these games, and I will be posting additional essays shortly which go into greater detail on the themes, character archetypes, and other different layers of the framework that are present in the series. 

Murdock’s version of the Heroine’s Journey begins with the “Separation from the Feminine”. This is the stage where, as mentioned, the protagonist suppresses a core part of themselves in pursuit of external validation. It often takes the form of the protagonist sacrificing their emotional strengths and focuses exclusively on proving themselves in the physical sphere. Sora has demonstrated again and again that his greatest strength is his empathy and his willingness to make connections with others. It makes him a strong unifying force because of how well it complements the people around him. But because this isn’t something tangible in the same way that physical strength is, he doesn’t see the value of it, believing that without the strength of his friends he’s nothing. 

From the way the other kids on Destiny Islands talk about their competitions, Sora’s focus is on trying to prove that he’s just as strong and capable as Riku is. But he’s so focused on proving himself in physical challenges that he doesn’t notice the signs of Riku’s jealousy that lead his friend into the arms of Maleficent. And we see through Anti Form and Rage Form that Sora is still repressing his own negative emotions in Kingdom Hearts III. His narrow focus on external skills has cut him off from achieving the full potential of his internal ones. 

When Sora awakens in Traverse Town after the destruction of Destiny Islands, we come to the second stage of the Heroine’s Journey, “Identification with the Masculine and Gathering of Allies”. This is where the main character chooses to align with the traits and roles that the dominant social group sees as desirable in order to achieve their goal, and where they acquire the allies who will help them in their quest. With the adults around him focusing on his ability to destroy the Heartless, Sora latches onto the Chosen One status that implicitly comes with having a Keyblade. His interactions with Phil and his disappointment with the status of Junior Hero in subsequent games paint Sora as being focused on heroism in the sense of overcoming obstacles with force. Even Donald and Goofy, in the beginning, are focused on Sora’s value as a Keyblade Wielder in terms of how their fight against the Heartless can lead them to King Mickey’s location.

By setting off with Donald, and Goofy, Sora embarks on the “Road of Trials” stage of the Heroine’s Journey. This is one of the few points of similarity between the Heroine’s Journey and the Hero’s, corresponding to Campbell’s “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” stage. This is where the main character faces the initial obstacles and challenges of their quest. In the first few Kingdom Hearts games we have Sora face off against Maleficent, Ansem, and the Organization, before reuniting with Riku and Kairi in The World That Never Was. The final stages of Kingdom Hearts II correspond to the “Finding the Boon of Success” stage of both the Hero and Heroine’s Journeys. 

Part II: Interlude

In a Hero’s Journey, the Boon of Success is the end of the story. They slay the dragon, save the princess, and go home to live happily ever after. I suspect this is one reason why a lot of gamers in the KH fanbase tend to think of Kingdom Hearts 2 as the best game of the series - because in their minds Sora’s quest had been completed now that he had found Riku and Kairi like he set out to do in the first game. His journey, as far as they were concerned, was done. 

(This may also have an affect on how some fans reacted to Kingdom Hearts III, expecting it to be a grand epic finale that wrapped everything up with a bow and left a completely blank slate for the future of the series)

But in a Heroine’s Journey, the Boon of Success is not the end of the main character’s story. They have achieved their external goal, but they have not addressed their internal motivations for seeking that goal in the first place. And as their story continues, they find themselves facing challenges that their attitude thus far has failed to prepare them for. Finding The Boon of Success typically occurs early during the second act of the story. Usually it is achieved in the second half of Act II, but can sometimes happen as early as the end of the first act. For Sora, this was of course finding Riku and Kairi so that they could all go home to the Destiny Islands together.

But because the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey has not addressed the underlying insecurities which set them on their current path, they “Awaken to Feelings of Spiritual Aridity”. 

They begin to learn that the conflict they find themselves involved in is not as clear cut as they previously believed, and the challenges that come with this new knowledge are ones that their current way of doing things has failed to prepare them for. They may have found their boon of success, but things quickly begin to go wrong until they are ultimately forced to sacrifice their reward. 

The first game already showed through Riku and Mickey that Sora was not the only person able to wield a Keyblade, but because of his heroic deeds the story still framed him as the Keyblade Master and treated him as having a more significant role to play in important events than anyone else. It’s only after he hears from Mickey of the Keyblade Wielders who came before him that it begins to sink in for him that being a Keyblade Master is not a special Chosen One status. He thinks that because of all that he’s accomplished, he doesn’t need the recognition that comes with the official title, and because of that he’s careless and almost gets himself Norted at the end of DDD. 

His failure in the exam is a blow to his self confidence and shows that despite what he had said at the start of the test, deep down he really does want that kind of external validation. His insecurities and doubts continue to eat at him over the course of KH3, culminating in his breakdown at the Keyblade Graveyard. Outside of battle, we see him bottle up his doubts and other negative emotions because his friends (Except for Riku. More on him later) brush his concerns and problems aside. It is very much like Joy from Inside Out doing everything to keep Rylee happy and refusing to let Sadness take the controls. 

When their current way of doing things ultimately costs them their boon, the protagonist tries to go back to the way things used to be. To return to a simpler time and avoid the pain of the present. When literally going back to where their journey began isn’t possible, a Heroine’s Journey story will use this stage symbolically. The main character will cling to a person, object, or relationship that they associate with a simpler time. But as comfortable as the sense of familiarity they get from that is, it ultimately cannot truly address their inner pain in the long run.

This is reflected in the Re:Mind DLC, where Sora goes back in time in order to find the pieces of Kairi’s heart and bring her back. One of Kairi’s most consistent character traits is her fear of change and desire for things to remain the way they were. 

At the end of the DLC, Sora compares his connection with Kairi to the bond between Ventus and Chirithy, a friendship explicitly strained by distance, time, and Ven’s amnesia. In an interview at E3 2018 [4], Nomura commented about Kingdom Hearts III tying into a theme of childhood friendships changing as one gets older, a plotline that Merlin calls attention to after Sora’s visit to the 100 Acre Wood. And in a 2006 book titled Character’s Report Vol. 1, Nomura specifically calls attention to Kairi’s anxiety about growing apart from Sora and Riku as they get older. [5] All of these details combined frame Sora’s quest to save Kairi as an attempt to symbolically recover the innocence he lost when he began his journey.

But while he is able to find a way to renew his connection to Kairi, it can never be the same as it was before, and attempting to go back to how things used to be is ultimately doomed to failure. By the time he brings her to The Final World at the end of Re:Mind, Sora has realized that he and Kairi cannot stay on the same plan of existence anymore as a consequence of his actions. So he takes her on a tour of the worlds to re-establish their connection before fading away at the end of KH3. Thus, we come to the final act of the Kingdom Hearts narrative. 

Part III: The Future Story 

It is at this point that the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey begins the “Initiation and Descent to the Goddess” stage. Having failed to achieve meaningful success through their old way of doing things, they must look inward and examine the cause of their insecurities and accept that in order to move forward they need to heal themselves. In this step, the main character travels to either a dream world or a physical location that is closed off and forbidden to them, like the West Wing of Beast’s Castle in Beauty and the Beast. In Jungian psychology, this metaphorical dark cave represents the main character’s subconscious, and entering it triggers a dark night of the soul for our protagonist as they are forced to confront the parts of themselves they’ve been keeping locked away.

While Sora knows in his head that darkness is not inherently bad, he continues to rely entirely exclusively on light, on his connections to others, and has not properly accepted it in his heart. In order to truly finish his coming of age narrative, Sora must learn to balance his inner light and darkness the same way that Riku has. And to do that, he needs to look inside himself and figure out why he feels so badly that he needs his connections to others in order to be strong. And in order to achieve that level of understanding of himself, he needs to understand his Animus. 

Derived from the psychological theories of Carl Jung, the Animus in a Heroine’s Journey is an external representation of the protagonist’s masculine-coded traits in physical form. While not every Heroine’s Journey features an Animus, many of the stories I’ve seen that follow the formula do. Usually the Animus appears in the form of a deuteragonist who often functions as the protagonist’s Shadow, an archetypal character that embodies the aspects of the main character’s personality that due to their immaturity they either aren’t aware or don’t want to acknowledge that they have. 

In order to complete their character arc, the protagonist must symbolically integrate with their Shadow by learning to embrace the parts of their psyche that the Shadow represents. In many stories the protagonist has more than one Shadow figure, all of whom challenge the protagonist by forcing them to become faster or smarter to stay one step ahead, giving their interactions with the main character a push-and-pull dynamic as they drive the main character to grow. Shadow figures who fill the role of the Animus also challenge the protagonist to look inside themselves and examine their own emotional needs. With an Animus, the push to grow runs in both directions, with the main character motivating their Animus’ growth just as much as the other way around. 

In these types of stories, every aspect of the character is tailored to make the Animus and the protagonist fit together like Yin and Yang. In visual stories such as film, television, and video games, the Animus’ entire look is designed to complement the main character and they are framed in the narrative as the protagonist’s equal physically, intellectually, and spiritually. This serves to emphasize that despite their surface differences, much of the conflict between the protagonist and their Animus comes from the ways in which they are fundamentally similar. While their circumstances may have led them to drastically different lives, the characters are ultimately two sides of the same coin, and their character development is driven by learning to balance their contrasting traits.

And within the structure of the Kingdom Hearts series, there is only one character who fulfills all of these qualities in relation to Sora’s journey. 

The same character who Testuya Nomura said in the KH1 Ultimania was designed to balance Sora; [6]

Who series producer Shinji Hasimoto said was part of the core of the series alongside Sora [7], as has been repeatedly emphasized by the number of games where he is given a major focus and is a playable character alongside Sora. 

[Image Description: Riku walking towards a door to light in the opening of Kingdom Hearts III. End Description]

While Sora and Riku have addressed some of the latter’s behavior in the first game during their conversation on the dark beach at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, they have yet to truly dig deep into why Riku felt the way he did in the first game. Riku has not told Sora about how he felt like he was being left behind and forgotten. And since that conversation, Riku has gone to the opposite extreme, dealing with his emotional problems on his own instead of lashing out at others like he had done at the start. Likewise while Sora has accepted that darkness is not inherently evil he has yet to apply this to his own negative emotions, as seen in Kingdom Hearts III. Neither character has truly achieved an ideal balance yet, and they cannot until Sora completes his journey. 

After the protagonist returns from their spiritual journey, they experience an “Urgent Yearning to Reconnect with the Feminine.” As the main character recovers from their period of soul searching, they embrace the parts of themselves that they had neglected in their pursuit of outside approval. Their Descent allowed them to recognize their value as a person and an individual outside of their ability to fulfill the role that they were expected to fill. Following this realization, they go about “Healing the Mother/Daughter split”. Reclaiming the aspects of their personality they’ve been repressing gives the protagonist the clarity necessary to gain a different perspective on their old way of thinking. This new understanding is what will allow them to find the inner balance needed to truly complete their journey. 

The Japanese version of the “My friends are my power” mantra often repeated across the series is “Connected hearts are my power.” For Sora, who has long relied on his connections to others as a source of strength, he should come to realize that these connections go both ways: that his friends draw strength from him just as much as he draws strength from them. This should help him come to accept that he is still strong and worthy all by himself. Ven’s version of the mantra from the English version of BBS summarizes it best: “My friends are my power. And I am theirs.” After he accepts this, Sora will finally be able to use the full extent of his emotional abilities.

After achieving that new perspective, the protagonist’s next step is “Healing the Wounded Masculine Within”. This is the stage of the Heroine’s Journey where the main character, having come to understand themselves, reconciles with their Animus, thereby symbolically integrating the aspects of their psyche that the Animus represents and permanently healing the rift between the two characters. This will be where Sora and Riku need to have a longer, more in-depth conversation than the one they had on the Dark Magin at the end of KH2. Where they talk about why Riku acted the way he did and finally address the underlying reason for why he was so jealous of Sora in the original game. 

The final stage of the Heroine’s Journey is the “Integration of Masculine and Feminine”. This is the point at which the main character and their Animus finally achieve a perfect balance between them. They are united both internally and externally. There are no more secrets between them, and they are now free to move forward and overcome the main antagonist together. 

Part IV: Conclusion: 

While there’s too many different possibilities to completely predict every twist and turn of the series’ lore in future games, once you understand how Kingdom Hearts fits into the framework of the Heroine’s Journey, the broad strokes of how the story will go in terms of Sora’s growth and character development are entirely predictable. When Re:Mind first released and the rest of the fandom was reacting on Twitter, I was sitting back with a smug smile on my face thinking:

[Image Description: Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi sitting aboard the Death Star II with the caption ‘Good, Good. Everything is going according to plan.’ End Description.]

While I didn’t expect the precise mechanics of how Sora went about saving Kairi, Re:Mind was exactly what I expected it to be in terms of themes and its place in the Heroine’s Journey framework, and then the Secret Episode came along to reinforce that the next game is going to be Sora’s Descent.

While there isn’t a complete guarantee that the series will continue to follow the formula, I find it extremely unlikely that it won’t. Kingdom Hearts follows the stages of this framework too precisely for me to ever believe it happened by accident. So as long as there is no corporate interference from Disney like what happened to Voltron, I’m confident that Nomura’s plan for the finale of the series will be exactly what the Heroine’s Journey predicts it should be, no matter how unexpected future additions to the lore may be.

Special thanks to @dragonofyang and the rest of Team Purple Lion for everything I know about the Heroine’s Journey. I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about analyzing the story of Kingdom Hearts if they hadn’t taught me the vocabulary to realize the kind of story that Nomura has been telling right under my nose for the last 18 years.

Sources:

[1] “Kingdom Hearts III Ultimania interview with Tetsuya Nomura”; March 12, 2019

https://www.khinsider.com/news/Kingdom-Hearts-3-Ultimania-Main-Nomura-Interview-Translated-14763

[2] “Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS: Third Party Game Developers, Volume 12: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Part 3: Square’s Intentions”; April 2012.

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/creators/11/2

[3] “2004 GMR Nomura Interview 2004!”; Translation by Kingdom Hearts Insider posted May 5, 2012. 

https://www.khinsider.com/news/GMR-Nomura-Interview-2004-2563

[4] “E3 2018: Tetsuya Nomura on If Kingdom Hearts 3 Is the End of Sora's Story”; June 14, 2018.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story

[5] “Character’s Report Vol. 1 Translations”; Jul 16, 2014

https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/characters-report-vol-1-translations.195560/\

[6] “A Look Back: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1″; August 30, 2019;

https://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-KINGDOM-HEARTS-Ultimania-Gallery-Comments-Part-1-15519

[7] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players.” September 24, 2013

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players

[X] “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces”; June 13, 2019;

https://www.teampurplelion.com/heroine-with-a-thousand-faces/

[X] Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. 1990.

[X] “Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey Arc”. The Heroine Journeys Project. https://heroinejourneys.com/heroines-journey/

#kingdom hearts meta #kh analysis #meta analysis #kh sora #kingdom hearts and the heroine's journey

[inspector-montoya-fox]

here’s why Thieves in Time is a bad game

before y’all try it, i just want to say that i’ll be as unapologetically petty and sarcastic as i want and fucking rip this game to shreds. yes, this is how i’ve spent my days since Thieves in Time came out. sitting alone in my room, staring at the wall, crying and complaining. because it has since been my life’s aim and dream to think about it every day, state the negative things about it, and become an evil essay witch on this half-dead website. *evil laugh*

Story:

References: i want to start with the smallest problem, but one that annoys me to this day. in the original trilogy, there weren’t a lot of references but the ones that were included were meticulously researched and well thought-out (i’m specifically referring to that Neil Diamond Carmelita vinyl gag, but can’t find the original post). the references in Thieves in Time however, were obviously just the creators’ interests. Turning Japanese, Clan of the Cave Bear and Bentley’s “hacksona” presented as Rambo just scream 1980s (which i’m assuming is the decade the creators grew up in), and Of Mice and Men is classic literature about the Great Depression, which subsequently started being taught in school in the US during the 1980s. it feels like the creators just went ‘let’s discuss what our lives had in common during our teen years and put that in’ instead of researching it first. and, here’s the thing: when you’re adding references, in order to make them funny or interesting, they have to fit in with the property or the character that’s connected to them in some way. Don Octavio was an opera aficionado so his episode’s title card pays homage to the Phantom of the Opera, young Muggshot was influenced by the movie “The Dogfather” because he’s a gangster, etc. these were funny because they were so spot-on with these characters. if every character in the Sly Cooper universe references the same type of stuff (from the 1980s) and shares the same interests, it’s just claustrophobic and uninteresting. i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who had to look up these ultra-hetero, scrotum references when the game came out. that’s because they were specifically tailored to be funny to them, and not their target demographic which were kids in 2013.

Narrative: now that we got that out of the way, let’s look at the narrative. at the end of Sly 3, Bentley says he’s building a time machine. Sanzaru took that joke and decided to run with it as the premise for their game. ok, not the best idea, but i get it - you’re literally picking up where the last game left off. since all the storylines were wrapped up, they could’ve done something different like Sly’s kids or Bentley and Murray’s families, but this isn’t an essay about suggestions so...... time travel (i want to say that it’s, again, an 80s reference but whatever) was pretty ‘out there’ in 2013. i mean, even Plants vs Zombies 2, which was released that year, had to do with time travel (yes, i’m referencing an app). but Sanzaru had the advantage of applying this premise onto already established mythos and lore. the story had definite potential: someone is threatening Sly’s lineage so he has to travel back in time to save the day. the player would get to explore new locations and iconic eras in history, and, of course, the main selling point: playable ancestors. how could you screw that up? welp.... let’s think about the plot holes here for a sec. Bentley’s device would take the gang back in time when given an item from the specific era. stop. this right here is called ‘over-complicating’. how did they know the items would take them directly to the point where the specific ancestor was in danger? the Feudal Japan period lasted for 700 years: how did the machine know when and where to drop them off? and if the gang could return to the present at any time, why didn’t they do so when they were in trouble? oh right, the machine was broken. so how did they return the baddies to the present after they defeated them? i mean, why did they use the Grizz’s crown to travel to Medieval England if they went back to the present to drop him off to Interpol first? and on that note, how did they drop the baddies off to jail without getting caught and without Carmelita being around? i can already hear you thinking but these are total details that aren’t important, you jerk! well, yea, they truly are details and i truly am overthinking it. and yes, i truly am a jerk. but let me tell you something: when Sanzaru chose to make a new Sly game, did they not think ‘oh we’ll have to follow up Sly 2 and Sly 3′s stories’ which were well thought-out narratives with depth and various themes and didn’t have huge plot holes (as seen by my analysis through the episode project) ???? and did they also not think that their game would come out eight years after the last one, having expectations at an all-time high???? yea, that’s what i thought.

Characters: i’ll make a different section for Sucker Punch’s characters, so this is for Sanzaru’s original ones. name one iconic original character from Thieves in Time. i’ll wait... nope. not one. that’s because all of them were absolute shit. and here’s where i want to touch upon Sanzaru’s over-reliance on the trilogy. Ms Decibel (perhaps the most obvious copy) is a mix between Don Octavio, Miz Ruby, and the Contessa. El Jefe is Rajan if he went to the gym. Toothpick has Sir Raleigh’s temper and tendency to grow in size. and the Grizz is... whatever the fuck he is. (don’t worry i didn’t forget Le Paradox and Bob). there’s a difference between studying & creating similar characters and blatantly plagiarizing older characters because you lack the creativity. oh, boo-hoo this evil jerk’s telling it how it is. this set of villains is so lacklustre, i don’t even know where to begin. El Jefe is a tiger, even though we’ve already had two major tiger villains and one tiger flashlight guard. ok. Rajan could summon lightning because of the Clockwerk heart but El Jefe can do the same, how exactly? Toothpick is an armadillo (good) from Russia (better) with an obsession with the West (excellent) who can also grow huge (very bad). it’s never explained how or why. why?????? just tell me why. i want to know. i really want to know. Ms Decibel is an elephant who got into a tragic accident which left her with the power of hypnosis. music and hypnosis have already been done, but ok, i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. so how do we use this character? spend the entirety of her screen time making jokes about... wait for it... her weight !!! this is top-notch comedy... really? like... really? the creators’ humor is a crime, at best. fart jokes and fat jokes all around. oh, and then there’s the Grizz. what the fuck where they thinking? just, what the fuck. i guess the guys at Sanzaru thought black people speak in rap? is that it? apart from it being extremely offensive, it’s also a blatant copy of Dimitri’s backstory. like, his introductory cutscene even has his paintings thrown at him and into the trash, like the intro cutscene for The Black Chateau. honestly, all of these villains caused me several types of pain, but not as much as...

Bob & Le Paradox: the absolute worst. i can just imagine the meeting going something like this: Sly’s ancestors are awesome! i wish we could fit them all in the game... here’s an amazing idea! what if we use one of the game’s few levels to introduce a brand new ancestor! yea! let’s make him dumb as fuck, strip him of any athletic prowess, and retcon the entire lineage by having him be the first Cooper ever! the kids will love a prehistoric level! ..... could you kindly point out where and when did ANYONE ask for this? i remember @ironicsnap​ saying something like the game is good until Bob. no, it was already bad - Bob just lowered the standard. like, a lot. people love Murray and his gameplay is neat, but no one ever thought ‘oh i wish we had a Cooper character with Murray’s game style’. why would they waste the opportunity to bring in Henriette, Thaddeus, Otto, literally any ancestor? why??? but they went ahead and created their own Cooper, and that wasn’t even the end of it. they had to make him dumb. they had to make him unbearable. they had to ruin the Cooper ancestry by adding this mess to the lineage. Sucker Punch made sure that all the ancestors were unique, but at the same time made all of them suave and funny and slick and you wish you could be them! well, fuck that. also, his name is Bob. Bob Cooper. it’s been 7 fucking years and i still can’t wrap my head around it.... so now, let’s talk about Le Paradox. i don’t have to mention the previous main villains, but i will. Clockwerk killed Sly’s ancestors and father, and was seemingly an eternal threat. Neyla was a psychopath who fooled everyone on her journey to becoming immortal by resurrecting Clockwerk. Dr M opened up the possibility for Sly’s dad to be a jerk instead of a hero, and died trying to unlock the Coopers’ legacy. how does Le Paradox compare? well, he’s a sleazebag skunk who was mad because of his dad’s downfall to the Coopers. that’s it. no twist, no depth, no clever dialogue. nothing. there’s nothing there. this is a new character, unfamiliar to everyone, who was hyped up for 5 levels and defeated in the conclusion. why was he a match for Sly? i don’t know. how did he fight for his life and ultimately tricked Sly into helping him? i don’t know. how the hell did he kidnap Carmelita? i don’t know. was it the power of persuasion? no, he’s revolting. so i literally don’t know. there’s no backstory, no fleshing-out the character, nothing. all we’re given to work with is a brief info-dump about his dad and how he escaped prison. i don’t know what else to say apart from how big a humiliation this was for Sanzaru and their team of writers. you had 8 years to work on something and this is what you came up with? anything would be better. anything would best this utter cliché of a villain, a distasteful misogynist, crybaby, idiot with an accent. literally anything.

Arcs & Themes: let’s take a look at the formulaic subplots for the gang’s members. apart from dealing with Le Paradox, everyone had a small arc. Sly had to deal with his break-up with Carmelita. Bentley had to deal with his break-up with Penelope. Murray had to deal with playing second fiddle to Bob. Carmelita was a damsel in distress and sex bait for the ancestors. the ancestors had their own mini storylines along with reacting to Sly’s presence. there you have it. i summarised it all for you, nice and neatly. are there any themes like in the previous games? nope. i promise you i’m not lying when i say that i tried hard to come up with something, even some speck of a detail i could use to over-analyse the story and come up with some ideas on themes. nothing. there are no themes. the subplots are character-driven and the player gives it 0 emotional investment. there is nothing to analyse, nothing to talk about. maybe even a theme for each level, like a spooky level or something? nope. the levels are dependent on eras and historical periods. the variation here is ok. Feudal Japan, Wild West, Prehistoric Australia, Medieval England and Ancient Arabia  - pretty good selection. i’ll give them credit for it. but that’s it. due to the absence of themes, the hubs feel empty. there’s no replayability factor. after you collect the bottles and masks and treasures, there’s nothing. i would spend hours revisiting the trilogy’s hubs, just roaming around. the hubs here are huge and empty. there’s nothing to reminisce about. nothing to recall. oh that’s where this mission went down. no, nothing like that. the aforementioned subplots are resolved during mission cutscenes and then they’re gone. you don’t have to explore spooky Prague alone as Bentley to have him overcome his fears, you don’t have to find out miners abducted Murray’s beloved Guru and search the Australian outback for him, you don’t have to hold back your tears when you’ve reached the end of the Cooper Vault and Sly asks his dad for help. nothing.

Gameplay:

Controls: as soon as i laid my hands on the controller the first time i played the game, that fateful afternoon, i knew something was up. Sly would respond 1 second late after you pushed something on the controller. it felt clunky, is what i’m trying to say or, as my sister put it, it felt heavy. and she was right. the controls were clunky and heavy and didn’t feel light, like playing as a thief should feel. i don’t know shit about game mechanics but this definitely didn’t feel right. the hubs are also chunky in design, the cliffs are huge and so cyclical or hexagonal, that when you parachute your way to them and are just an inch close, Sly will automatically just drop because he can’t grab onto them. running as Sly doesn’t feel fast, silently obliterating guards from behind feels slow, and swinging, grabbing, pickpocketting, and hanging aren’t fun anymore. presentation-wise, @designraccoon​ goes into detail here, in an absolute gem of a post. in short, the gameplay animations make Sly look less sneaky. Sanzaru didn’t even consider a thief’s movements.

Missions: why the fuck would you remove the player’s option to choose between which mission to do first? why would you do that? the game lays out what goes first, sometimes having only one mission available in the hub. and the missions aren’t even enjoyable. firstly, the loading screens take up to 5 minutes, maybe even 7-8. secondly, there’s hacking every 2 missions. the missions don’t have any dialogue to make them fun, lack in interesting puzzles, what more can i say? they’re overly easy and lack any challenge whatsoever. at least there’s variation in gameplay (hacking, RC car, fishing, costumes, ancestors, turret etc.) but because of the controls, even these get tiresome. the missions are solely there to progress the story and that’s why the operations are merely ‘storm the main baddie’. the trilogy had some pretty interesting missions which made sure to complete jobs required to take down the big bad. e.g. kidnap General Clawfoot to take down the security, hack Contessa’s computer to make sure Carmelita will be freed, steal voices to tempt Neyla, and then take down the Contessa. the missions in Thieves in Time lack substance and variety. and the hacking (all three styles) sucks.

Collectibles: here’s another fantastic idea: have players collect costumes in order to collect bottles in order to collect treasures in order to collect masks in order to unlock funky Sanzaru logo-themed merch! what was the reason for the collectibles? in previous games, collecting all bottles would unlock special abilities. that was it. it’s the same thing here too, but there’s less incentive? i mean when you have to collect 1000 things, what’s the point? the treasures are random and very few are references to the trilogy, so whatever. and the masks unlock... superhero costumes for what reason exactly? oh, and then there’s also the achievements for your Playstation account, like ‘open the map in every single location you visit’. what fun! if the reason for collecting the treasures is to play godawful hacking minigames in order to get masks, what’s the point? decorate your paraglider with the Sanzaru logo? or have Bentley dress up as discount Robocop? i mean including masks in the interior locations was cool, but the bottles were always supposed to be something you could do whenever your soul desired. sometimes i left them last before the operation, sometimes i collected them before the first mission. so i was pissed when i found out that, in some cases, you had to unlock the episode’s costume in order to get the all the bottles. so, fuck off.

Animation: i’ll keep this short. the animation was terrible. do you remember that tumblr blog from a while back, where she dedicated the posts to pointing out the mistakes in the animated cutscenes? yeah. point is, there were lots of them. the animation style was bad, the character design was ugly, the characters’ movements were unnatural. everything about it was shit. looking past the bad decision to drop the trilogy’s comicbook-style animated cutscenes, couldn’t they have hired someone better? someone with more experience? their concept art was awesome. couldn’t they hire that guy and have it be comicbook style if he wasn’t trained in animation?

Legacy:

The Players: let me ask a genuine question: who was this game made for? kids growing up in 2013? maybe so. because it feels like Sanzaru didn’t even consider the fans of the trilogy. actually, it felt like a huge fuck you. Sucker Punch made their trilogy for whoever. there were great stuff for kids, but adults would pick up and appreciate the references, the real-life setting (e.g. tobacco use, existence of nightclubs, spice instead of drugs, etc.). that’s why all three games are timeless classics. judging by Thieves in Time’s humor, the game wasn’t targeted for adults. so, it doesn’t make sense to use an already established property, beloved by its fans, to attract a new audience consisting of nine year-olds who’d laugh at Murray dressing up as a woman. if they really wanted to appeal to the fans of the original, why retcon everything? why change who the first Cooper was? when the gang’s stranded in Saudi Arabia, why have Sly say ‘i couldn't remember a time since we've teamed up that we felt so defeated’? the gang’s been in way deeper shit before. why the ‘Sly’s dad vs Le Paradox’s dad’ deus ex machina? Sly’s dad wasn’t famous because of stealing the world’s largest diamond, what the fuck are you even talking about? do the guys at Sanzaru have such big egos and bravado that they needed to change the original games’ lore? were they so preoccupied with leaving their signature on a property which was never their own? i don’t know who needs to read this, but i’m stating FACTS.

Characters: now let’s talk about Sanzaru’s treatment of the Cooper gang and the ancestors (female characters will get their own section). why would you change the characters like that? if it wasn’t for the voice acting, i’d say this is a completely different Cooper gang. there’s no wise-cracking band of best friends, going on heists and being proud of their brotherhood and bond. all that is replaced with the formulaic story arcs for each member. the trilogy’s cutscenes and dialogues made sure to establish how Sly, Bentley and Murray have lived together since they met at the orphanage, play videogames all day and order chinese food and pizza and whatever. through missions and their adventures, they face obstacles they have to overcome as a gang, and when Sly 3 came around, their friendship was put to the ultimate test when they almost disbanded. Thieves in Time was too lazy to add to this. Sanzaru thought ‘oh the trilogy showed how they’re best friends so we might as well have them focus on their own stories separately’ and if this is truly the case then i ask again: who was this game made for? because new fans would never know how tight the gang was just by playing Thieves in Time. there’s a lack of genuine friendship moments. like, what happened when Sly came back after faking his amnesia? that’s completely ignored. where’s the witty banter? the ‘wizard & sitting duck’ type of jokes? nothing of the sort. what we get is fart jokes and Murray wanting to dress up as a woman. on that note, what was that all about? ok, have him dress up as a geisha to get in. fine. have El Jefe slap his ass, have him perform in a painfully lengthy dance sequence, have him dress like that during the rest of the episode, and then have him be persistent about getting the belly-dancing gig? the hell? Murray was always kinda goofy but this just feels kinda homophobic? it feels dragged out and unfunny. and then there’s the ancestors. i said it once before and i’ll say it again, Sanzaru deprived me of a buff Arab daddy Salim Al Kupar and gave us that elderly shit instead. all jokes aside, the redesigns were uninteresting. why take away Tennessee Kid’s facial hair and give it to Galleth? i legitimately think all the ancestors were boring. i mean, their gameplay was cool, especially Tennessee Kid’s guns, but in terms of character, they were just some dudes. did they believe that Sly was their descendant from the future? maybe. did they care? nope. they all had the same storyline of dealing with Sly’s arrival, flirting with Carmelita and getting their canes stolen. that was it. the fans waited for so long to get even a glimpse of the ancestors in action, and Sanzaru downplayed all of them. they reduced them to useless idiots too occupied with women and food, incapable of getting their canes back from stupid Le Paradox. and they didn’t even stick to the lore. no ma’am. let’s make Rioichi the inventor of sushi !! because that makes total sense and would defo fit in with the character and the property! why. just, why. you were handed the lore !!! you were given all this rich backstory and you threw it all away to replace it with trash !!! complete trash.

Changes & Inconsistency: i want to briefly mention some changes that pissed me off. where’s the laser glide move? it was an important turning point at the end of Sly 3, so why did they get rid of it? Sly is a master thief who’s traveling back in time, so you’d think they’d actually make him a master thief. also, the changes in the binocucom and Bentley’s slideshows in order to modernise them. if Sucker Punch managed to place the mission starting points at locations where the binocucom would show the objective clearly, so could Sanzaru. instead, they chose to have it be a moving camera, floating around the hub. and Bentley’s slideshows were absolute classics, opportunities to include gags and have Bentley show off in his own way. you just had to change it into a tablet, didn’t you. omg you’re still looking at small details like these? yes sweetie, i consider the details because i think they shape the game more than anything. if i didn’t consider the details, then my opinion on the game would be incomplete. when i praise the trilogy i don’t only look at story and gameplay. because i’m unbiased like that. here, i’d also like the mention Dimitri. what a fucking waste. you either include him in the game or you don’t. but don’t give me some half-baked shit on how he’s working for the gang back in present day. Dimitri staying home, waiting on the gang to call him in order for him to give them details on the villains. how does that even slightly resemble anything about Dimitri’s character? they didn’t even include his voice, some greasy sweet Raccoonus Doodus dialogue.

Female Characters: you know it’s all been leading up to this. this is the crux of the Thieves in Time hate. i don’t want to say the game is misogynistic so i’ll call it anti-feminist. why? just answer me. why? why did you have to disrespect Carmelita like that? right off the bat, they swapped the pants for the skirt. in what world does an active inspector who’s always on the scene wear a skirt? Carmelita now wears a skirt because her only role in the game is to be the love interest. Carmelita now wears bright red lipstick and has a new hairstyle, which would be ok if only it wasn’t Carmelita. Carmelita now plays up her inner sassy Latina because she’s pigeonholed into the ‘angry ex girlfriend’ role. they compartmentalised her, tried to sexualise her because she couldn’t possibly be one of the boys. nope. let’s take a respected woman, high in rank and as physically able as Sly, and turn her into a cliché, an angry ex girlfriend for comedic relief, strip her of her abilities and have her be kidnapped twice, have every exchange with her be about how attractive she is, have almost every male character in the game flirt with her, have her boyfriend be jealous of his own ancestors because they’re flirting with her in order to create purposeless love triangles, and then, after all that, dress her up as a belly dancer and distract some guards while the rest of the gang do the heavy lifting. that last one was really the nail on the coffin. did Bentley have other ways to enter that door? absolutely. so, what the fuck? why did i come back for a good Sly game 8 years later and receive a game where you have to shake your controller to have Carmelita shake her ass? why did they have the guards’ eyes pop like that? why did no one stop them? and it isn’t just Carmelita. it’s Penelope too. god forbid we have a female character who doesn’t have a waist smaller than my finger, and a voluptuous physique. why was the redesign so drastic? the story stuff is also nonsensical. why did she leave? wasn’t she happy with Bentley? i watched her speech about turning on the gang about a thousand times and it still doesn’t make any sense. like, i literally don’t understand. what was her motive? and why reverse her story of overcoming the Black Baron persona and the connotations of a meek woman hiding behind a man’s disguise? why repeat it, shamelessly? do the guys at Sanzaru only know women who have recently broken up? why does Carmelita, Penelope and Ms Decibel all go through break-ups during the game? why does Penelope go against Bentley before they even break up? why waste the opportunity to introduce a new, well-written villain and use it to repeat something already done? why???? no woman is safe from Sanzaru because Ms Decibel... boy, did i feel bad for her. apart from continuously reminding us that she’s haha fat!! she’s also presented as a blind lovefool. love? what a silly concept only women believe in! Ms Decibel had a crush on Le Paradox (for some reason i can’t even fathom) and for that she must pay by being utterly humiliated. and what do ALL women do when a guy breaks up with them? they get so angry! yikes, stay clear guys! ....why does Sanzaru hate female characters? i’m genuinely curious. i mean, what forced them to depict women like this? i’m sorry, i can’t take much more of this.

Ending: and how do you end a disappointment that came 8 years late and didn’t even have a sequel guaranteed? yeap, you guessed it! a cliffhanger. but not just any cliffhanger - a total fuck you to anyone and everyone. with a single move Sanzaru instantly screwed over the franchise. the fans, the creators, the characters, anyone looking to continue the series. everyone. WHY would you trap the protagonist in the past? WHY? did you feel defensive about something that wasn’t even yours and went ‘well you can continue the series but the sequel will have to do with time travel’. why did you think it was a good idea? how does it even slightly resemble a good ending? someone fill me in please. because i don’t think i’m being unreasonable, i’m just telling it how it is.

Conclusion:

i did it. i fucking wrote it in all its motherfucking glory. the idiots at Sanzaru could’ve given us an amazing game but instead of working on how to make it better or including extra levels, they wasted their time on deciding what killable baby animal to include in each hub or what the backstory for each treasure should be. how fucking distasteful. and to think i’m an idiot myself for trying to force myself to like it because i was so in denial about how bad it was. i’ve just outlined everything wrong with that cursed game. i’m exhausted.

#yOu'Re rEaLLy pEttY ! sOrRy hAd tO UnFoLLoW #i think i covered everything #THIS IS AN AMAZING ESSAY #this is the crown jewel of my time on tumblr #i love myself so much #sly cooper #anyone who even remotely comes for me because of this WILL get blocked #the birds really think i care about my rep on this fucking hellsite #HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

[e-one-seven]

About Cyclum Puzzles and how it is connected to Metheus Puzzles

Warning: This is a fan theory. I am not related to Klei Entertainment in any way, I just love their games and the lore behind a little bit too much. Also, This is a long post, so I'll put the actual post under  "Keep reading" so it won’t screw up your page scroll habits in case you are not interested in Don't Starve and its lore. Thanks.

Let's start with a little story: once upon a time, there was an Ancient Civilization made of people afflicted by starvation and fear. Desperate, they escaped below the ground, where they found a magic portal from where a strange, black substance was leaking. Their leader, a curious man, started to study it and he discovered that the weird substance was much more powerful of everything he and his people ever saw before. He dubbed the substance "the Fuel" and he started to use it to build everything his people needed. They evolved, probably developing magic powers in the process, their civilization flourished and their leader became a powerful King for his people.

But not everyone was happy. Metheus, the King's advisor/queen and the one who carried the torch during the first explorations of the caves, eventually noticed that there was something wrong with the Fuel, but no one listened to her. She could do nothing but watch as the Fuel changed her people and her King day after day until They arrived to claim the souls of the people as a payment for their new powers. They all started to turn into monsters. The Corrupted King could do nothing but watch as Metheus sacrificed herself to stop Them. From that moment on, the cursed substance was renamed "Nightmare Fuel".

(And to me some people managed to escape through the portal to various worlds including Earth, where they mixed with the locals causing the birth of individuals with the potential to develop magic They are still hunting down to complete the genocide nowadays, but this is not the place to talk about that.)

With the Ancient Civilization and their rulers gone, the Constant became a dead world. They were powerful, but They needed people with strong, corruptible minds to sustain Themselves and Thier powers. So They pulled some strings and one day They found William Carter, a young, yet unlucky aspiring magician. They caused an accident and made him find The Codex Umbra, the fruit of Metheus and her King's studies on the Fuel. The young man started to study it and experiment with the small residues of the Fuel on Earth, unaware of the corruption it would cause to himself and whoever surrounded him. Like the King before him, he started to go mad, and his beloved assistant Charlie tried to make him stop performing his experiments. But during that what was supposed to be their last show, They came to claim Their tribute, and William Carter (now Maxwell), Charlie and possibly other people were captured and took to Their Realm.

It is not clear of what happened here (and I hope we are going to see it in Maxwell's cinematic), but it resulted in Maxwell becoming the new King of the Constant and Charlie being permanently fused with one of Their creatures. According to what Maxwell said when he is bound to the Throne, he might have tried to oppose Them and failed. ("It's best not to fight it." [...] "You can't change the rules of the game. I don't know what they want. They... they just watch. Unless you get too close... Then... Well, there's a reason I stay so dapper.")

We still don't know how and to what extent Maxwell tried to fight back, but we can still make some hypothesis. This is my personal opinion: at first he was somehow happy to be the vessel of Their will, but when he saw what Charlie had become because of Them. He tried to fight back and/or invert the transformation, and They tied him to the Nightmare Throne as a punishment for his attempted rebellion. Maxwell realized he was forced to follow Their will, so he kept summoning innocent people from Earth to the Constant, but with a twist. From that moment on he started to bring prisoners by following a determined scheme: the new survivors had to be smart and/or strong enough to survive on their own in the long run, and if they showed themselves to be worthy enough he would have shown them the truth about Them and Their world. Or at least, that could have been the initial purpose behind the choice of the survivors we get to play as. Eventually, Wilson, a young, yet unlucky aspiring scientist, finds/creates the portal that allows him to go on a journey to reach Maxwell and he finds him tied to the Throne. Maxwell implies that it happened because They don't want him as a King anymore, and a possible past/current secret scheme from Maxwell to defeat Them could be the true reason for Them wanting a new Ning. Wilson sets him free, sacrificing his freedom in the process and becoming the new King.

What is the possible correlation between Maxwell's story and what happened to the Ancient Civilization? As already said, whatever was the reason why he did what he did, Maxwell's actions caused a scattered community of people afflicted by starvation and fear to be born again, a new civilization who started to study the Nightmare Fuel and its application on their own and get insane, giving Them more power. Maxwell himself studied the Nightmare Fuel and it made him so corrupted that he seemed to have given up to his possible original plan to stop Them by the time Wilson found him. Wilson finds him and decides to release him from the Throne with an act the game defines "take pity at your own risk". He never really knew Maxwell and he doesn't know there are other people still alive out of there (but he might have suspected that if he canonically saved Wes and resurrected Webber), so maybe talking about a "self-sacrifice" could be an exaggeration. But there is a strange detail I recently noticed and greatly contributed to the creation of this theory. What is the one thing that most of the promotional images from Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together featuring Wilson have in common? Wilson carries a torch. Just like Metheus, the first character to canonically sacrifice herself to free the Ancient King and stop Them, did. The end of Don't Starve was the promise that the history of the Ancient Civilization would repeat itself after Maxwell's defeat, with the survivors turning into corrupted beings and Wilson "dying" by losing his humanity forever.

But it didn't happen. Charlie cyclum infregit. The use of Latin is not casual: taking in account how Latin grammar works "cyclum" does not simply mean "circle or cycle", but "circle or cycle that got changed by something". Charlie broke the circle by putting herself on the throne. And it was not just the circle of the succession to the Nightmare Throne, but possibly a greater scheme that was meant to end with everyone's corruption or death. By putting herself on the Throne and modifying the Jury-Rigged Portal she might have allowed the survivors to join their forces and gave them a chance to fight against Them. The survivors have a better comprehension of what is going on in DST, and it might be the explanation why the Magic Tab was mostly unmodified: only four new recipes were added, and only one of them requires Nightmare Fuel (Abigail's Flower, Wendy's exclusive item imported from Don't Starve). The others all require Moonlenses instead. The survivors are trying to abandon the Nightmare Fuel for the safer Moon Rocks.

I read some posts on Klei's forum where people were "complaining" because Maxwell seems to know next to nothing about the Moon and its magic, but it actually makes sense: he studied only the ancient Shadow Magic, and the Celestial Magic was apparently not available before Charlie's kingdom. Until now we saw Meteor Showers that brought boulders with Moon Rocks to the mainland, giving the survivors the chance to study a new kind of magic, possibly a safer one. Then... Wilson seems freaked out by something in the opening screen image, and what could be scarier to see huge pieces of the Moon detach and fall down from the sky in the middle of the ocean to create a new island?

And this is just the beginning of a series of actions that will cause They to reveal Themselves if we take the title of the whole update in account. There could be two ways for this to happen:

1) Charlie is loyal to Them and she is bringing the secrets of the Moon to the Constant because the Celestial Magic is not as harmless as it seems (the undead versions of the creatures living in the Constant might point towards this direction). The survivors are not aware of this and whatever they will do with the Celestial Magic will actually make Them strong enough to be physically able to manifest in the world.

2) Charlie is trying to betray Them and she wants the survivors to study the Celestial Magic to find a way to destroy Them for good (the Glass Cutter being powerful and having increased durability against Shadow Creatures seems to point towards this direction). At this point, They will realize what Charlie is trying to do and They will come in person to stop her plan, just like They did when Maxwell tried in the past. Some quotes from the Ancient Fuelweaver seems to point in this direction too: let's look at his quotes when he is defeated:

"Fools!" "Who are you?" "Release me, shade!" "You deserve this." "You are not Them..." "Are you so easily deceived? Ha..." "You've made your choice."

Except for the first deathcry, after an accurate analysis it is obvious he is talking with Charlie. At least three quotes imply that she is not working with Them, and that whatever is her plan it might backfire. Because of this, it might also be possible that a combination of both the previous hypothesis might happen.

3) Charlie wants the survivors to use the Moon Magic to destroy Them, but as Moon Magic is as dangerous as the Shadow Magic the survivors have to learn to control it first. But every fictional story taught us that Light and Shadow are balanced, and therefore using the Moon Magic is making Them stronger to the point They will eventually be able to physically manifest Themselves in the world. They might try to punish Charlie by limiting her powers and forcing her to watch while They kill the survivors, as they know too much to make one of them a new puppet king for Them to control. And after they are gone, They will summon new people to choose a new king just like They did when Maxwell betrayed Them, recreating the cyclum like it was before Charlie meddled with it.

(And if you are wondering "if Charlie is good, why is she still killing people when they are in the darkness?", the answer is simple: even though she is trying to lead a secret rebellion, she is also bounded by the rules. And the key rule is, if one is in the darkness, one needs to die. Also, death is not as permanent as before, so she is not even bothered by following it anymore.)

#don't starve #don't starve together #fan theory #don't starve Maxwell #don't starve Charlie #new contents #attempt at lore reconstruction #don't starve Them

[violetosprey]

BTD My thoughts on Sano

I covered my thoughts long ago on all of the “Till Death Do Us Part” game characters, but I never really took the time to talk about my thoughts about the main series “Boyfriend to Death” characters.  I have actually talked about many of these characters through various different posts.  But otherwise, there haven’t been that many posts dedicated specifically to certain BTD characters.

These posts will mostly be about my own opinions and views (a rough analysis more than anything).  I may end up focusing on multiple aspects of the character, or just one particular one if I think it defines them best (we’ll see).  For those that have read some of my other posts, there likely WILL be some thoughts I’ve stated before that I’ll simply be re-iterating here.  But there may also be some new stuff in here if it happens to come to mind, or because I’ve simply not had the time before to go over such a topic.

It will take a while to get through all 8, so please have some patience and just check back later if it looks like I don’t have a post up yet for a character you’re really interested in.  I will also be talking through these under the assumption that you’ve played/read all the routes (so I might mention but not go into explicit detail on a scene).

*major spoilers below for BTD and minor spoilers for BTD2*

Fun Fact:  Of the characters in the first BTD game, I’ve always thought Sano looked the most attractive.  Even more so than his twin Akira.  While the first character I ever saw for BTD was Strade, Sano I was more interested in playing believe it or not.  It’s so weird how it all turned out:  Initially got into BTD because of Strade, was the most interested in playing Sano’s route, and nowadays Rire is my second favorite in the BTD games (3rd if you count TDDUP).  Go figure!

If I were to have one thing to say about Sano, I’d say that he’s the most complex character in the original BTD game, but at the same time still fits in well with the original game’s more “pure evil” cast.  Now I went back and replayed a LITTLE bit of the game to double-check if what I’d originally that about his character still holds up.  So forgive me if I get something “off,” but I think I know where I want to go with this.

So the basics are Sano is: a demon naga (maybe hybrid, but lore has been scrapped and tossed around a lot), a medical student, and a serial killer.  Quite the combination!  His personality in general is very calm and collected.  Between him and the other BTD1 characters, Sano is the most no-nonsense.  Strade’s got a friendly demeanor, Rire’s sophisticated but deadly, and Sano treats his killing like its business.  Make no mistake though.  He does display some sadism here and there.  He can get a nice evil glint in his eye with a smirk on his face.  Just compared to the other two, Sano’s sadism seems to be played down a bit more in some areas.

What’s also interesting is that while he thinks of the MC more as a lab rat and just wants things to go as planned, I’d say among the original BTD cast that he’s more likely to feel sympathy towards the MC.  I just debate whether Sano or Akira are better at genuinely caring for the MC. Sano’s not as into shouting or defiance as Strade or Rire (hence why he likes when you answer his questions).  Can a guy just lobotomize his patient in peace?  Sheesh!  But he’ll also rub your legs to warm you up when you gently request it.  The Kojima twins are also the only ones that you get to have consensual sex with in the first game :P  Actually Sano doesn’t sexually harass you at all like the others. I suppose you could say any sadism he has is purely fueled by physical harm (maybe even psychological) to another.  Otherwise, he is mostly just interested in his research.  You’re a test subject to him, not a sex toy.

But when you do get close enough to Sano, he does indeed reciprocate.  I’ve stated it somewhere before, but out of the characters in the first BTD game, I’d say Sano is the one you have the best chances with if you get caught by him. Compared to the other two with just one survival ending, Sano has three.  Now he does have a nightmare fueled survival ending among those (like how Rire’s survival ending was a fate worse than death).  The other two though you actually come out of it…well alive and keeping your mind intact.  Sano even seems to treasure you in these endings.  Yeah if you had to get caught by one of them, pray you get Sano.  At least you have a chance for a happy ending then.  After BTD, the other games do certainly have some contenders for “best person to get caught by if you’re looking for a happy ending.”  

When I was writing this I thought about something though.  While I do believe Sano is the most “human” of these first game baddies (maybe only with Akira for competition), he actually still fits well into the first game.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I view the second game’s characters as having a little more depth.  We see a little more good in these characters (even Cain of all people you have some brief moments of quiet with him).  Vincent’s route definitely threw people for a loop, and I can tell from the polls that people just ate up Ren (as did I)! Sano’s got the complexity, but at the same time Sano doesn’t change who he is.

Let me explain.  Sano is well aware of what he is (a serial killer) and doesn’t care.  He can fall in love with the MC though (definitely more so than Strade or Rire probably ever could).  But what exactly happens when you get the two good survival endings with Sano?  In one of them, he amputates your limbs and keeps you as his precious doll.  In the other, you become his partner for his “studies.”  And if we bring up the survival ending where he “lets you go,”…you’re mind-controlled by a centipede in your brain!  So two things here:  1) Sano will never let you go once he has you and 2) Sano doesn’t change to become a better person once you’ve enraptured him.

Rather to survive, you need to change into what HE wants you to be.  Either you become something for him to own or you turn into a murderer yourself.  Call me crazy, but that’s not your typical “happy ending.”  Like I said though, that fits perfectly with the theme of these games, especially the first game in general.

I like Sano (there’s only ever been one character I even didn’t like, and it wasn’t from the main BTD games).  He certainly stood out on his own.  I like these games because they’re pretty good about keeping the characters different from each other.  Even ones I thought were the most similar still had their differences.  I think the only problem I have is with the doll ending.  Oh no don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I didn’t like it.  Actually I kind of LOVE that kind of theme.  That obsession with dolls, and then trying to amputate someone to keep them (oh yeah, you bet I liked when that came up again with Lawrence).  My problem was that this detail about Sano was only brought up at the end of the game. I would have really liked to have seen more hints about it here and there.  I think maybe the creator might have mentioned once though that they felt the same way (one of the reasons he wanted to revamp them at one point).  Oh well.

So thank you Puke, your character’s hot looks helped hook me into this mess :P

#btd #sano kojima #electricpuke #horror game #no I didn't quit these #I have two more posts to go at this point #I will not leave the set incomplete! #just going VERY slowly #patience please #own post

[kylydian]

Breath of the Wild Music Analysis: Folk Music and Kass’s Theme

Breaking into one of the deepest tracks (Characters?) in the game! There’s quite a bit of historical context to unpack here, so let’s get to it.

Track 13: Kass’s Theme

Genre: Folk, Waltz    

Featured Instruments: Accordion

Compositional Techniques: Historical Context

Truthfully, this track isn’t too complicated composition wise, so rather than covering the composition in depth, let’s delve a bit into ethnomusicology and how it’s implemented into Kass’s theme, and by extension the role of Kass himself. The applications are pretty neat and are very easy to gloss over. In identifying exactly what this track does let’s first set a preface, because this is an info rich post.

An accordion being performed is significant, the fact that Kass is a traveling musician is important, and lyrics play a role in understanding how Kass’s music works. All of these actually interact behind the scenes to create something awesome! So, let’s start by briefly talking about the style of music, because that’s what I’ve been doing. Best to knock it out now.

This track is a Viennese Waltz, or for all intents and purposes a waltz. If you’re even somewhat familiar with basic musical forms or dance, you’ll likely know what a waltz is. Waltzes are marked by a 3 beat pattern, often played at a tempo fast enough to make you feel only one beat at a time. The fact that we can trace this form of music historically to Austria’s capital Vienna will play a little bit of a role later on, but just keep that in the back of your mind for now. You’ll likely recollect that you can hear similar sounding accordion music in a lot of other media, and when you do, it’s often to accompany the performer singing. These vocals are generally easy to understand and will either explain part of a story, or describe a scene that’s going on. Vocals and accordion go pretty hand in hand in many types of music. Again, save that for later!

The melody is very memorable, and obviously is associated with Kass, which keeps us in the realm of more traditional Zelda music. But it’s important to realize that the waltz itself isn’t necessarily overly significant in this case. Waltzes exist in all forms of instrumentation. In fact, if you remember, I explained how the music in the large guardian battles is actually a waltz. Because of this, let’s look to how we could actually tie in the accordion to aspects in Breath of the Wild other than the music itself.

Accordion is often associated with a very wide, sweeping genre of music called folk music. Folk music in many ways might be the widest genre of music possible, as it simply refers to “traditional” music in the confines of western music history. By this association, every nationality has traditional folk music. Because of this, folk music can sometimes be associated with “World Music.” This is not an absolute generalization however, as world music definitely does exist outside of the realm of folk. The easiest way to think of traditional folk music, is as a type of music that is usually transmitted orally, across generations, and performed over long periods of time. Naturally because of this, having a good recognizable melody is everything.

However, transmitted orally is one of the most important things to understand in relation to traditional folk music. In general, the idea behind folk music is it’s a music representative of a traditional culture, music of the past if you would. It’s music that had no way to be recorded other than to be passed down with the intention of future generations remembering it. These are often songs associated with religion, custom, holidays or spirituality, but they’re all passed down by the idea of tradition. The interesting thing about where traditional folk music occurs today is in towns or areas that might be…let’s call it “Old fashioned.” Small, isolated villages are prime targets to find traditional folk music. The thing about Breath of the Wild though, is every village is pretty isolated and each one has a very strong visual and cultural representation in someway or another. Without the influence of many outside sources, this would make each village prime material for cultural folk music. And remember, the accordion is our symbol that relates to folk music itself. Which brings us to its performer Kass.

Kass is a Rito and a traveling minstrel, or musician. His purpose in the game is to learn the songs of the various lands in Hyrule, the songs that have been passed down over generations. Believe it or not, this is actually very similar to a profession called ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicologists generally study the traditional music of cultures or people, doing things like residencies, interviews, or recordings of performances. They’re people who are trying to retain a musical past, one that’s often only translated in person. They hold onto the music we don’t know about, so that one day we can hear it too. It’s often a behind the scenes job, and one that can go easily forgotten.

The neat thing is, because Kass travels to different lands, tribes, and locations to learn about their music, documenting them for future generations, he’s a sort of in game ethnomusicologist.

Kass’s songs tell stories, or provide riddles that help you solve puzzles, but the important thing is that they’re direct lore for Breath of the Wild because they contain lyrics, even if they’re only through text. If we think back to when I talked about Nier: Automata, I said lyrics allow us to provide literary meaning to music, something that you’ll often hear in folk music.

In addition to this, Kass plays a ton of music over the course of the game. You can hear a bunch of different versions of both new and familiar Zelda music. Which…since Nintendo says that Breath of the Wild takes place at the “end” of the Zelda timeline (Don’t get me started on this), it’s very evident that the music in question would also have been passed down through the ages similar to folk music. And for the songs that relate to the regions, those would be direct representations of the tribes’ folk music, passed down over time.

Because of the way he presents the music, both past, old and present. You could stretch it and say all of his renditions of music could be considered folk music. So naturally, let’s stretch this to the breaking point.

One of the songs that can be heard is the main Breath of the Wild theme. This is significant in a way, and although it can be chalked up to the fact that “it’s a different arrangement of the main theme end of story,” this places the song in the game’s world itself. You could then infer that the theme of the wild is actually music that has the potential to be passed down in game as well. It has a strong, memorable melody, and has important association for the game. It’s a direct representation of the soundtrack by our traveling Rito musicologist.

Again, more than likely this wasn’t intended, it most likely was simply “Man wouldn’t it be cool to have him play the main theme as well?” That doesn’t make it any less important though. The best ideas to find are the ones that might not be there.

However, something that does hold great significance is the ending to Kass’s storyline. If you complete all of his challenges, you can find him completing his wish in performing in front of his siblings in Rito village. He starts by playing his theme (with a few variations on articulation,) and eventually goes through some changes before he ends up on the familiar main theme for The Legend of Zelda

Historical contexts are important, and despite what Nintendo says about any timeline,  music has always held kind of a historical Easter egg worth of information if you will. And honestly, this is the biggest, brightest egg of them all. We’ve known the main theme for the Legend of Zelda from the very beginning of the series, and it’s made an appearance at some point throughout all of the games. It’s a very important theme, but as you’ll notice it only plays at a few places in the soundtrack. Sometimes for seemingly no reason (Riding the horse,) and others for important locations (Hyrule Castle.)

Throughout our personal histories with the Zelda series, we’ve come to associate this track as one that transcends the games, the timelines etc. We’ve likely made assumptions (even if subconscious) that the theme is present in the world of Hyrule itself, even if it doesn’t always appear that way. But with Kass performing it, you could infer that this is now transmitted music of Hyrule, much like the music of the tribes, legends and history of the now broken Hyrule.    

That’s cool.

This has been an overly long exposition, so let’s get into some quick meat of how we can apply this information to our own work.

Essentially what’s being done with Kass is creating lore through music. The songs Kass performs, whether shrine, divine beast, champion, city or whatever related, in someway or another build lore. If we think about the way the story is structured this makes complete sense. If you like, you can actually skip all of the story other than “The kingdom is broken Link. You must stop Ganon.” Or you can take the time to experience as much about about the world and the story as you choose to. Kass’s music is also a direct reflection of this. His purpose is to transmit the music to those that listen, allowing Link, you the player to learn more about the lore of the world. This is a unique way to not only provide more story, but also music that is relevant to the in-game world. Making the music itself a part of the lore.

So why not find ways to incorporate music into lore in our own projects? Admittedly, this isn’t easy, nor should it always be done. There are many ways that it could distract from player experience depending on the project, but if able to be accomplished it can provide a new way for music to be heard, experienced, and appreciated, even if not explicitly noticed. Breath of the Wild does it through a traveling character that develops overtime, but why not find other ways?

Truthfully, Zelda music has always done very well in incorporating music into lore. Playing music in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are the two most obvious ones, but you can find instances in Wind Waker, Twlight Princess, and the often forgotten Ballad of the Wind Fish in Link’s Awakening.

In these cases, playable music, music association, and direct story implications are three ways to accomplish this. But honestly the possibilities on how to include music into lore are endless. After all, what is music other than retelling a story?

Let’s break it down.

Summary: Kass’s theme is representative of his character who present a unique take on the idea of traditional folk music in the land of Hyrule. Our clues include his instrument of choice, his status as a traveling musician, and that he collects songs to pass on to future generations. This act of passing on songs is a direct representation of lore, as it interacts with gameplay, and can add key story segments to the overall plot. Kass’s theme itself is reflective musically of traditional folk music.

Takeaways for Developers: Consider possible ways that you can build lore through music. There are many ways to do this, and many ways to do this incorrectly. Think about ways that you could place music inside the game’s world itself, and how the music could be representative of your setting, characters or ideas.

Takeaways for Composers: Using influences of folk music is a powerful way to build lore through music. Find ways that music might be able to be directly representative of a group of people, kingdoms, or countries when applicable. Remember the connotations that are carried with folk music. To effectively translate lore through music, it might be easiest to include lyrics, even if only in text.

I’ll come out and say that this has been one of my favorite tracks to listen, research and write on. To be honest, I could unpack even more here if I really wanted to. But I don’t want to make this more of a novel than it already is. Please feel free to reach out with any questions to my DMs, or at [email protected]. I’d love to chat with you!

I’ll be back soon with the next entry in this series~

#breath of the wild #The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild #Nintendo #Zelda #Link #the legend of zelda #Breath of the Wild Music #Video Game Music #Music #Folk Music #vgm #VGmusic #game music #Video Games #Music Analysis #Kylydian #Indie Dev #Indie Developer #Indie Game #Game Composer #Game Audio #New Music

[aion-rsa]

How Ghostbusters: Afterlife Honors the Original Legacy

https://ift.tt/3hwVjMQ

For director Jason Reitman, the first official announcement of Ghostbusters: Afterlife was, by blockbuster franchise standards, quite modest.

“Before we ever started shooting, the way we debuted the idea to the world was we shot this little teaser in secret, with Ecto-1 in a barn,” says Reitman, talking to Den of Geek by phone. “At the time, I remember thinking, ‘Okay, we have the script, we’re going to make this really fast. We’re going to put it out into the world before anybody knows it, and this whole thing is going to fly by.’”

That was back in early 2019. Now, more than two and a half years later, Reitman says, “I wish I could go back and pat that director on the shoulder and just be like, ‘All right, calm down. Be patient. This is going to take a minute.’”

It’s taken somewhat more than a minute: like so many films, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic from its original summer 2020 release. But in another sense, it’s taken more than 30 years – not just for this long-awaited second sequel to the original 1984 Ghostbusters to arrive, but for Reitman to embrace what in some ways is the mythology most closely related to his family name.

Reitman’s father, producer/director Ivan Reitman, was behind the camera for the original film, which he and his iconic cast – Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, the late Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Rick Moranis – turned into a comedy classic for the ages.

Jason Reitman was not even seven years old when Ghostbusters came out in June 1984, yet his memories of being on the set are still vivid to him. “It was extraordinary,” he recalls. “It became my introduction to what it meant to make a movie. It was my introduction to really knowing my father as a filmmaker.”

Even though Reitman at first resisted the idea of following in his father’s footsteps and began pre-med studies when he got to college, the lure of the entertainment business was perhaps too great. He enrolled at USC and began shooting short films and commercials, eventually making his feature directorial debut in 2005 with Thank You for Smoking.

Yet while that was the beginning of a successful string of sophisticated satires, comedies, and dramas for Reitman that included such acclaimed films as Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009), Young Adult (2011), and Tully (2018), Reitman says that the subject of Ghostbusters would come up constantly.

“From the moment I had shown interest in filmmaking, people wondered whether or not I would direct one of these movies,” he says. “Like any young person who has tried to define themselves outside the framework of their parents, I ran away from that… I really wanted to establish my own voice and my own sense and style of filmmaking.”

Meanwhile, the franchise itself seemed unable to move smoothly forward either. The first sequel, 1989’s Ghostbusters II, was, like the first one, directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Aykroyd and Ramis. While it scored at the box office (albeit earning far less than its predecessor), the film was scorned by critics and was generally considered a lackluster follow-up.

Although Aykroyd, Ramis, and Ivan Reitman continued trying to develop a third film for years, the death of Ramis in 2014 and an all-female remake (directed by Paul Feig) of the original film released in 2016 seemed to bog those plans down – until it was announced in January 2019 that Jason Reitman would direct Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a direct sequel to the first two movies set 30 years after the events of Ghostbusters II.

So what changed the younger Reitman’s mind about getting involved in the franchise? “I really didn’t imagine myself making a Ghostbusters movie, but then this character came to me, and that character became undeniable,” he says. “I think it didn’t hurt that she was the same age as my daughter.”

The character in question is Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), who moves with her single mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and her brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) to a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Oklahoma due to financial difficulties. The house is their inheritance, left to them by Callie’s late father, Ghostbusters co-founder Egon Spengler (Ramis).

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With the help of a local teacher (Paul Rudd), the Spengler family will rediscover their patriarch’s history with the Ghostbusters and learn why the house is apparently the source of some very unusual paranormal activity – which may be the reason Egon purchased it in the first place.

The film’s storyline mirrors Jason Reitman’s own complicated relationship with the franchise from both a familial and professional perspective: “Certainly, I think it is not an accident that I have questioned my whole life whether or not I would pick up the proton pack,” he says. “And we are introduced to a family that is considering the same thing.”

Although Reitman (who co-wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan) was working within the parameters of a franchise for the first time, he says he approached the project the same way he’s developed all his other films.

“I come at things from character, and I come at things from the story,” he explains. “You look at all my movies, they’re all character-based movies. So as soon as I knew Phoebe, I was like, all right, I know my way into this. It wasn’t through ghosts and it wasn’t through lore. It was through a family.”

Saying he was “heartbroken by the death of Harold Ramis” and that Egon had always been his “favorite Ghostbuster,” Reitman theorizes that those were two of the reasons why he decided to make the family at the center of the movie the Spenglers.

Yet just as important as honoring Ramis’ memory was honoring the legacy of the original movie as well, which is perhaps how Reitman (and his dad, who is the film’s producer) got Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson, Weaver, and Potts to reprise their original roles (all five had briefly appeared in the Feig film, but as different walk-on characters).

Sony Pictures

“Gil and I wanted to make a movie that felt as though it clearly was being made by people who loved the film as much as the viewers,” says Reitman about including the original cast, choosing his words carefully. “We wanted to make a movie that felt as though the storytellers were handing everything you loved about Ghostbusters back to the audience sitting in their chairs. It felt impossible to do that without including the originals, even though this is very much a story about a single mom and her two kids.”

Reitman is, of course, reluctant to speak any further about the role of the original cast members in the movie, or how much we find out about what they’ve been doing for the last 30 years, which brings us back to where we started: with his original intention to make the movie quickly and spring it on the world with little fanfare (filming was actually completed in the fall of 2019).

“(It was supposed to) arrive on everyone’s plate before they knew it,” says Reitman. “It was just going to be this kind of hopefully lovely surprise. And now there’s been years of buildup and opportunity for people to talk about it.”

The director says his original hope was that “no one was even going to know that the originals were even part of it,” adding, “I don’t really want to give away anything further, except to say that this is not a movie about the originals. This is a movie about the Spengler family, but it will touch upon everything that you love about Ghostbusters.”

And that, in the end, is what making a new Ghostbusters movie – and adding his personal take on his own family’s legacy – is all about for Jason Reitman.

”I know that my personal goal was to, one, make my father proud, and two, give audiences another trip into the world of Ghostbusters,” he concludes. “I hope they feel like it’s authentic. I hope they love it as much as we loved making it. The best Ghostbusters movie has already been made. It came out in 1984. Now I’m just excited for audiences to take another trip into this universe that we all grew up on.”

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife is out in theaters on November 11.

The post How Ghostbusters: Afterlife Honors the Original Legacy appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[silkandconvalescencerpg]

The day has finally come in which all of the prompts are completed! To make things easier for you all, I’ve placed each of the skeletons’ prompts below, so that you’d save yourself the energy having to seek each individual one out. These have been a long-while in the making, so I truly hope they help, even the smallest bit, in your application process. I bid you all good luck!

RUFESCENT.

 001.  Honestly, while writing Rufescent I was just giggly the entire time (hopefully nottoo obvious to you guys), so I’d love to read a para sample that is completely filled to the brim with quirks and jokes, if only for the laugh. It would be a nice nod to the circumstances of their birth into the group, and a firm representation of one of their main facets. Moreover, it doesn’t have to be entirely silly, and it’d be lovely to read a scene in which they manage to incorporate their blazing wit and comicality into a situation in which it might be uncalled for or inappropriate, which makes it all the better. Surprise me, shock me, make me bite my lip hard enough because I have to hold back vicious laughter ⏤ that’s how the rufescent rolls.

 002.  Another detail that I implanted in their skeleton is the “you know, when they ask for silence in a library, they don’t exactly mean your kind of locked lips” line, and I absolutely adore it. The subsequent para doesn’t necessarily have to fall into this scenario, but this blunt, rebellious cheekiness is one of my favorite aspects of the rufescent, and I’d be a fan to witness a situation where this quality of theirs is magnified and shining brighter than a lumos. They’re just someone that you can’t help but snort at, really.

003.  Something that I feel would be overlook in the rufescent is their absolute, uncannily sharp wit. They are charming, they are hilarious, they are outspoken, they are a flirt to a fault, but they are also perceptive and clever beyond belief, which is how they get by. Write something that zeroes in on this, and how they use this to their benefit, or on the opposite spectrum, how perhaps it’s a “loss of potential”. In the same vein, maybe write about the cowardice they may be rooted in, the “carefully crafted bush” of theirs and how they “just wouldn’t fly away” from their current setting. Write about why! Write about pressure, and shedding personas, and just everything. I’d love to see your take.

NEMESIS.

001.  As stated explicitly and dramatically several times within their skeleton, nemesis is what I would call a double-edged dagger, a dichotomy if there ever was one. It may prove difficult narrowing this down into tangible words, or elucidating this into a specific scene where it can be properly captured, but I urge you to try. They are the extremities you wish you hadn’t touched, miraculously burnt and frozen over from simple contact, be it flesh, words, a look. Then again, fire is always mesmerizing before you get burned and ice is stunning before it pierces your heart ⏤ a vicious, beautiful cycle, one a healing charm can’t magically cure. They are fatally complex, and it’s a noble cause to attempt to corral them into mere words ⏤ an honorable challenge!

002.  I’m personally quite attached to the “cursing one parent while clinging onto the other” line, so I definitely wouldn’t object to seeing this sentiment portrayed in some form or another. Which parent did you pick; how do the dynamics differ; how do you suppose the parents react? All questions that can be carefully weaved and crafted into a passage of a scene, and my curiosity is certainly peaked.

003.  The biggest question you can ask when faced with nemesis is why ⏤ why are they the way they are? How do they cope without turning to ashes inside out? I want intimacy, an inside look into the labyrinth that they sheathe. Who are they? A clear answer, a stark analysis. I need to be shown an understanding and development of what exactly they have become and will continue to be. The five W’s and H would be a fun tactic with nemesis, if I’m being honest, because I want to see that transparency that proves you know them inside and out, even the mangled, molten parts that nobody else can define. “What’s it all for anyway?” You tell me.

THRASONICAL.

001.  One of my favorite little snippets about the thrasonical was making them a history-loving fool! I’d love to see how this obsession began, how it coiled into the very core of who they are. Perhaps a scene where we see them in the middle of a particularly vigorous session where they just went deep, completely encompassed within their own world of the past and its greats ⏤ the thought process, certain mannerisms, anything and everything that just embeds you into the world with them. Moreover, reveal some of their favorite pieces and periods of history! Strictly magical (here, you can really have fun and make up some lore on your own) or do they have a soft spot for muggle history as well, and how do the two mix, if so? How does the study and love of history complete them, and why?

002.  Now, I wouldn’t be hyperbolizing if I said they were fuck-all, one hundred percent, tits-up charming, so much so it’s nasty. In fact, you could accuse me of understating it. Capture this in action. The suaveness, the delicately tempered eyebrows that can throw the strongest wills into frustration, the quirk of lips that can shake foundations. Please ⏤ this is their arena, and I’d pay to watch, so make the show worth an audience.

003.  So, I kind of threw that line of “balling up fists and growling deep in your throat and calming the temper of a furious forest fire (sometimes it’s too late, sometimes you burn)” abruptly into the end, but that certainly doesn’t lessen it’s impact; perhaps it creates an emphasis, even, and I want to see that notion explored, abused, and taken advantage of. This is a bomb, and I want to see it detonated. Write an instance where they did allow the temper to catch fire and burn, and the consequences and clean-up of such a disaster. Or perhaps detail a moment when they could have, were so close to blowing up, but reined it in at the last second; capture the strength and will that it took, and how they blew off the steam in the aftermath. Go crazy together.

ACHILLES HEEL.

001.  One of the funnest qualities of the skeletons was coming up with the names for each and every one of them, and how exactly they would be molded to fit their titles. For achilles heel, there’s a lot of weight behind their name, for it’s perhaps the most well known out of all of the skeletons. I know why I picked it, but I want to know why youthink it’s well-suited. How do you tie it into your character? Do you prioritize the myth, the biology, or the general meaning behind it the most? Maybe show me a scene where the name just clicks so perfectly with who your character is. It’s a classic that has survived centuries, and I’d love to witness the clash between old and new ⏤ your interpretation against the very own Achilles.

002.  I instilled somewhat of a religious aspect within their skeleton ⏤ “analyzing scripture with your father in the italian countryside to fill up endless summer days, screaming at the top of your lungs blasphemy the next” ⏤ and it’s something I’d dearly love to see emboldened. I genuinely didn’t have any details in mind for this other than what I wrote, so I’d love to see any take on it whatsoever; it was a very impulsive inclusion, but one that I knew I couldn’t replace, simply because there’s so much that you can fabricate from that one line. Moreover, the Italian countryside is mentioned, and I’m curious to see how you would pave a subsequent path from there. This is where you can build up on the idea of their childhood (religion, family, residence), and there are so many roads to explore, it’s difficult to choose just one. The constant of achilles heel is their back-and-forth dance that is embedded into every facet of their existence, and it’s again apparent here. How did they go from point A to B? What is their relationship with religion and how does it affect them in their daily life? It’s a very boundless arena, but one that can only declare a single champion.

003.  To me, one of the most gut-wrenching pulls of the achilles heel is their complete ability for self-destruction, not to mention adeptness as self-deception. It’s like a demented game of whack-a-mole, and it’s fair to say there’s no winner. I want to see this underlined, magnified in the harsh and bright light that it deserves. This is the most imperative facet of who I introduced them as, and it’s something I’m beyond thrilled to see come to life. I want to see how they face this in their daily life; paint an instance where “playing peek-a-boo with feelings” radiates from a passage or dialogue, where it can be seen without being explicitly told. To pull achilles heel off, a tender and clever portrayal is needed, and I’m excited to see what you can pull out of the bag. Moreover, your interpretation on the unrequited torture aching within their bones is a particular desire of mine, and I want to see it exploited and dissected. Do with this what you will!

ACCISMUS.

001.  The driving force behind accismus is their undying and fervent passion. Beyond all else, they are like the unyielding embers in a stark winter; if you were to strike their bones together, a flame would appear. However, it’s almost as if this is lost on them. There is a certain desperation that trails their every breath, and every moment of their existence is spent trying to coax something deeper, something more, out of themselves. There are several lines within their skeleton that touch upon this, but “visiting the forbidden forest just to feel the thrum of explicit life around you, reminding you of your own blood pumping in your veins” works wonders to accentuate this point, and I want to see your own rendition of the meaning behind this. In order to wholly portray accismus, you must have a strong grip onto who they are, what their mindset is, the core understanding beneath it all. It’s complex to untangle and pinpoint, but I want to be shown that you know every single centimeter of the map of who they are.

002.  Truly, it wouldn’t be unfair to call them a mess. They really, really are. In their skeleton, it’s touched upon that they nearly gave up the honor of head student, and I want to tour the thought process behind this. There’s a subtle tragedy that lurks beneath the surface, and it needs to be exploited. Perhaps it’d be interesting to see the snapshot of when they found out they landed the position, and how they news shot through them. Who did they tell? Did they keep it to themselves for a while? Did they laugh, cry, go numb? It might be difficult to capture, but that’s exactly why I want to see it. I want them to be empathically, appallingly human ⏤ after all, so they do.

003.  For me, accismus is the rare introvert-extrovert type. It’s hinted at several times throughout the skeleton, such as “knowing the answer in class and waiting for the professor to call on you as a last salvation, drawling response and shy smirk at the ready.” They’re a beloved fixture within Hogwarts, despite not trying to call attention to themselves, especially in any boisterous or rowdy way. One of my main excitements relies on interactions, and so I’d love to see any dialogue between accismus and others. How do they react around others, what is their general temperament, if they were interrupted in a thrilling part of a book, how would they lash out, if at all? Really try to dig into their very essence.

GORDIAN KNOT.

001.  The inspiration behind gordian was clearly the old legend, and the very idea has been a tug at both my mind and heart for a while. The character concept was one of the first that I came up with, and this core of tangled ties, of a mangled and impenetrable mess, is the center of this skeleton that truly draws you in. Of course, it’s nice and complex on paper, but I am eager to see how you can enact this through dialogue and a realistic and meaty characterization, in which I can truly envision your muse coming to life. I want you to make this hidden and intricately tortuous character utterly transparent to me, to prove that you know them inside and out, knotted soul and all. They may be a complete riddle to everyone else, but you must be inside that sphere, right inside their head. I want to be excited to figure each facet of them out, bit by agonizing bit.

002.  One of my favorite injections within their skeleton was this idea of existentialism and their own curiosity with it. I was quite vague with the concept, for I wanted this to be the field where you can totally go off the tracks. What does this mean, specifically to your muse? How far and creatively wild can you go with this route? To me, gordian is a weird one, and I’m truly so excited to gather your interpretation of their mindset and how this idea became rooted in them. There’s a huge well of opportunity here, and I want to see how deep you’re willing to go.

003.  There are some gothic themes implanted within the group, and gordian is one of the tiers in that aspect. Within the line “chasing (my bad ⏤ walking, casually, slowly, always on the disinterested front) fulfillment in empty corridors tense with brimming old souls of centuries past ; what is it that deceiving emptiness can lend you that a breathing, talking human can’t? is it the breathing or the talking part ; or both?” there is plenty to uncover and explore with, and I want to this notion to somehow, in some (obscure or not) way, be addressed. I mean, just dissecting that part of the skeleton can lead you in so many directions, with a plethora of insanely delicious storylines to trek into. I want to see you blossom in this element, and really run with it. Give me something to sink my teeth into and groan in appreciation. Moreover, take into account their three words: stoic, precarious, nomadic. How do they fit your version of gordian? Do you disagree with them? Really show me your vision, in whatever capacity you deem best.

PROCRUSTEAN.

001.  The procrustean is quite the heavy character, and it’ll take a bit of skill to maneuver their characterization into something legible. The main notion attached to their skeleton, the very core of who they are, is this gilded cage that is shackled to their bones. The definition of procrustean reads “enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality,” and it’s a perfect exposition of the center of the character. That latter part rings especially true, and truly emphasizes that not only are they weighed down by familial (or whichever direction you took) pressure in their future, but also their soul, their heart. They are clearly affected, but how? Strip every shackle off and reveal to me who they are underneath. Even more, show me who they could have been, had they not been born into a cage. Have they ever wondered this themselves? What is their mindset? Divulge these possibilities, these truths.

002.  A section of their skeleton focuses on that “if anything, you own the distinct talent of fabricating an escape in any pleasure or pain, tiny crevices or eyebrow-raising reaches alike, you can find, seeking out with a desperate vengeance that momentarily grants you a shortly saccharine fantasy, even if the tang of blood is more bitter than sweet ( can you even tell? )” line, and my, does it pack a punch. This introduces a whole realm of possibility, and I’m keen to see what kind of vices you have affixed to their character. It even hints at delusional fantasies and lapses of desperation that may be all too disastrous for them. How dark are you willing to go, and how do you interpret the direction of the last few words within the line? Include a scene or snippet of how cavernous this vein really runs.

003.  A regal mien is somewhat embedded into the flesh of their skeleton, and it doesn’t necessarily conclude that they’re born with a silver spoon in hand. They just naturally exude this palatial air that bears an imprint on anyone who crosses their path. I’m somewhat desperate to see procrustean in action, to be given a diagram of their mind, soul, and everything more. What are their interactions with others like; how do they react and how are they reacted to? The cloak of a coward conceals them, but how is this a player in the game of their life? How gracefully do they fit into their predestined box?

LOTUS EATER.

001.  The very concept of lotus is derived from the greek myths and legends in which, “as a result of eating the fruit of the lotus plant, a group of people were stuck living in a state of idleness and dreamy forgetfulness.” This is one of the more interestingly based skeletons, and there’s so much that you can do with this. I wanted to pack in everything I could into this concept, and I want to see all possible fronts exhausted. This notion of laziness beautified and an extravagant stupor is etched into the very fragrance that islotus eater, and I want to see this grand sloth reverberate a heartbeat. Perhaps even weave a tale that compares them to their namesake, how they would bear in such a mythological tragedy (or peace?). Hearten me to their lethargic existence.

002.  Moreover, an idea that can be warred within your application is the question of: how much of their soul is true, embedded laziness, and how much is clouded with the fear of change; of achieving the bare minimum so that perfection is the lowest bar to attain? Lotus is truly a tricky one, for their intentions are up in the air, floating in bliss among sunsets and daydream clouds. Take this line: “layering jewels upon jewels as they catch a shimmer and shine, layering shadows upon shadows of a girl, catching personas like light on diamonds” and wholeheartedly rip into it. You can take so much from those words, and I’m excited to witness your interpretations. As for scenes in which you can enwrap this into dialogue and interaction, perhaps a piece of synergy in which you highlight the conversation happening both inside and outside of their head. You do what feels most comfortable, as well as what can portray your enriched understanding of their character.

003.  There are several hints of a rather rough exterior inside the skeleton, such as “running idle circles barefoot in an orchard, playing hide and seek within the groove of trees and healing scrapes and bruises on knees with the soft caress of emerald grass and blooming flowers” and the only foul word (“shit”) found within any of the skeletons, battled against a delicate, mortal softness that begs to be damaged: “careful, don’t prick your delicate veins on a rose’s thorns ; your flesh is too brittle.” I want to see this played out brilliantly, in a bright, sunshine gold light that catches the eye. With lotus specifically, I think the childhood facet is an important one to explore, for a section of the skeleton directly refers to it, and how they evolved from there to here. Thrill me with tender and bittersweet nostalgia!

PRESCIENT.

001.  The prescient is a funky one, and I’m gearing for this to be played out spectacularly. Off the bat, you are drowned in this Alice in Wonderland swirl of an identity ⏤ except darker, funner, and snarkier. Truly, their skeleton holds some of my favorite lines, and one of them is this introduced notion of a holier-than-thou attitude regarding Divination, reminiscent of our favorite Brightest Witch of Her Age, while desperately gripping with both hands tight onto their own eyebrow-raising “prophecies”: “coughing bitterly on the dense fumes that cloud the divination classroom ( a roll of your eyes here, a barely disguised scoff there ), but clinging tightly onto the prophecies designed by your leftover tea leaves from that morning’s cuppa.” It’s honestly just so like them, and I want you to attain your own comfortability with the lunacy raging inside their head: not simply understand who they are, but sacrifice a piece of yourself to adopt their madness; Alice, meet your Mad Hatter.

002.  I don’t typically like to reveal certain fictional characters who have played a role in the initial, loose characterization of the skeletons, but in this case, I don’t see it deterring you from your own interpretation, but rather pinpointing some new perspectives to get your mind turning where it may have not been. That said, particularly in the Harry Potter universe itself, I drew some influence from Luna Lovegood, Lavender Brown, Hermione Granger, and even Tom Riddle. They each lent something to the building of the skeleton diagram, and from there, I expanded it and fluffed it with a lot of my own twists from how these “seer-esque” characters are usually done ⏤ it’s safe to say I had a little too much fun with prescient. They are truly different at every turn, and mangle expectations inside out: thus, I want you to shock me with your application; surprise even (and especially) me.

003.  One of the three words I included for prescient was meddlesome, and boy, oh boy, is that the truest thing I’ve written. This, mixed with their fatal curiosity, is a disaster brewing in the horizon. A large section of their skeleton reads: “everything and everyone has a rhyme or reason and oh, oh, oh, you’re too curious for your own good ⏤ what do you exist for if not for prodding and poking into a semblance of understanding / after all, one can be pushed down the rabbit hole or jump ; what difference does it make in the end if you’re the one to prod them off the ledge, as long as wonderland is reached at the crash of the fall?” and if anything, this is what you must pick up on in your interpretation. They can almost be suffocating in their ways, and that makes for some nasty interactions; or perhaps not? Detail their relationships across the sphere, or highlight a scene or dialogue in which their meddling ways are magnified for my viewing. Is the cat killed, or brought back?

FAVONIAN.

001.  The tug of favonian is this grand, old-fashioned fairytale hook, which cloaks you in its worn, mysteriously-shadowed aura (I generally get more descriptive the longer I write for periods at a time, my sorrowful, regretful bad). Their skeleton is actually one of my shorter ones, but I believe it to be more within less. This idea of a desperation to find oneself magically within the pages of a storybook leads to a more grandiose and perhaps even tragic analysis, for who must you be ⏤ what life must you live ⏤ to wish to exchange your reality for fiction (says I, the hypocrite)? Moreover, the line: “worn copies of beedle the bard graining your fingertips as age-old excitement pulls you to turn the page, again and again” hints that this pull has seized favonian since childhood, and what can you twist and weave with this piece of news? Is this fascination like the roots of a tree, growing sturdier and stronger with each passing day, until oh!: an evermore, majestic oak? In a world of magic, with goblins, and spells, and wheezes ‘til the eye can see, what more can you long for?

002.  I’ve been asked about this in the past, but allow me to reiterate and truly expand on my answer: a darkness clings in between the lines of favonian, and it’s hinted at through the “at least try and shave that hairy heart of yours, before they catch onto you” line. Like I said before, this is referring to the short story within The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and it’s perhaps the short story that reeks the most of the gothic theme, a thread that is most definitely deliberate. How you choose to incorporate or address this vein is up to you, but I suggest you get clever with it ⏤ if you’re having fun with it, I assure you that the same elation will radiate to me. Not all enchanted forests have a Tinker Bell, so run with it; after all, Hogwarts does have its very own forbidden forest to venture. A dark seed must always first be tainted.

003.  An extremely vital part to favonian is the “plucking your way through your garden, dismembering one flower at a time, chanting childish demands of ‘will they love me … love me not’ ( try : will i love me, will i not? pity, my dear : not )” line, which is why it was chosen as the crucial sentence to highlight within the masterlist. Here, darker themes are also underlined, for the innocent children’s act of plucking petals from a flowers is twisted into a literal, crippling action, maiming what was once sweet into something pungent. Even further, an insecurity is introduced in the parenthesis, sharp enough to prick your finger on. It’s truly key to at least talk about this in some capacity, so search for that dark, deep crevice within yourself and channel it.

PHAETON.

001.  The phaeton was a concept that was very original in the entire premise and creation of the roleplay, and I’m elated to see them finally flapping their wings out in the wild. Like essentially all of the skeletons, there is a soft dichotomy edged between the lines: arrogance versus inherent destruction. They are a very difficult concept to skillfully grasp, and can only be achieved with an exquisite and keen hand. They are wholly based upon the greek phaethon, and the myth instantly affords the skeleton depth where it may be hidden within the text: “inexperience proved fatal” is the theme that strikes severely, the chord that must be struck. However, legends may not be whole reality, and thus, I urge you to create a new picture rather than coloring within the lines.

002.  Following that same vein, arrogance is a key factor that is deeply implanted within the bones of the skeleton. Moreover, you can play on the “inexperience” and conceit by meshing them to attack the Head Student position that has been gifted to phaeton. “Arrogance is a certain type of breed, but are you a perfect design or a mangled mutation?”: where can this lead them? What part does this line play in their future / potential storyline? How will this fail them or uplift them? You can address these questions in whichever format you may wish to use, as long as the grip you have on their mind, heart, and soul is stable and obvious to my own eyes.

003.  A clever little input within the skeleton was “smirking dimples into fruition ; narrowing twinkling eyes into slits” and this truly warps what you thought the skeleton was into something else. This introduces a mischief to the concept, a fun gist and flowing wind that injects an acrid jest that you simply can’t help but inhale until you’re sneezing to the nines. Moreover, phaeton is perhaps the skeleton with the most singular lines, in which each new fraction amounts to a different meaning, and so much like the previous line, “heavy hearts weigh on the heaviest minds” is one that speaks thousands, and opens dozens of doors, without revealing much within the direct words themselves. Expand on these notions, and how they affect the vision of your own character; how they coil and root to encapsulate the core of your muse. Really wrap your fist around the center of their stem and tug.

#prompts #ahhhh so happy to have these done lmao #<33333333

[keep-on-trying]

Hii actually would like to hear from you making a comparison analysis of Meiko and Wallace/Willis from hurricane touchdown since u know they habe to deal with their digimon death and destruction. Meiko experience Meicomoon evil side since young and Wallace lose his other digimon since young. It woild be great if you can do this. I am interested. And in Touchdown the original is gone while in Tri the 02 cast is gone. Correlation?

Ooh. This is actually something I’ve seen lots of people talk about, how Wallace’s and Meiko’s stories have some similarities and how Tri. sometimes feels like a longer Hurricane Touchdown with reverse roles. I guess I can try making some comparision, althou I’m actually not the biggest fan of Hurricane Touchdown movie? Maaainly because it feels out of place and doesn’t fit canon in any way, and has some contradicting elements with the basic lore :D But let’s see! (Putting a cut because this is gonna be long)

Both Tri. and Hurricane Touchdown do definitely have one thing common: one group of the cast is put aside for plot reasons. In Hurricane Touchdown, Wallace’s Chocomon kidnapped our original 6 chosen children in hope of finding the Wallace of the childhood, while in Tri. 02 kids are shown to have been defeated, possibly by Alphamon’s hand (I still see him here as a possible red herring, but maybe I’m just overthinking on this part when he clearly seems to be on Yggdrasil’s side on Kyousei).

Now let’s move on to the characters!

Wallace and Chocomon

I’ll admit I’m not too familiar with Wallace, but basically, his story in Hurricane Touchdown involves him trying to find his lost digimon, who he calls Chocomon. Chocomon may be looking for Wallace, but because time has passed since their last encounter, the Wallace Chocomon knows is no longer to be found. Instead he’s grown up, and well, Chocomon doesn’t recognize Wallace as his partner for this reason. Wallace keeps running after Chocomon, hoping that he’ll recognize him.  He’ll then decide to go to their last meeting place, Summer Memory. He meets up with Daisuke, Miyako and Iori on the way, and after some adventuring, they get to Summer’s Memory and then there’s this talk between Wallace and Daisuke.

I have to say, Wallace seems awfully calm about having to possibly kill Chocomon. To me at least. Maybe it’s because he’s been dealing with this issue for years. Or maybe he’s hopeful that he doesn’t need to do it. Chocomon does end up dying in the end, though it is with a happy smile on his face. So, Chocomon was redeemed before dying. (He then gets reborn as an egg which breaks every rule I can possibly think related to digimon lore so I’ll skip talking about it)

The deal with Chocomon’s evolutions seem to be caused by feeling abandoned. When he can’t find his Wallace, he probably became that… thing. And later on when he tries taking Wallace, but Terriermon denies it, he evolves to Cherubimon’s Evil Form. From what I understand, Chocomon cried a lot, and felt happiness around Wallace. So when he’s lost in the flower field and Wallace isn’t coming for him, no wonder he’s feeling abandoned.

Meiko and Meicoomon

Now, Meiko is someone I actually sort of studied last week for Kyousei, so I’m more familiar with her. As we know, she was chosen to keep the Libra, Meicoomon, in check, so that it wouldn’t go rampaging and disrupting the balance of the Digital World. All went well until she let Meicoomon run in a wider area in the forest. I believe that to be the first case where Meicoomon let fear take control and rampage. When Meiko found her thou, she calmed down instantly. Meiko doesn’t know this happened thou, so she’s not worried at this point yet.There’s a repeat of the event when Meiko’s dad takes Meicoomon to his lab for some tests. Meicoomon mutates (it’s what Hackmon calls it, even thou it is sort of an evolution form change) at this point due to being scared once again and causes havoc around the lab. When Meiko gets there thou, Meicoomon calms down instantly, again. This is the first time Meiko sees her having this side thou.

Fast foward to Tri events, Meiko is shown to take good care of Meicoomon in Saikai and Ketsui, not wanting to let her be away from her side. It’s why she’s looking for her in Saikai, and why she’s telling her all is fine in the Onsen scene in Ketsui. The events at the end of Ketsui is what causes Meicoomon to go out of line, beyond Meiko’s reach. I’m guessing this is where her depression sort of starts. In Kokuhaku the hope for curing infection and getting Meicoomon in check is with the Reboot. It works for infection, but Meicoomon still remembers Meiko. She gets scared throughout Soushitsu, mutating to her vicious mode once. When she finds Meiko thou, she seems to no longer be scared (after she attacks Meiko for not coming earlier thou :D), and is determined in keeping Meiko safe. When Meiko gets strangled by Not-Gennai thou, Meicoomon gave in to the fear and is rampaging once again. Now we’re in Kyousei events, where Meiko’s depression kicks in deeper and she starts wondering if there’s any way to save Meicoomon. In the end, Meiko comes to the conclusion that the only hope for the world is for Meicoomon to die a merciful death. That’s similar to Chocomon, who has to be killed for the best of the world. However…

I would like to mention that while Chocomon wasn’t able to recognize Wallace, Meicoomon apparently is! Right at the start of the Kyousei movie, she first attacks Meiko, which I feel like it was due to an adrenal rush that was caused by fear, but when Taichi saves Meiko, Meicoomon suddenly realises what she almost did and runs away. Later on, when she evolves to Raguelmon and is fighting against chosen digimon and Jesmon, she’s shown to protect Meiko from Jesmon. This part fucks me up hard! Especially when Meiko tells the others to kill her!

Conclusion

This probably isn’t the best kind of comparision of the two, and I apologize in advance, but Wallace’s story and Meiko’s story do infact have similaries when talking about a rogue partner digimon, and when needing to decide on killing them. Wallace and Meiko seem to handle the situation differently thou. It’s like Tri is expanding on the plot that Hurricane Touchdown has, only I enjoy Tri. whole lot more than I did with Hurricane touchdown. I’m not able to say why that is.

But yeh, here’s what i was able to compare between Wallace’s and Meiko’s stories. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

#asks #mariaeliora #digimon #digimon tri #digimon 02 #digimon analysis #kyousei spoilers #tri spoilers #meiko mochizuki #meicoomon #wallace #chocomon #apparently cuts work differently on asks wtf #lol