foibles-fables

[foibles-fables]

I must not respond to the bad take. Responding to the bad take is the mind-killer. Responding to the bad take is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face the bad take. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the bad take has gone there will be nothing. Only I (and my good takes) will remain.

[foibles-fables]

Hello. I am the person who asked you about how you came to the conclusion that Aloy and Talanah would be a good couple. I read the answer at the time and I just want to say that I liked it a lot, that you have a very good imagination and eye for details, that I apologize for not having answered sooner and that I love you very much, Foibs ❤

AAAHHHH…THANK YOU 💕💕🥹🥹😭 seriously, I appreciated that ask SO much—it gave me a chance to articulate (if you wanna call it that) a lot of my points in one place and really dig into why I love the ship so much. I owe that all to you!!!! 💕💕💕💕

#HAVE THE BEST DAY I LOVE YOU TOO

[foibles-fables]

Potential Horizon 3 Map

I’m throwing this up as a reference. It’s just fun speculation and I know a lot can happen during development. Horizon is known for leaving little bread crumbs leading into the next game. So, in going off this, and a statement from writing director Ben McCaw, I believe these are mainline quest points for the next game…

Before you speak with Sylens at the end of BS, he’s looking over specific spots on a map of North America. I’ve done my best to surmise what those specific locations are.

Location 1: The northern most point in Canada I could not find any significant settlement names (Canadians help me out here if you know). It all looked like a huge wildlife park preserve. Potential Ban-Ur location?

Location 2: The spot below to the left is very close to Edmonton or Calgary. Maybe Banff? Most likely candidate for Ban-Ur.

Locations 3&4: The two close together is Salt Lake and I think Boise, Idaho. Or some other location in eastern Oregon. Salt Lake is the FAS facility mentioned in the data point collected from Londra (Dagger in my Boot). Most likely Boise is The Claim homeland of the Oseram, and potentially, Elysium. As Elysium was stated to only be “miles” from GAIA Prime.

Location 5: And at the very bottom we have Houston. Hard to pinpoint that because of how much the coastline has changed. However, that’s a very important NASA base so I’m very curious to see what that could entail.

Anyway! If we do get a map this size, WOW. I’m deeply excited at the prospect of finally visiting the homeland of the Oseram and Banuk. Banuk especially.

#yup #H3 is gonna take us back to the HZD map—combine it with HFW—and then expand northward #that southern spot is definitely the interesting outlier #my eyes are OPEN #I highly doubt we’re leaving the continent—there’s just. too much to do here? #not going to the quen homeland. the quen are coming to us #horizon speculation

[foibles-fables]

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! ✰ inspired by (x) ✰ reminder that T*RFs can fuck off, only interact if you love trans & nonbinary folks ♡ more under the cut!

#i love these lmao #bg3

[foibles-fables]

You are microwave safe. You are dishwasher safe. You will not turn orange after one use. You will not deform under boiling water.

[foibles-fables]

I have a question. How did you come to the wonderful conclusion that Aloy and Talanah would be a good couple? I can see the appeal in it, but I'd rather hear it from you

[CRACKS KNUCKLES] Watch me try to stay as concise as I can with this post, hahaha.

First thing I'll say is--I'm an absolute sucker for a strong-based friends to lovers ship. The loyalty, the devotion, the knowing each other before and after the world changes them and every stage between, the slow strengthening of feelings, the contending with blurred boundaries, the oh moment, the it was this all along, the I have always been here and so have you and so we will, the settling into even deeper contentment with the other, hoo boy I can go on and on. I especially like it when it comes in a sapphic flavor of the Burdened Chosen One and their Tender, Caring, Supportive Best Friend.

[looks directly at camera]

So you can already see where I'm coming from, here. But--truly, for me--it comes down to 1) the similarities AND innate differences in their life stories/situations and 2) their interactions in HZD. A combined one-two punch that crushed my windpipe and stole my lunch money.

I'm a sucker for a friends to lovers ship, and I'm also a sucker for a ship with compelling parallels. What interests me most about the Aloy/Talanah dynamic is that they're narrative mirrors, but foils in situation. Both are highly-skilled hunters; both driven by their fixation on a parental figure (either avenging or uncovering); both lost their father (figure) to a cruelty much too large for them, with their fathers' shared desire for them to survive; both inheriting new titles (Sunhawk, Alpha Prime) and shouldering the burdens of their deceased parental figure; both proving their place and worth in the world as based on, in Talanah's words, more than the nature of their birth alone; I could keep going. (Don't tempt me.) But here Aloy was an outcast, while Talanah is from one of the noblest houses of her tribe--the difference of change from without versus change from within, and all the ways in which both are complicated. So narrative mirrors coming from opposing situations--how does that make them alike, and how does it make them different? How does it change they way they navigated through the world, and how does it change the way they would navigate one another?

I also love to point out the fact that Talanah is the perfect example of what Rost was trying to demonstrate to Aloy in his final lesson. The strength to stand alone and to make a stand. Her dedication to a selfless cause--ambition not for her own sake, but to restore her family's legacy, and to change her culture. GOD. My fingers are going numb just thinking about it.

What I'm trying to say is that Talanah is in a unique position to see and empathize with the burden Aloy feels post-HZD, and I'm not sure I'll ever forgive the writers for not capitalizing on that during the pivotal time of HFW. Carrying on of your parent's legacy is not easy, and even if Talanah doesn't know it by weight, she knows it by shape. Importantly, to me--Talanah understands--she's lived analogous experiences to Aloy's--but she's also different enough to challenge her. In fact, it goes both ways. There's a mutuality to the way that they make up for what the other has maybe lacked--puzzle pieces instead of cognate shapes, or the same image repeated twice, amplifying itself. There's harmony where there could just be volume.

That got away from me, so I'll just keep on going with how their interactions in HZD fishhooked me. I made a post the other day about Aloy's joy in the Redmaw victory, and that's a major part of it. The rest is just--the sense of ease and understanding that comes out in all of their conversations? And how Talanah always and consistently from the beginning sees Aloy as Aloy, not a Seeker, not a savior, not an oddity, just based on her own merit alone? How she heard Aloy give herself a name--Aloy despite the Nora--says she'll remember it, and then does, TWICE? Every smile she brings out of Aloy, every moment of bare genuineness between them, that giggle from Aloy post-quest? And don't get me started on the "you made this possible, Aloy" parallel. Don't even let me think about "you'll always have a special home here, if you want it." It'll end badly for all of us, category 10 blorbo emergency.

But it's not only what Talanah can offer Aloy (a deep bond of loyalty and fondness, a sense of belongingness, the simple fact of being seen as exactly how you yourself want to be seen)--Aloy gives back to Talanah as well!! Much more deeply than just helping her earn the Sunhawk title and restoring her family's legacy. Think about their pre-Alight conversation: "I won't stand aside while one of mine fights alone. Not again." Aloy has become one of Talanah's--a person who has lost everyone dear to her. Something that must be absolutely terrifying (see my post-HZD Lanah characterization, lmao) but still worth fighting for.

I was lucky enough to read the entire Sunhawk comic directly after the credits rolled on HZD, and that again just blew me out of the water with how much sense they make. The fact that Talanah was the only one to see Aloy leave makes my brain wanna come gushing out of my ears. And how they just--keep running into one another (more on this in the next paragraph). But perhaps the most important comic moment is Talanah's affirmation of "you don't owe me anything" after Aloy apologizes for leaving. That right there is respect to Aloy's agency and personhood (versus instrumentality!!) and the burden Talanah can sense she's under. She trusts Aloy to have told her what was up, if she had wanted her to know. And trusts that whatever she is doing must be important. Even if it's been difficult to be without her, Talanah knows she can't ask Aloy for more than what she is or what she can give.

(that's not to say Talanah isn't hurt. I think she still is--and projects a lot of that hurt and attachment onto another woodsy hermit--but that's a topic for a different post. You can trust and accept something like this while still being hurt by it.)

You asked how I came to the conclusion of THEM, so I haven't really included HFW in this analysis (I was clearly a goner from HZD), but it's there too. The way Aloy just happens to find out Talanah is nearby after her entire worldview is cracked open at Latopolis, how seeking her out and finding her seems to just make things okay again despite everything? (again, the constant finding of each other.) The fondness of their reunion? "It feels good to hunt by your side again"? The easy way they settle into old comfortable patterns of conversation? The tone of You love him, don't you and Really??? and Come here.? It's just all there screaming at me. I can't.

I just. I love them so much. It's so clear to me how they already have helped and can continue to help each other grow. Especially now that the series has placed them in yet another paralleled situation post-HBS. From where I see it, they've been dancing around each other since the beginning. And the way they've both sought things with others (ALSO EACH HAVING PARALLELS TO THE OTHER) only to walk away makes me wanna go absolutely feral. I can very, very clearly see this playing out into an what was I looking for when there was you moment and it might actually be the thing that makes me perish

I'm so sorry if this was totally incoherent. I've got a lot of feelings about this ship and I'm gonna continue to make them your problem.

#yeah. i'm gonna keep reblogging this forever.

[foibles-fables]

[foibles-fables]

(Alt ID built in)

#oh this is so pretty #aloy

[foibles-fables]

#other: completely incomprehensible

[foibles-fables]

#tolerate it but come on. #there’s an e at the end it’s right there in the email

[foibles-fables]

people always talk about leaving comments on ao3 like it's a nice thing to do, or the best way to encourage writers to keep writing, or overall like it's how you Do Your Part in fandom

and yeah, all those things are true, but having spent the past few months leaving enthusiastic comments on as many things as i can, i have a different perspective

you should leave comments on fics because it's fun

taking the time to stop and focus on what i like about a story has made me way more aware of what's going on in stories and what i like about them. there's bit more actual comprehension and appreciation and not just beaming content into my eyes to fill time

i like noticing cool little things in fics, or riffing on funny events. i've never been very good at speculating or picking apart characters, but sometimes something clicks and it rocks.

and of course it's pretty nice when you get a response and it's clear you've made another person happy

so yeah, you should leave comments for your own sake, too. it makes reading better!

[foibles-fables]

another great ship dynamic is "characters who are deeply traumatized and haunted by nightmares are finally able to get a peaceful night of sleep in each other's arms"

#[kicks door in] hawk and thrush

[foibles-fables]

Rangshi week day 5: Kyoshi warriors/island  Say whatever you want about Mulan II, but the songs are still fantastic, and “Lesson Number One” fits perfectly to the theme of Kyoshi warriors. Although, once I drew it, I realised that there’s not much rangshi (like, at all) so I decided to add a comic below. I can’t believe my brain created a new canon for Fire Nation being so chaotic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S20sVQgd0gw&ab_channel=Chorus-Mulan-Topic “One alone is not enough, you need both together” - we, when someone mentions only Rangi, or only Kyoshi

#RAW KYOSHI

[foibles-fables]

>be Jianzhu

>get slapped by the goddess Hei-Ran

>take it without protest

"She slapped him across the face. Which was about as good a result as he could get" (Yee, F.C. The Rise of Kyoshi, 2019).

#yeah mood honestly

[foibles-fables]

Genuinely. This interaction is tattooed on my brain for all time.

#lin was literally just opening the door

[foibles-fables]

yall do realize just because something has been a target of misogynistic criticism, that doesn't make stanning it completely uncritically in response some kind of revolutionary feminist praxis. right.

#YES YES YES

[foibles-fables]

I was just thinking about the biker minthy AU and was like aint no way that bun will fit in the motorbike helmet then I remember...

#incredible