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crisiscutie · 4 months

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Dissidia Sephiroth and JENOVA!Dissidia Darling

Excerpt from my analysis of Yandere Dissidia Sephy.

Content Warning: Gaslighting/Emotional Abuse. Body Change. Allusions to pregnancy. Just a long ramble, don't bother reading if you're expecting a writing prompt.

If you've been following the Dissidia AU, you might know that in that universe, Sephiroth's darling is a summoner he took under his wing (no pun intended), masquerading as her jaded and well-meaning mentor. Eventually, he earned her trust and admiration, leading her to summon JENOVA into their universe. Darling was successful in this endeavor, but little did she know JENOVA required a physical vessel, and she chose Darling herself. Darling had no idea she succeeded, while Sephiroth, who knew, used that to his advantage in his plans to become one with her and ascend to godhood.

No matter which version, we know Sephiroth is obsessed with carrying on his mother's legacy and her bidding. He has a severe messiah complex, which made me think about how this would show up in his relationship with Dissidia Darling.

Then, I realized he would definitely view this manifestation within her as if it was like a sacred pregnancy, stroking his inflated ego even further and fueling his delusions. So, for sure, he'd be determined to see her through the entire "pregnancy," supporting her all the way. In some ways, Sephiroth still acts as a mentor to darling, but we know well that our Crisis Cutie loves weaving half-truths into his web of deception and lies. That's why I adore him as a yandere - his ruthless and obsessed personality and his storyline in Opera Omnia, where he's desperately trying to resurrect JENOVA, are the perfect foundations for this AU.

I like how there are even similarities to the Virgin Mary's tale, if you think about it. The goddess JENOVA selects the "virgin" darling to bear her new form in the Dissidia universe... Sephiroth also interpreted this as a sign that darling was the chosen girl for him. Darling and Sephiroth also bear similarities to Eve and the Serpent! If you haven't read my analysis of Sephiroth's Mommy Issues, I suggest doing so to gain insight into my next point.

To be expected, this manifestation would undoubtedly trigger Dissidia Sephiroth's mommy issues like hell, much like Fluffy Sephiroth, but he would handle it differently than him. He would seize every opportunity to "mentor" Darling, shaping her into the perfect doll mother. Not only her body must be immaculate but her psychological state as well. And if he needs to break the doll repeatedly to do that, he will. His idealized vision of motherhood will be recognized. She will be his in every sense.

So, under his "guidance," he nurtures her; encouraging strength, fostering hatred, and instilling confidence within her. And he always takes the time to ask darling about her thoughts on motherhood occasionally, dropping cryptic hints about the manifestation. She feels like he is hinting at something, but is not exactly sure what. The man just loves to watch her squirm, yearning for more information, just like he does with everyone else. But then he downplays it, perhaps making her question herself. At times, he even uses this manipulation as a playful way to charm her, making her turn a deep shade of red when coyly saying that he is might be the one to make her a mother. The cruel amusement he derives from this is almost overwhelming.

In my recent fic, Sephiroth gets a lovely taste in the distant future as a reward for his impressive progress at darling's reunion. But not too long after that, she finds herself separated from him, stumbling upon new friends who might show her the light.

But don't worry. He's desperately searching for ways to reclaim her from them. And when he's ready to confront them, he will double down on the pregnancy allusions. Perhaps he'd say something like, "You are carrying our future within you, darling."

Poor Darling would be so disturbed, feeling violated by this monster growing within her, taking over her very being. Nonetheless, Sephiroth would gaslight her, reminding her that she had willingly agreed to help him summon JENOVA, all the while wearing his signature sadistic smirk. Then, he would gradually shift back to his well-meaning mentor persona to deepen her trauma; Gently cupping her cheeks, wiping away her tears and assuring her he would take care of her. Why? Because HE was the only one who could understand her. Care for her. Love her. The worlds were against her. He was the only one fighting by her side... Makes you wonder how darling will respond to these manipulations...

Anyway, Sephiroth has essentially baby-trapped the poor darling, and I absolutely adore that allusion. It perfectly embodies the core traits of a yandere - delusion, manipulation, protectiveness, objectification, obsession, and possession. Sephiroth embodies all of these TOO well.. I can't wait to talk more about this in the full detailed analysis and in later ones of how I explain how other yandere Sephiroths put these concepts into practice with their darlings.

To end on a playful note, it's worth noting the irony that darling ended up forming connections with other FF characters, all stemming from her bond with Sephiroth. I plan on delving further into Darling's interactions with characters beyond Sephiroth and Kadaj; she's managed to gather quite the harem, xD. Perhaps the most prominent example is how Sephiroth still keeps his other "tools" around, like Seymour and Weiss, because darling is still inexperienced and not quite ready to be his sole partner. However, it's only natural that spending time with others would lead to bonding, so this turned out to be a major oversight on Sephiroth's part. He never expected his tools to form a connection with darling. So it's no surprise that Sephiroth's objectification of darling and his allies will have some eventual negative consequences. How these consequences will be explored? Well, you'll just have to keep tuning into the AU.

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neovillain · 5 months

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soft and sullen expectation.

a jujutsu kaisen fanfic [SAMPLE /PREVIEW] characters: yuji itadori, nobara kugisaki, megumi fushiguro dynamics: ot3. nobara x megumi, yuji x megumi, yuji x nobara and all that great stuff ok. A retelling of the last couple of episodes of season 1 in Jujutsu Kaisen, after the battle and sister school events.

"I don't think he likes pepperoni." Nobara cautioned as she paid the cashier at the Pizza Parlor. The cashier gave a concerned but delegated look at the both of them before counting each yen with studious skepticism and walked away. Nobara rubbed her temple where her bandage was placed. "Yes, he does." Yuji chimed, taking the pizza and walking out with Nobara. "He just doesn't like when it's the only toppings, 's why I ordered everything" he grinned and Nobara rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, but if he complains…." "What are you even talking about?" Yuji smiles, he nudges Nobara with a friendly elbow, "he always complains." "Point taken."

The two of them make it back to Jujutsu High in no time. Nobara holding a bag of goodies and essentials that Megumi might want. Some juice, water, soda, candies, chips, dried fruit. She even got wet wipes and digestive pills-which where mostly for Megumi but Yuji would somehow get his grubby hands on them. Yuji pranced around proudly with the extra large pizza as they walked up the steps of the school and down the sunny courtyard to their living quarters.

It felt odd most of the time living in such a quaint yet involved place. Between the bushes and long side fields of grass and trees, Nobara could easily forget this was the same place that was enraptured by a cursed domain not long ago. The thought doesn't resonate when she see's one of the temples-destroyed and torn of its dignity. The two of them move around the broken framework that's found itself in the middle of the walking path. Broken wood and structures laid out in front of them and making their walk a little more tedious then it had to be. They came to one of the structures that were easier to climb then walk around. It was part of the shingled roof top of the old temple. Yuji takes a few leaps and he's already on top of the thing. Nobara puts her wrist through the handle of their bag of goodies and starts climbing. When she gets to the top Yuji offers his hand, and she takes it. Before, Nobara would scoff and refuse. Yuji always did things like that when they were first rewarded difficult missions or when they faced harsh terrain. This definitely did not happen when they had that mission in Ropongi. He called her a bitch in Ropongi. And how could she ever forget that.

Sometimes she wondered if it was some ploy to make her feel feeble or if it was just a way for Yuji to get under her skin. Now, somethings changed and Nobara wants nothing to do with asking her self the very questions she wants to ask Yuji. A small 'why'. A tedious why a nagging and anxiety driven, 'why?' Why does he always reach for her? Why does he always look back.

Yet afterwards, when he up and died on them and somehow resurrected-she didn't deny him anymore. Taking his hand every single time he offered it. Nobara placed her hand in his and felt a warm and sincere squeeze as she was pulled up. They slid down the broken structure together, flakes of wood and dust trailing their way.

When they got to Megumi's room, they were surprised to find him sleeping. Nobara put her finger up to her lips and looked at Yuji. He gave her a very stupid smile before shutting the door behind them.

Nobara placed the bag of goodies on a small table and immediately walked to Megumi's bedside. She placed a hand on his forehead as he slept quietly. He looked tired and exhausted. His breathing was deep and loud but thankfully steady. She grazed her thumb over his forehead, noticing how warm he was. Her thumb came back a little damp.

"Is he still asleep?" Yuji interrupted. Nobara grimaced, "why are you so loud?" She gritted through her teeth. And as if a spell had broken, Megumi opened his eyes and watched with silent exasperation as Yuji and Nobara argue at a level that was hardly admissible as soothing or calming or even just plain nice.

"What the hell are you guys arguing over?"

It took a whole minute for them to even notice he was awake. Yuji's face lit up. His big doey eyes meeting Megumi's with a softness Megumi hated. It made his chest hurt. And shit, he already hurt all over.

"We bought you pizza!" "I bought you pizza" Nobara corrected. "It has all your favorite toppings!" Yuji placed the box in Megumi's lap which Megumi looked up at Yuji as if he just laid a dead rat on his bed.

The heavy sweaty doughy scent of pizza filled the room now, cheese, vegetables, pepperoni and spicy sausage. Megumi opened the box immediately. He'd reprimand them later about throwing a greasy box of pizza on his bed. They did good. But he wasn't sure his stomach would be up for the challenge just yet. Honestly, they could of brought him a bowl of thick stale oatmeal and he'd be grateful. As Megumi pulled out his slice and chewed on it methodically, he watched Nobara and Yuji fizz out of their yelling match and stuff their faces into their food.

Megumi could appreciate the silence between eating and the vague jabs Nobara and Yuji gave each other. Yuji dropped a mushroom on his hoodie and Nobara snorted, "you're always so messy." And threw a napkin at him, but only rolled her eyes when Yuji made a show of picking up the mushroom and dropping it into his mouth.

"I'm surprised you two showed up." Megumi quietly interjected. "Shouldn't you two be resting as well?"

Nobara sighed getting another slice of pizza, "nah, I hadn't seen much action before that veil got pulled down. Just met some creepy curse user. He looked like he probably sticks up pencils up small animals asses."

"Kugisaki, I am eating for crying out loud." Yuji glared

"What? Not like I became best friends with a misogynistic meat head and got to fight a tough as fuck cursed spirit." There was a bite to her small smile,

Yuji pouted a bit, "you don't have to put it like that. I mean Todo did help me learn a few things about cursed energy and all." He grinned, "got to use a black flash couple times too."

Megumi looked up from a string of cheese he was planning to devour slowly and slurp up like a noodle. "Really?" He looked at Yuji, "Todo taught you that?"

"Mmm more like he guided me. But he was also pretty freakin' raw about it too. Guess he's a throw em into the fire and let em learn type a guy."

Megumi chewed on his pizza, letting Nobara grill Yuji on becoming friends with a guy like Todo. Yugi humbly opted out of ever doing such a thing-because well he's a live in the moment type of guy. Things come over him and he's compelled to do just about the most ridiculous things. No friends were maid, just lessons learned, his smile spreading across his face.

But Megumi couldn't be bothered to really keep up with their chit chat. He was more intrigued about the speed and depth in which Yuji Itadori was getting stronger. Not even a year had passed and Yuji was landing black flashes on cursed spirits, rising up from the dead-which Megumi still feels sore even thinking about. But he always knew this, Itadori was strong from the day he met him. Probably far before he swallowed Sukuna's finger and delved into this messy bloody world of theirs.

But, he couldn't help but sink in his bed just a little.

"Anyway, I'm just glad your injuries weren't very serious Fushigiro." Yuji smiles. Yuji raises his pizza and toasts, "to your health and to this pizza!"

Megumi blinks, "you could've brought me something easier to digest."

"No complaining." Nobara grumbled. And Yuji bursts into laughter.

Nobara finishes her pizza and gets up to wash her hands, by the time that she's back, she hears the end tail of whatever declaration Megumi wanted to get off his chest.

"You know you've grown a lot stronger Itadori. Before we stood by our convictions, and I know that's true."

Nobara looks between Yuji and Megumi leaning her chin into her palm as she listens, hoping somewhere Megumi calls Itadori the idiot that he is.

Except, Nobara shouldn't be all too surprised when Megumi is analyzing all that's happened into just a few sentences. Be it so, that Megumi isn't all that great with relaying things that are on his mind in a timely fashion. It's a lot better than what it used to be. And in those weeks they thought Itadori was dead, Nobara thought the guy was going mute--more than she had already thought before. Yet, Nobara knew there was always so much more to him. And even in knowing that, she wasn't always sure what he wanted to bring up to the surface.

Some nights he'd show up to her room. And she'd hope he would say something, anything. But he never did. So neither did she.

She could sum it up to Megumi trying to recalibrate what he brings into the team, and she isn't wrong once Megumi looks deep into Yuji's eyes and says, "so I've decided. I'll surpass you."

Yuji laughs again. And Nobara glares at them.

"Did I get left out this conversation again, or something? What the fuck are you saying?"

The boys look at Nobara, question marks dancing in their gaze. Megumi and Yuji have been used to Nobara's outburst but her voice goes grim and as solid as a straight line and that always gets their attention.

Megumi makes the mistake of opening his mouth, "I only meant--" "What, that I'm weak compared to the both of you?"

Itadori frowns, "whoa, where did you get that?"

"I know I have to spell everything out for you Itadori. But this cannot be one of those times."

Megumi's stomach tightens, "You know that is not what I meant Nobara." Her eyes narrow. The tension in the room shifts completely and Yuji makes it known he doesn't like it, "okay okay….we're all strong in our own ways."

It isn't enough to ebb the growing burn blooming in Nobara's chest. She scuffs, gets up from the edge of Megumi's bed and stretches.

"Whatever, I'm getting sleepy." She plumets the growing pang in her chest into a slow yawn. "I'll see you tomorrow for the last sister school event."

Yuji and Megumi watch in steeped silence as she walks out of the room. Their eyes tracing over her resigned body, she doesn't even slam Megumi's door on her way out.

"Is….she angry or something?" Yuji asks with confusion coloring his voice. Megumi feels his ears grow warm and his throat ache. He lets it all release in a souring groan. He lays back and throws his arm over his eyes in defeat.

Yuji eyes wide and innocent shrugs his shoulders, he picks up Megumi's pizza crust and chews on it depleted. "I'll take that as a yes."

If you would like to read more, no worries! I will be publishing the whole thing in a week or two here and on A03. <3

#this is just a sample #haha it's been 3 years since i even touched this blog #i have an obnoxious workload and i've been working on this for about 2 years whenever i come home from work or school to destress #i love my jjk babies #also it jumps around a bit #anyway im making the case that nobara deserves MORE she is MORE and that two boys are in love with her in their own funny way #and she with them lol #jjk fanfic #yuji itadori x nobara kugisaki x megumi fushiguro #jjk ot3 #jujutsu kaisen fanfic

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motheatenscarf · 1 year

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In Almenor D&D last night our Cleric succeeded on his FOURTH Divine Intervention in the campaign.

We were doing SOME BULLSHIT, I will get into the specifics beneath a read more in a second, but we hit level 20 at the end of the session, so that was the final time he's ever going to have to roll for a success on his divine intervention. At level 20, Clerics just get one free miracle a week that they automatically succeed on.

Again, this is his fourth success, so let's go through them;

The first one was when we had a battle in the artifacts room of an ancient temple, some of the artifacts were destroyed in the ensuing fight. The clerics there weren't too worried about that, they were more sad that some of their people had died, but it was a cultural blow al the same. Flint, our Cleric, prayed for the artifacts to be restored and rolled to meet a success.

The second time was after we killed an elder brain dragon, he prayed that the copper dragon who had been corrupted would be spiritually restored so it could reincarnate since that's apparently what happens to dragons here.

The third one was after we killed a lich. During our fight with her, she'd cursed the fuuuuck out of some of us and we weren't healing or getting better and were quickly decaying, and the dungeon up to her had been a slog, so we were all out of spell slots at that point. The cleric prayed to have people restored and it worked.

This final time was the BIG ONE. There is in this universe a lich god of secrets, heavily vecna-inspired but more interesting because he's not a cackling cartoon villain, he's a traumatized former slave trying to ensure he's never under the boot of a master again. He's done some terrible, reprehensible things to get where he is, but his face-heel turn came after someone murdered his son to get to him. Then he made his grief the world's problem and started snorting souls like coke. His son has been dead for like two thousand years but we've concocted some bullshit. After traveling to Elysium and then Arvandor to reunite the son's soul with his long lost wife, we acquired some artificially created organic bodies that were empty of souls and true polymorphed them into the correct shape and appearance to match them. We figured with that kind of sympathetic bond, we could then use like, planar binding to stitch the souls into the bodies, burning 9th level spell slots to make the thing stick for a year.

Our DM tends to reward investment in a miracle/Wish, the more resources you put into it, the more it costs you, the more you get out of it. If we'd just prayed to have these two NPCs restored free of charge, it probably wouldn't have worked, but through expending some major resources and reputations and fucking 9th level spell slots all around, we got more out of it.

So the cleric prayed that his goddess, the goddess of compassion, would see what we were trying to do, would see that restoring this lich god's son and ensuring there was anything at all he cared about on the material plane would maybe help to change him and keep him on our side, and she would help make this a permanent bond.

We knew at least we'd buy ourselves a year and we could try to work out a permanent solution once the campaign was over, so our cleric had nothing to lose by trying. He tried, needed a 19 or below, he had like a 1 in 5 chance of succeeding on the d100, and he rolled an 11.

Fuck yeah!

So, his goddess made it so that yeah, no, those are just... their bodies now. Souls as tied to them as if they'd been born to them. Resurrection spells would work on them now even if something else did happen to them. They were fully fucking alive again after having their lives cut short two thousand years prior.

The final goddamn miracle he had to roll for was a BIG doozey but like, the most perfect thing I can think of for a Life Cleric to accomplish, we're so proud of him.

#Caitlin Plays D&D #Almenor D&D

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bloodyshadow1 · 2 years

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I think Laudna is going to keep her warlock levels, I think The Undead patron works best for her, thematically, how Marisha plays her, but she’s breaking with Delilah or trying to, so who knows what’s going to happen. So for fun, purely hypothetically, I’m just going through some of the potential warlock patrons she could possibly trade Delilah for.

*Note I’m going in assuming that she’s not going to assume she’s not going to get to level 10 in Warlock because I doubt that she’s going to get to level 20 and she seems to be favoring sorcerer for now.

* also not talking about the spell lists because they can jumble things up, you can take certain spells in different ways. It makes a quick like lookyloo that I’m doing to complicated and long

The Fiend- Dark One’s blessing at level one to replace form of dread, harder to achieve, for less hitpoints and lacking all the useful abilities and rp rewards. Dark one’s own luck is good, but she could take the lucky feat and have a better version she could use more times or use silvery barbs. Thematically, I can’t see Laudna engaging a deal with a devil/demon after just getting released from Delilah.

The Archfey- I think this one can fit with Laudna, being a bit off, being whimsical. for combat, both the level 1 and 6 abilities would work for her, making people frightened and teleporting away when taking damage is good for her and her style. The uses are limited though to once per short rest so there’s that. With Fearne being a creature of the feywild and Yu out there somewhere with an interest in Laudna it could be possible for her to get an archfey as her patron

The Celestial- The celestial is helpful as a subclass because it could turn Laudna into a backup healer, but she already can do something like that with Wither and Bloom. It would be sweet rp, but I dont’ think she’ll ever be able to keep up with the damage needed to heal if she took this subclass because she’s multiclassing. Radiant soul at level 6 would be good because any damage resistance is helpful, but most enemies in campaigns don’t use radient damage unless you’re running an evil campaign or fighting a lot of evil clerics and paladins. Which might be a way the bells hells could go, but it’s situational compared to other types and if Laudna isn’t going to keep her pact with Delilah, I see less of that happening.

The Hexblade- The hexblade is overall just a good subclass in any situation, it lets you wear armor, hexblade’s curse buffs your eldritch blasts by a lot, lets you use your charisma modifier as your attack, if Laudna wanted to be a warrior it would be perfect. I don’t think that’s what Laudna wants though, sure being able to wear armor is good regardless, but I don’t think she’s ever going to wade into battle with her sorcerer level hit dice. Acursed specter is weird because it honestly doesn’t fit with the hexblade in my opinion, like it’s an odd ability out. It would definetly fit Laudna as an undying warlock so I can’t say it wouldn’t fit her pre-resurrection, but depending on how she changes I’m not sure if taking another creature’s will and puppeting them around would appeal to her, though it could, she is still laudna and scary scary.

The Genie- Honestly one of my favorite warlock subclasses, the Genie’s bottle ability can be useful in picking up your allies who’ve fallen or need a lift for some reason they can’t move, it will protect them.(didn’t realize this the level 10 ability) also for rp reasons, I would like Laudna to have a home that no one could ever take away from her. Also extra damage when she’s touch her bottle is always helpful, not a huge amount, but still once per turn any extra damage for mostly free is good. Elemental Gift is great, a damage resistance is great, and a spell caster who is a blaster, especially one with spell sniper like Laudna being able to fly is amazing in combat, especially since it isnt’ a concentration spell. Plus with Laudna always wanting spiderclimb, it would be even better to always have the ability to fly for 10 minutes. Like with the archfey I think thematically it could suit her, with more modern depictions of genies and Djinn I think Laudna could have a good relationship with an imprisoned creature. Personally I would like more djinn and genie type creatures, and if there’s a place to find them I think it would be in a Marquet campaign. personally if Laudna were to change subclasses I hope it would be this one.

The Undying- if delilah lingers and becomes the Bells hells big bad or an opponent they have to fight later on in an arc, Among the Dead would be very helpful. It’s situational, they fought undead for the first time in the most recent episode (37) so if things tip that way they could fight more but who knows, it’s not great to make your character good at fighting one particular creature type. Even if you do, Among the Dead only helps Laudna in basically a worse version of turn undead so it’s situational and would simply turn whatever was targeting her on her friends. Defy death would be great for Laudna right now... because she’d still be alive, but once a battle reprieve is good for squishy character’s like Laudna, but she shouldn’t need it every battle so it’s an ace in the hole that hopefully she never uses which complicates things. Thematically I could see it working, but it depends on how benevolent seeming the patron is. Obviously it would be metagaming to say no to vecna, but Orym would know about Vox Machina’s adventures to tell her and Laudna had a creepy voice for 30 or so years, I think she would pass on the prospect.

The Fathomless- 4 abilities by level 6 is great. I’m not sure on the tentacle summoning, it’s a decent attack that slows your opponent down, low damage but the crowd control and multiple uses, and maybe could be used as a wall to block someone from getting to her. swim speed is situational along with breathing underwather. Any damage resistence is good, cold is great to have because it’s a con save which most characters don’t have as their good save, including Laudna. Guardian coil helps boost her tentacles and protect her friends which is helpful. Thematically, I’m not sure how much it fits Laudna, and I’m not sure how much they’ll be dealing with the ocean in a Marquet campaign

The Great Old One- with the awakened mind ability, Laudna already has the message cantrip which does pretty much the same thing with longer range. The amount of creatures you can talk too/communicate with increases, but I don’t think it will be helpful in the long run except maybe to intimidate creatures. Entropic ward is useful, but Laudna’s squishy as hell, I don’t think disadvantage once a fight will be that useful when she already has silvery barbs, which does the same thing. Thematically however, I think the great old one could be a great way for Laudna to progress. She’s already kind of kooky in the Adam’s family sort of way, I could see her befriending an eldritch abominiation, or potentially ruidis. I will say that while it would be cute for her to relate to imogen, I think taking this subclass would kind of make Laudna redundant and not as useful as what she already has so it wouldn’t be worth the trade

What do you think. I know there are other patrons in unearthed arcana and cr specific patrons, but I dont’ have those available to me right now. So what do you think, if Laudna had to change her subclass what do you think would fit her the best.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role meta #launda #bells hells #cr 3 ep 37 #cr 3 ep 38 #warlocks

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tradgediesofthehosts · 1 year

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Updated lore, All characters with abilities, and Announcement

Sorry I failed to keep the promise of posting when party pack 9 got out. To make up for it, I’ll post a new list of all of the characters and their abilities but first, I should also get into the other types of abilities. Keep in mind it also has stuff to do with genetics, not everyone can develop an ability in this au.

Tragedies (T) are curses or magic that are a result of trauma. For example, if someone was nearly drowned, the can develop water breathing. Once someone develops a tragedy, the can’t give rid of it.

Comedies (C) are blessings or magic that developed as a result of life changing events. Being accepted into your dream college can grant you the ability to read books without opening them.

Sins (S) have nothing to do with religion (religion doesn’t really exist anyway?) they are abilities that are gained by doing horrible acts, the one thing all of these have in common is those with sins gain immortality, so they can't die of old age or natural causes, however they can still die. Sins also tends to corrupt an individual, but having a support system prevents that for the most part.

Blessings (B) are rewards or a result of a deal.

Lores (L) are abilities that are learned or developed via scientific means

Hearts (H) are abilites that are biological or with in bloodline. they can also be recieve when someone get’s reincarnated or revived

Mechanics (M) are mainly exclusive to robots, but they’re abilities built with technology

Objectal (O) abilities used via object like a pocket watch

Hopefully that explained them well enough, I’ll list the character’s and their abilites.

You don’t know jack series pre jackbox

Nate Shapiro-Incubus-he/him-gay

H-Charm (mind control basically)

Buzz Lipman-Changeling-he/they-aroace

C- Improv (If needed, can create the perfect sentence for whatever situation he’s in, sadly they suck at using it)

H-Shape shift (as long as it’s a humanoid form)

Helen-human-she/her-lesbian

L-Curse sight (can see whatever curse someone has and imeadieatly how to accommodate)

Guy-half giant-he/him-questioning

H-Height(can change height to a minimum of 5′6 and a maximum of 8′1)

Cookie Masterson-human?-he/him-bisexual

T-Botany(ability to grow and control plants, gained after accidentally eating a poisonous plant )

L-Taxidermy(ability to control dead animals), Resurrection (bring people back from the dead)

Schimitty-half human, half quip- he/him- bisexual

L-Quiplash (ability to turn into a quip), Resurrection

Jackbox Party pack 1

Drawful host-air siren-she/they-Asexual

H-Charm, flight

L-Doodle (Doodle’s come to life)

Jackbox party pack 2

Motherboard-robot-any-aroace

M-Audio (can change what sound is being played, organic and inorganic, within a certain distance. For example, with in 15 feet, he can make a cat meowing sound like a bear)

The Quips/ all of the quips

L-Quiplash (however they’re mainly stuck in their quip form)

Jackbox Party Pack 3

[REDACTED]-Mostly Human with demon lineage-He/They- arospec Homosexual

T-Blood lust (the insatiable thirst for murder once activated) Super Natural Madness (ability to see ghosts)

H-Dark portal (ability to use the darkness as a portal) Soul controlcability to control souls, anyone who is related to demons can do this)

S-Fear mongering (the ability to feed off of fear)

L-Resurrection, Sew bending (ability to control anything associated with sewing)

Toby-half human half ghost-he/him-queer

T-Ghostshift (he is stuck between the lines of being alive and being dead, and can easily shift anyone and himself between the two), bloodlust

Alan-human-he/him-straight

L-Resurrection

M-Spy(he can retrieve any information)

Tee KO dragon- Dragon- mainly he/they - unlabled

L-Sewbending (however a different variant, he can summon tee shirts at will)

Jackbox Party Pack 4

Felica-eldritch queen (or at least eldritch)- she/her-pansexual

T-Lovesick (if any mortal she’s in a relationship with see’s her true form, the relationship will be destroyed in one way or another)

L-Cupid(Boosts relationships between others), Love reader(can figure out information about others that have something to do with romance or sexuality)

Todd-internet demon-he/him-questioning

M-Troll break (can break an internet troll’s computer’s and sanity within seconds)

Party Pack 5

Mayonaise-genetically modified cat- he/him- unlabeled

L-Shapeshift

Binjpipe-AI-she/her-Asexual

M-Algorithm(ability to create copies of people based on their internet usage)

“Cookie”-Rouge AI-all pronouns- AroAce

M-Algorithm, project(ability to project images as a hologram, used when he hosted Champed Up)

Party pack 6

Gracion (aka the nerd)-human-he/they-asexual homoromantic

T-trivial recall(ability to recall any trivia, [REDACTED] had to implement a rule for him so everyone else had a chance to win), super natural madness

Detective Chambers-human-she/her-unlabeled

T-Clue seek(ability to discover very specific facts and details about a criminal when investigating, however when used too much, the facts get twisted and less logical, sometimes even untrue)

Dr.Ro-quip-she/her-bisexual

L-quiplash, persona (ability to detect personalities)

Dictionarium host-angel-she/they-demisexual panromantic

C-Word(ability bend words and gibberish at will)

T-Stone(ability to turn into stone)

Party pack 7

The demons from DATD-demons

H-soul control

Party pack 8

Laverne Caverne- undead spirit -she/her - pansexual

S-monster breath(prolongs periods being near her turns you into a monster)

T-Honesty (forces people to tell the truth, was developed after being killed during the Salem witch trials, God damn it Abigail Williams)

M.Bubz-aquatic-parasite possessing a water dispenser- they/them-aro ace

H-Possess (ability to control anything, in this case, a water dispenser)

THE WHEEL OF EPIC PROPORTIONS-god of trivia and luck- it/it’s - unlabeled

H-SPIIIIINNNNN (ability to answer questions when spun with consent)

Lord Tippet- human - he/him - straight

T-Blood lust

O-Time loop (ability to create a time loop in a certain area, requires a pocket watch)

Lady Raven - demonic humanoid- she/her - bisexual

T-Bloodlust, dark portal, wilt (creates a path of dead plants when walking on them)

H-Soul control

L-Ink flow (ability to control ink), Crow’s call (ability to summon a murder of crows), cryptid language (able to decipher any non-mortal language at will)

S-corruption (ability to corrupt others without anyone realizing it), fear mongering

All weapons drawn player characters-human

T:Blood lust, inkflow

Party Pack 9

Cookie ai - ai - it’s/it - ehhhhhhh

M-Algorithm

Professor Naners- monkey - she/her -unlabled

L-Nonsense (ability to work with anything nonsense)

Roomerang host(forgot their name)-human-any pronouns- gay

T-Abstract reality cable to create a mini abstract pocket dimension)

Junktopia wizard- humanoid - he/him - straight

L-frogification (can turn people into frogs, spite being a wizard, this is the only one he fully mastered)

Original Characters and their involvement of their story

Axen- aquatic siren - he/him - gay

Importance: Trivia murder party survivor, Murder Hotel employee, related to the mermaid meeple

H-Charm, water breathing

T-Siren’s call (ability to lure people their deaths or away from him for defense)

Elizabeth - human with elf ears - he/him - asexual biromantic

Importance: Murder hotel employee

B-secret truth(ability to find out any form of truth or secret, but can not explain it out loud, it’s a family blessing that has been around longer than the blood lust curse)

Jax- formally human, now fire element- they/them - queer

Importance: Murder hotel employee, basically [REDACTED]’s adoptive son

T-Phoenix (ability to control fire and fire resistance), bloodlust

Stora-demon-she/they- asexual

Importance: Closely connected with [REDACTED]’s family, murder hotel employee

H-soul control, galactics (ability to create a small window to space)

Author-mostly human with angel lineage- he/him - gay

Importance:[REDACTED]’s boyfriend (more on him next week)

S- Regenerate (is able to regenerate and quickly heal any injury, however can’t feel anything other than pain, but they’re extremely muted in comparison to a normal person feeling the same amount of pain)

Now time for the announcement, I will be trying to post something on here weekly, key word try. School is very chaotic, so bare with me. Next week will be about Author, the week after that will be an updated post about the murder hotel employees. Hopefully I can also work on a webcomic as well, if that’ the case, it’ll be posted monthly to give me time to do stuff. Anyway have a good day peeps.

#jackbox au #jackbox games oc #You Don't Know Jack #Jackbox Games #trivia murder party #trivia murder party 2 #quiplash #weapons drawn

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catboyebooks · 9 months

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alright. onwards. where i left off, hinata was mentally calling junko an insane bitch, but he doesn't verbally confront her yet. after all, what the hell is he supposed to do about it at this point? junko seems to have a pretty good idea what hinata (& most likely the rest of the group as well) is thinking, because she tells them they don't need to be wary around her, everyone here is shsl despair after all. she tries to relate to the group saying they were all looked down upon by their peers in high school, so they should all be friends, as though they're all a bunch of kids sitting at the loser table in the cafeteria. it's a pretty transparent tactic, honestly. we all know full well junko was not unpopular in high school. we know she doesn't consider this group her friends. anyway, her offer of friendship is of course rejected and junko mopes about how they all hate her, even after she went to all the trouble of modifying the graduation program.

when asked about what she did to the graduation program, junko says that she felt like the graduation reward wasn't big enough the way the program was originally designed, and she wanted it to be more exciting. according to her, letting the people who died in VR stay dead "just sucks" and so she decided to reprogram the graduation program to resurrect them. i want to point out that the way the simulation was initially set up, you couldn't get injured or die at all, so obviously the graduation program would not have been designed to resurrect anyone; there'd be no need. at best junko's just saying "i fixed the thing i broke" lol. anyway. she says it was really difficult for her to figure out how to do this because of the encryption on the code, and she jokes about how she was useless with computers before she became an AI, but she did figure it out eventually.

junko makes the group take a guess as to how long it took her to modify the program, and hinata asks if this is what the countdown at jabberwock park was about. junko says, actually, that countdown was a complete red herring. it wasn't actually counting down to anything at all, she just thought it looked ominous and she wanted to challenge herself to have the survivors make it inside the ruins before the countdown hit zero. the group is bothered by this — they haven't talked about it much, but clearly everyone here assumed the countdown meant something — and they try and get the conversation back on track. can junko really resurrect the dead people? again junko says that yes, she can, but this time her story about it completely changes. she acts bored and says it's not a big deal at all because this world isn't real, and of course nothing that happens in VR would have an effect on real life.

hinata tries to confront her about the contradiction, but she tells him they're past the part in the game where he has to spot contradictions in other people's statements. kuzuryuu, who has been asking the most questions about whether the dead people can be resurrected, actually sides with junko here and says, yeah, who cares about the details? the important part is bringing their dead friends back to life, and why question how it works when nothing that's happened in this VR program makes sense anyway? he doesn't have the majority opinion here, though; sonia and souda both express wanting to know more about how this works before they agree to anything, and hinata's still very skeptical and asks junko what she gets out of it if they graduate, since it seems to be the option she's encouraging them to take. junko acts offended that he'd ask and says, hey, if you don't want to, don't!

the group talks it over quickly. despite their doubts, everyone does still want to leave, especially now that they're being told the "dead" people will still be alive irl. junko's like, great! your will to live is really super high-school level! yet another reason for you guys to execute your role as devices! (this line doesn't escape hinata's notice, but he doesn't ask her right away what she means.) she tells them to go ahead and press the "graduate" button on their podiums, excitedly rambles a bit in a way that doesn't seem directed at anybody here, and then before hinata can ask tells him it doesn't concern him and also calls him a chump. great

hinata still seems apprehensive about pushing the button, but he does want to go back to the real world, and the idea of everyone who died getting to live is way more than he could have hoped for... so he goes to press it, but then naegi (actual!) appears out of nowhere to tell hinata not to press the button, it's a trap!!! i totally forgot about this happening so this time i think megumi ogata did jumpscare me

#which is fine by me and also not scary. ofc. but i was surprised! i forgor #kes plays sdr2

0 notes

mybg3notebook · 3 years

Text

Astarion Analysis

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were made up to the game version v4.1.101.4425. As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information.

“Morals are all well and good, but power always wins.”

“If all I want is shallow praise? Hardly, there is also gold, sex, revenge, quite the list, really. But failing any of those, I will always settle for shallow praise.”

--Astarion

The majority of sources used for this article are in the game itself (including Astarion-solo playthroughs) and the dev’s notes and datamined information provided by pjenn. Astarion as origin is (almost) not taken into account since it’s not finished and is highly unpolished.

The itemised list will show some instances of approval or disapproval as seen in the game. To make the reading of this article easier and shorter, you can skip them since they are basically the proof I use to sustain the introductory concept of each block.

We can infer a lot of Astarion by analysing what he approves and disapproves of. Sometimes, we can even lightly infer some information from his neutral reactions, but let’s be honest: this way of analysing a char is pretty poor since it leaves everything to speculation. Neutral reactions can only be analysed by contrasting the same situation in other contexts, and seeing what other options Astarion approves or disapproves of. With these considerations in mind, we can proceed to describe this character.

Disclaimer: this is a meta with my personal interpretation of the character, sticking as much as possible to the facts and leaving little to “desires” or “projections” of what I want him to be. If I do so, I will state it explicitly in the text for the sake of analysis honesty. I want to be clear about what is canon (facts shown in bg3 EA), from what’s personal interpretation with little proof.

Also, this list is extensive, gathering as much as I could in my many playthroughs, but I’m sure it’s not absolutely complete. Some details may have escaped to me, but honestly, I believe they will be easily fit in these blocks once the pattern has been seen.

Understanding Astarion by enumerating his reactions

Astarion is usually seen as a character whose behaviour is the embodiment of “randomness”, and after several Astarion-solo playthoughts, I began to see the patterns that showed little randomness in my opinion.

We can say that he likes gratuitous cruelty and murder. He has a special taste for animal cruelty too. He is greedy, but mostly if it leads to murder or to make little people suffer. Sometimes this greedy side comes from the fact that he doesn’t like to “work for free”: most quests should have a reward for him to be neutral to them. Accepting them without asking anything in return tends to earn a disapproval. He is more reticent to humiliate or outsmart NPCs that may be potentially stronger and more powerful than him.

[[1]] Situations showing his greed:

He supports the robbery of the fishermen that were helping the mind flayer (MF) after the crash.

Astarion supports stealing the “magical” ring from the tiefling kid (Mattis). This could be seen also as a gesture of outsmarting a person or mere trickster behaviour (see below).

He supports asking for compensation from the deep gnome we saved at the windmill.

He agrees to force Tulla (dying gnome in the myconid camp) to give you her magical boots.

Denying Baelen the scrolls because “they don’t come cheap”.

He approves pickpocketing Mirkon while being lured by the harpies.

[[2]]Situations displaying plain murder or violence:

He supports joining Lae’zel against the tieflings if you persuade them to free her, since this means killing (which is always an entertainment for him) creatures he considers lesser.

He supports killing Gimblebok and his gang near the Jergal ruins if you avoid any attempt of persuasion. This can be shown as a demonstration of power. (see below)

He supports killing Kagha without trying to persuade her or change her ways, not because he thinks Arabella’s death was an aberration (he enjoyed the show, as his approval and later comment confirm it) but simply because he enjoys murder.

He supports attacking the goblin camp. It’s a great spectacle of murder combined with his personal dismiss towards goblinoid races.

He approves of joining Minthara and massacrating the tieflings. It’s another great spectacle of murder, but in this time, of weak people (He detests weak creatures, and despises Tieflings in general).

He approves of killing Lae’Zel in the scene where she attacks Tav during the night, out of fear of turning into MF.

He approves of killing Rugan in the hideout.

Still related to this level of violence and cruelty, he supports learning more about Shar once Shadowheart explains Shar’s teachings, all about violence and death, fighting against the illusion of safety.

He approves killing Ellyka, the tiefling spying on the Gith patrol, if Tav is a Githyanki (true or disguised as) and chooses “Attack.”

He approves of helping Glut in massacring the whole Myconid colony.

He approves of sacrificing one of the companions to the fish-people who worship Booal.

He approves fighting the fake god Booal because it’s a massacre; where there is bloodshed, there is Astarion’s approval.

For the same reason he approves killing the Githyanki patrol: pure bloodshed.

[[3]] Situations of gratuitous cruelty: I understand that a lot of people confuse this trait of his personality as a “trolling attitude”. There are different archetypes of tricksters in DnD, and he is not particularly the silly-funny one (e.i. Jester in Critical Role), but the cruel-funny one. His “pranks” don’t cause annoyance or silly troubles, they usually end up in murdering the person he is pranking, or causing them great pain. What he considers “funny” is always related to a lot of blood and suffering. Examples of this:

He disapproves of diffusing the situation between Aradin and Zevlor after the first goblin attack. He is “missing” his show. This situation is also related to enjoying humiliation of others (see below).

After letting Arka kill the goblin and take her revenge, Astarion will approve the comment that refugees are desperate and they will do anything. He is enjoying the show of despair of weak creatures. And he is also expecting for some of them to become survivalist beasts.

He approves of telling Kagha that you enjoyed the show of Arabella’s death as an answer to her question about if she is a monster.

He also approves of telling Arabella's parents that Kagha will release their daughter when the Rite of Thorns is completed (while Arabella, in fact, has been killed by Kagha's snake). This is another example of Evil Trickster, a prank with a really dark taste. This also shows that Astarion likes to give false hopes [One of the most iconic characteristic of Cazador]

He approves of telling the tiefling kids training with Wyll that they are going to die, inspiring that despair he enjoys to see in weak creatures. (see below)

He approves of breaking Alfira’s teacher’s lute, leaving the tiefling heartbroken because that had been the only memento she got from her teacher, and could not finish her tribute song.

Astarion approves of interrupting the goblinoid couple having sex, which he considers disgusting. After killing them, Astarion will support the idea that it was funny. Another example of Evil Trickster where the prank ends up with the death of the pranked one. But we also know Astarion despises goblinoid races.

He approves of killing Crusher after humiliating him.

He supports Tav who volunteers to torture Liam at the goblin camp.

He supports of laughing at Lorin (the elf trapped in Ethel’s house) after pretending to be the monster he sees (psychological torture). This example can be part of the list of humiliation too.

He states that seeing Mayrina’s horrified face after resurrecting her husband was funny. Another example of false hopes [One of the most iconic characteristics of Cazador] On the contrary, if Tav kills the undead afterwards, Astarion will disapprove, since he missed the “fun” of seeing Mayrina tortured.

He enjoys every state of Abdirak’s torture upon Tav. This can be seen as a fine bloody show he is enjoying, or as a way to put Tav in a humiliating situation (as he approved the dung-smearing or the foot-kissing instances)

Using the leader gnoll Flind to attack her own gnolls earns his approval. Asking her to devour herself increases approval once more. This situation could also be seen as enjoyment of animal cruelty (since gnolls are considered animals by Astarion too) but also as the reflection of Astarion’s inner desire of becoming a Master of bending wills.

Probably the most innocent prank so far we saw, he approves of doing Baaa at the redcaps in the Bog.

[[4]] As I said previously, he suports any form of animal cruelty:

He approves of kicking and killing the squirrel Timber in the Druid Grove. According to the dev’s notes, he is “shocked and annoyed” because “you stamped a squirrel to death when he could’ve eaten it.” (DEN_General_Squirrel)

He supports prodding to death the bird that Nettie was healing during the dialogue (you need Speak with Animals for this).

He supports freeing the Owlbear cub at the Goblin Camp, and feeding it later, because he wants to bite the owlbear cub eventually (he uses the word “delectable” to describe him, and when the owlbear escapes, Astarions states “You‘ve scared off the little snack.”)

When we find Halsin in his bear form, Astarion will have two instances of approval: the first one when Tav tells the goblin kids that throwing stones with sharp edges would hurt the animal more, and then when Tav themself joins the goblins in throwing rocks at Halsin.

We can also add the confrontation with Flind, the Gnoll leader, as another example of animal cruelty since he approves a smart yet twisted way of killing her by double-using the tadpole. First to command her to attack the gnolls, and then to devour herself. However, since Gnolls are considered aberrations lore-wise, this point could be left aside in this particular case.

If we take into consideration that Astarion sees Goblins, Kobolds, and Gnomes as animals, killing them always increases his approval. This happens when we kill, out of the blue, most goblin NPCs, or simply attack the camp. (Datamined content) He will also approve of killing slave gnomes in Duergar Encampment (place you find after the boat). All these moments can be also seen as “animal” cruelty if we take into account Astarion’s perspective.

He approves of killing Priestess Gut in the Goblin Camp. It could also be interpreted as his usual dismissal towards goblins (he sees them as animals), since he never believed that she could help them in the first place. Or this approval can fit perfectly fine the cruel, murderous aspect of Astarion. As I said, many approvals overlap different aspects of Astarion, but all seem to fit his patterns either way.

I suspect that the reason behind this particular kind of cruelty comes from those two hundred years of torture, in which he had to drink animal blood. Considering he was such an unfair magistrate, directing his rage against the ones who are not the root of the problem seems fitting.

[[5]] Astarion is filled with racial bias and prejudices.

He only sees elves and humans as the only creatures capable of thinking. (Scene after the bite)

However, he has strong biases against a particular ethnic group of humans: Gurs. He thinks they are all cut-throat, and probably would approve the rest of stereotypes that Gandrel added in that scene. (Scene of meeting Gandrel)

He mocks halfling and dwarf Tavs, who he thinks are naturally weak, until they prove him wrong. (Stargaze scene for short-sized Tav)

He supports the idea that tieflings have demonic powers just because of their heritage. (Speaking with the Grove halfling seller). During the party, he compares the lives of the tieflings with the lives of the goblins as something of similar value (which we know he considers as animal).

He sees goblins, kobolds, and gnomes as animals. (Scene after the bite)

After killing the goblinoid couple which was having sex, if Tav choose to say that the situation made them scrub their eyes, Astarion would add and extra “dehumanizing” comment against gnomes. “I’ve seen worse. Gnomes can be… ughh.” (Scene of interrupting sex)

[[6]] He finds pleasure in humiliating people or in outsmarting them, especially if they are trying to outsmart Tav. He dislikes weakness and loves to humiliate weak people in particular.

He approves telling Lae’Zel to say “please” when we met her again in the cage, humiliating her.

He disapproves of diffusing the situation between Aradin and Zevlor after the first goblin attack. We know he is “missing” his show where one of them is being humiliated.

Astarion approves of telling Elegis that she is pathetic for being scared of a few goblins. Once more, humiliation due to weakness.

He disapproves of telling Arabella's parents that the Druids overreacted when speaking in the Druid Grove’s stairs. He is disapproving for defending a weak and silly creature who was not smart enough to survive on her own.

Astarion supports stealing the “magical” ring from the tiefling kid. This is another situation of humiliation of a weak person and outsmarting them. This could be considered a prank of a more silly-funny trickster doing an innocent prank.

He approves of telling the tiefling kids that they are going to die.

He feels disappointed when Lae’Zel did not kill Zorru, the tiefling that she forces to kneel and confess where he saw the Gith patrol. He approves the psychological torture of the interrogation.

He enjoys interrupting the goblinoid couple having sex. This is an example of the prank cruel-funny trickster. This “prank” ends up with the goblinoid couple being killed.

Astarion approves of smearing dung in the guard's face at the goblin camp entrance. The show of seeing someone being humiliated is satisfying.

He supports booing and humiliating Volo off the stage in the goblin camp.

He supports licking the goblin’s foot (It could also be considered a prank).

He supports kissing the goblin’s foot while stealing the ring. This situation puts two things he enjoys in the same place: the humiliation experienced by Tav and how the Crusher was outsmarted in the process. Astarion will approve if Crusher is the one humiliated and forced to kiss Tav’s foot.

He approves of laughing at Lorin (the elf trapped in Ethel’s house) when the elf is scared of Tav who pretends to be the monster that’s torturing him.

Humiliating “low people'' is an important aspect of Astarion’s personality, since it’s a small petty pleasure he can have now, when during the last two hundred years it had been done to him. Humiliation has to do with power as well, another symbol tight to Astarion’s personality. Through humiliation Astarion can taste a little bit of power, that power he lacked for two hundred years. That power that, if his backstory is not retconned in future versions or in the full release game, he had before turning into a vampire, abusing those groups he considered less.

[[7]] If we think in power, we also have to think in manipulation. And of course, Astarion is a great master of it. Sometimes the events that stand out his taste for manipulation overlap with the ones displayed in the humiliation section.

Since the moment we meet Astarion, we know he keeps working in turning himself into a pleasant and useful companion for Tav. Astarion knows he has bigger chances to succeed and survive staying with this group. A lot of his “neutral” behaviours respond to this goal: he doesn’t want to enrage Tav to the point of being kicked out of the party, it’s not about a hidden gentle side inside he is showing with an apathetic neutrality, it’s, once more, raw preservation and survival. During the first scenes of the game, when we don’t know he is a vampire, Astarion tries to avoid taking a position in the situations we face: he is just feeling the ground all the time: with Sazza and with Arabella’s death is clear. He doesn’t judge hard, he is testing Tav, he is trying to understand their mind, and acting as pleasant as he can according to what he sees. It’s a natural use of manipulation to guarantee his survival in a group of strangers. During the bite scene—when this façade finally ends—he is truly nervous of being killed for his vampiric nature, and tries to convince Tav of keeping him in the group using arguments that go from seduction to practical usefulness.

The scene of stargaze also shows his usage of seduction as a manipulative tool to guarantee his survival (he weponises seduction and sex). Although he says mostly the same, he reacts very differently in tone depending on Tav’s approach. If Tav is wary, Astarion will act encouraging their ego and enumerating several feats, while getting uncomfortably closer. If Tav is already interested in Astarion, the elf will use softer manners to keep the seduction into a more intimate tone. This is a scene of a predator tasting his future prey as well (Dev’s notes are pretty clear about his manipulation). In this scene, also, Astarion is light-headed because he has not drunk blood in a while, and has “his head foggy” (something we can repeat during his origin as a personal tag). Exact words he will use as a narrative hint during the bite scene. Therefore, this scene has little of “Astarion falling for Tav”, and has everything of vampiric hunger combined with a raw sense of survival and usage of seduction to guaranteed it.

(potential interpretation) He approves when he is persuaded into sharing his dream with Tav. In any other character, we usually would understand this as an approval for caring about the character himself. In that scenario, failing the approval doesn’t cause a penalty (unless the character understands this failure as prying, as it happens with Shadowheart). In Astarion’s case, when you fail this persuasion, you are penalised with a disapproval. We can understand this in the same way we see it with Shadowheart: this is his annoyance for prying into his personal business. But there is another interpretation in this disapproval: he recognised a bad execution of persuasion as a manipulative attempt, and Astarion is in particular very sensitive to manipulations and mind games (see point [12]).

Most of his “romance” is manipulation as well, keeping in mind the first point of this section: he becomes pleasant for Tav, using whatever shape he needs, so he can survive (this is especially noticeable with a good-aligned Tav). Astarion has weaponised seduction and sex without any hint of subtetly for the player (As the Dev’s notes say: “For Astarion, this is a game of power - one he’s played many times before in the taverns of Baldur’s Gate, trying to lure people back to his master. He’s an old hand at seduction, very self-assured at first, but the player might not go along with the script he expects them to follow.”) We can assure that Astarion will find more satisfaction in having “fun” with a high-approval Tav rather than a low-approval Tav.

If Tav is not evil enough (and therefore has a low approval), Astarion will need to be the one inviting Tav to have sex (to be sure the control is still in his hand, still pushing for “catching” Tav). If a low-approval-Tav invites Astarion, he will decline saying that he “has standards'', implying he needs to be the one controlling the situation (he is basically playing “hard to catch”. Astarion already knows that he “caught” Tav in this scenario since Tav was the first one showing their interest). If Tav is evil-like (and has enough approval), Astarion will not only weaponise sex, he may express some degree of personal desire in having “fun” with Tav. After all, evil characters can like one another. In this case, he would accept Tav’s invitation for more hedonist reasons such as personal pleasure and not mere survival. Still it’s always present the layer of using this situation as a manipulative tool to have control on Tav.

Approves persuading Crusher without a fight, understanding it as an approval earnt for the good manipulation tool used. Of course this scene is combined with the natural approval that Astarion gives when outsmarting creatures he considers lower or animal-like (See point [6]).

Successfully persuade Lae'Zel to "play along" when meeting the Githyanki patrol, and pull off the deception.

I personally found funny that Astarion, without the intention of the writer, is so good in his manipulations, that he broke the fourth wall and ended up manipulating a good amount of players as well into believing him.

[[8]] He supports revenge in all its forms and degrees, which is not strange since it’s his main motivation against Cazador.

He approves of letting Arka kill Sazza in the cage as revenge for her brother’s death.

He approves of the attack against Nettie when she poisons Tav.

He approves of telling Edowin's siblings to find the beast that attacked him as a way to avenge the True Soul.

Astarion approves of Arabella’s mother killing Kagha at the party.

He approves of helping the Sovereign to take revenge against the Duergars that killed their young. However, it’s not clear if Astarion approves the revenge itself or the method proposed, which is, according to his own words, “a bit genocidal” and therefore more entertaining for him (we need to remember he enjoys the display of murder and violence in all its forms, [2,3]).

He approves of helping Glut in massacring the whole Myconid colony, since according to Glut’s words, they saw Glut’s circle being killed by the Duergars and did nothing, so Glut is looking for revenge.

[[9]] He doesn’t like to get involved in anyone’s problems unless you can obtain a benefit or a reward for it (this is directly connected to his greed aspect [1])

He approves of telling Mayrina’s brothers that they are on their own, and actively disapproves if Tav agrees to help them find Mayrina.

He approves of declining to help Halsin in killing the Goblin leaders.

He disapproves of helping Wyll to save the Tiefling refugees in the Grove.

He disapproves of helping Zevlor.

He disapproves of finding evidence that confirms that Kagha is working with Shadow Druids. He will additionally disapprove again if, after exposing her, Tav asks her to change her ways. From Astarion’s point of view, Tav is basically meddling too much in the Grove’s problems for free, and ruining all the instances where murder could happen.

He also disapproves if Tav agrees to help the two Zhentarim humans that are attacked by gnolls without asking for compensation.

He approves of not getting involved in the rescue of the Duke when Tav speaks with Florrick

[[10]] Despite having been a slave, he lacks of empathy for those who shared his fate and, instead, he supports slavery:

If we take into consideration what Swen said about his background in one of the first playthough he showed, we know that Astarion, as a magistrate, used criminals as food for local vampires, and in an attempt to outsmart them, he began to sell them into slavery (we can see in this brief background that Astarion has been greedy and cruel before turning into a vampire).

Although he disapproves paying for Oskar, the painter in the Zhentarim Hideout, he does it because of the money. When Tav buys the painter and demands him to stay silent because “slaves should speak when they are spoken to”, Oskar will think this is a joke (which is not the case, since none of those options has, in this patch at least, a (performance) tag). When Tav reinforces the idea that this is not a joke, and Oskar is now a true slave, only then, Astarion will approve.

When seeing one of the servant Duergars of the Myconite Colony, Astarion will comment on how useful they are, and how Underdark drows should learn about these creatures, since these slaves are more efficient than the standard ones. If Tav brings awareness about the contradiction that those thoughts cause coming from an ex-slave, Astarion will justify his thinking saying that they are husks without mind, claiming that his feelings “may be different, had they been conscious beings. Or maybe not.” He emphasises in this dual possibility. And we can be sure that he certainly would not care slavery on conscious creatures, as we confirm it later with Oskar (A human who is not a Gur, and therefore, a creature that Astarion consider thinking acceptable beings).

(Datamined content) When reaching the Duergar Encampment, once Nere is rescued, there is approval for killing the slave gnomes when the True Soul orders it. One can interpret that Astarion minds little for these slaves because they are gnomes, and therefore, animals.

[[11]] He looks for power and dominance, to have control over others and also as a way to guarantee his own freedom.

In the discussion after every dream, Astarion supports the use of the tadpole's power in every opportunity, dismissing their effects. He is thrilling for the ability of bending everyone’s will (curious note, this is one of Cazador’s characteristics most hated by him)

He approves of letting the Koa-Toes bow before them as the Booal's chosen. This scene can be understood as a typical prank of a trickster, but also as a taste for being adored as a master/entity with more power. This scene shows that he and Tav are placed in the “Master” position. This reinforces the idea that Astarion wants to be a Master/Cazador, eventually. (Check post about Astarion and Power 1 and 2)

If Tav claims that the worship to them as True Souls can be useful after letting Edowin’s siblings leave, Astarion will approve. He shows in every instance more delight for having Cazador’s powers, making emphasis in the mind control ability, again.

Astarion approves of keeping the Necromancy of Thay tome. As we see later in his scene, he believes that there is something powerful hidden in it that may help him against Cazador. He wants to muster all the power of any kind he can.

Astarion approves of sparing Auntie Ethel’s life when she surrenders during battle because she will grant them power in exchange. He wants to muster all the power of any kind he can.

[[12]] Astarion is particularly sensitive to mind control. His expressions and the tone of his voice against any type of mind control are filled with feral ire (video here):

He is angrily affected by the movements of his worm in his own head,

He screams against Ethel’s control when using the mask,

The insults at the harpies when he is lured,

The way he is annoyed by the telepathic spores in the Underdark,

He disapproves failed attempts of persuasion (understood by his character as failed, obvious attempts of manipulations).

And, potentially, this is the reason why he disapproves of Priestess Gut cleaning Tav’s mind.

[[13]] Because he likes power, he also likes the demonstration of power whether his own or his allies’, therefore he likes most intimidation options in general

He approves of intimidating Gimblebok and the gang near the ruins.

He approves of intimidating or provoking both Aradin and Zevlor at the Druid Grove.

At camp, when discussing preferred methods of death, he approves if Tav tells him "If I die, I'll take you with me." (after first picking "Try it and I'll spill your guts") . He also approves if Tav chooses a method of death (decapitation, knife, poison). Both options show resolve, strength, and freedom in deciding one’s fate. Since Astarion died at the hands of strangers, he values the freedom of choosing how to die. He will disapprove picking the option of letting others decide your death.

He approves if you intimidate the mirror into allowing passage.

[[14]] He is a survivalist character, and therefore, a lot of his approvals are related to elements that will guarantee his life, such as looking for his own freedom, the acceptance of his vampire nature, and the encouragement in looking for strong alliances or keeping alive strong individuals that can be useful as allies.

He approves of being accepted with his vampire nature and allowing him to feed on Tav’s blood. He keeps approving if Tav defends him during the exchange of opinions in the camp.

He approves if he has permission to feed on enemies.

He approves of killing Gandrel. This approval is also mere raw survival.

He approves if during sex, Tav allows him to drink their blood.

He disapproves of promising Nettie to take Wyvern Poison if you feel symptoms of the Tadpole, since it goes against his survival instinct.

When Lae’Zel is killed by the Gith patrol, he will state in banter that it was a waste since Lae’Zel was a powerful/strong specimen, so clearly he is lamenting the loss of a powerful ally.

Despite appreciating his freedom, he has explicitly stated that he “would choose servitude over oblivion any day”, showing how extremely survivalist he can be.

[[15]] He likes to find a solution to their tadpole problem using unconventional ways, or at least, using options that may lead him to the twisted solution he needs (which is not exactly being cured of the tadpole, but to control it, he certainly needs more exceptional means)

He approves of telling Auntie Ethel about the tadpole in the Druid Grove simply because she “looks lunatic”.

At first, Astarion disapproves of Raphael's invitation to remove the Tadpole, claiming that he would not change one master for another. However, when the situation starts looking dire, he will approve of the idea, because anything “may be better than Cazador” adding later that he “would choose servitude over oblivion any day.”

A bit contradictory when he was the first one claiming that Raphael used mind games similar to Cazador’s, games they know they have won before starting.

[[16]] He has a “soft spot” for helping people to escape their masters or killing/rejecting people that can be seen as Masters. However it’s requirement that those escapees could be seen by Aastarion as strong and capable creatures. He would mind little for creatures he sees as underlings. (Weak concept, seeing it with squinted eyes)

He approves of helping Karlach to get rid of the Tyr followers, since they are in fact working for Zariel, Karlach’s previous master. With all what Karlach explained about her past, she certainly qualifies as a strong person who is trying to get rid of her master.

He disapproves of Tav who tells Raphael that they would do anything to remove the Tadpole. This is probably resounding in Astarion: his past bad choice when he was at death's door due to the Gur attack and Cazador appeared to “save” him. He knows that going to that extent has poor results.

Astarion approves of Tav if they say that they won’t become Raphael's pawn (conversation in the camp after the encounter with Raphael). It’s true that when the other options narrow, Astarion starts to consider the possibility of changing a vampiric master for an infernal one.

This post was written on April 2021.

→ For more Astarion: Analysis Series Index

#astarion #bg3 early access #bg3 meta

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piezein · 3 years

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They Should Be Dead: A Collection of Works by The Living

Early on during the quarantine, I suddenly had more time to indulge in media. After a few months, I’ve notice a pattern, so here it is: a list of shows and stories that all have living dead people.

TV Shows

Ghosts (BBC) - The series follows a collection of ghosts from different historical periods haunting a country house while sharing the house with its new living occupants. This is a great show with well written plots, characters, and stories. I find it appeals especially to the queer and neurodivergent community.

What We Do In The Shadows - The series follows 4 vampires in a mockumentary format. If you like those shows where fiction meets real historical events, or just plain vampire humor, this is for you.

Pushing Daisies - The series follows a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with his touch, an ability that comes with stipulations. Together with his formerly deceased childhood crush Chuck, private investigator Emerson Cod and co-worker Olive Snook, Ned uses his abilities to solve murder cases. Perfectly pleasing visuals, an interesting premise, and REALLY relatable for all of under quarantine. Lots of yearning.

Dead Like Me - George dies early in the pilot episode and becomes one of the "undead", a "grim reaper". The show explores the experiences of a small team of such reapers, as well as the changes in George and her family as they deal with George's death. I’m not sure if the show employs edgy humor but I like it. It is slightly nihilistic in tone but the way it connects the experiences of life with the reality of death is a really interesting take. It’s perfect for teens and young adults. Also, Mandy Patinkin.

The Good Place - Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman welcomed after her death to "the Good Place", a highly selective Heaven-like utopia designed and run by afterlife "architect" Michael as a reward for her righteous life. This series has everything: dreamlike scenes, nightmarelike scenes, philosophy, EAT THE RICH, genderless she/her icon Janet, good characters, accurate representations, and an all-around touching story.

Santa Clarita Diet - The series centers on husband and wife real estate team Joel and Sheila Hammond whose normal, boring lives change dramatically when Sheila shows symptoms of having become a zombie. The bewildered family seek a cure for her condition while dealing with its consequences. Wild family goes on the time of their lives because their mom has become a zombie. It’s great. They kill n*zis and a cop and eat them.

Star Trek - too many Star Trek episodes have the “oh no they died! anyway...” premise and aside from the idealistic paradise Gene Roddenberry pictured, death and resurrection are large themes in Star Trek.

Books/Graphic Novels/Short Stories

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya (by @reimenaashelyee) - A two-volume Eisner-nominated graphic novel set in 17th century Istanbul and 18th century England, about a carpet merchant's reconcilitation with faith, love and home in the aftermath of his death by a vampire. It’s a great story. I’ll be telling this to everyone who will listen: the graphic novel is engaging and insightful, life cannot get better than this graphic novel. (Also: ACE REP!) Also by the author is The World in Deeper Inspection which explores the setting and premise of other characters.

The Shadow of The Wind (by Carlos Ruiz Zafón) - Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. Magical realism abounds, it’s sinister, it’s beautiful, it’s a perfect book about dancing the line between death and life.

The Graveyard Book (by Neil Gaiman) - Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. Great book about growing up and leaving childhood.

The Book Thief (by Markus Zusak) - It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still. Featuring Death themself as the omniscient narrator, the story intertwines with books and stories of life and of survival. It’s a sobering book but important to read.

May Day Eve (by Nick Joaquin) - Magical realism, time travel vibes. But most importantly, myth, enchantment, the Devil, passion, everlasting love. There’s a reason why this is required reading for Philippine colleges. I cry every time I read it.

Movies

Night at The Museum Trilogy - Night guard in charge of museum. Exhibits come back to life, wacky shenanigans follow. The only downside to this is that they visited the British Museum and not one of the exhibits screamed “I DONT BELONG HERE! TAKE ME BACK!”

The Book Thief - I would say it’s a faithful enough adaptation of the book.

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock

The Lovely Bones - astounding <3 ik she’s dead but letting her breach the curtain between life and death? Good shit.

What We Do In The Shadows - The mockumentary that started it all. Once again Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement are geniuses. And correct: all vampires know is be bisexual eat hot virgin and fly.

Musicals/Plays

Hadestown- Retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice. Folk type of music, features great talents and songs by Anaïs Mitchell. The story is good, it touches on capitalism, progress, labor, and love.

Indecent- Play exploring the play "God Of Vengeance" which was cited for indecency on Broadway for its themes and indecent acts committed by the actors. It begins as a play brought by several actors who rise from the ashes of the Holocaust and gradually extends to the multiple characters they become. I find this important for anyone interested in queer Jewish history.

I really like media focusing on death and life so recommend some and take some from the list!

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I have a really bad attention span but these stuff somehow get my brain. They're good.

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quazartranslates · 3 years

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Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH54

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

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Chapter 54: Purgatory Reunion (VI)

At this moment, the world was silent.

Qi Leren stood on a black rock in the middle of the lake of fire, staring at Ning Zhou, who had become a dragon. The dragon also stared at him. The slender and horrible vertical pupils of cold-blooded animals showed the gentleness of recognition.

The fire and rain falling from the sky stopped, and the magma erupting angrily because of the force of destruction also stopped. This dark underground world was immersed in the warm sunshine pouring in from the gap and the holy light from the Prophet's Heart.

For a moment, Qi Leren couldn't say anything, because there were too many words choked in his throat. When he opened his mouth, the words that could be said and could not be said were about to slip away before his eyes.

He held out his hand and wanted to touch the dragon that he was so close to. Even in purgatory, its head was head high rather, not low. But the dragon in front of him gently lowered its head and stopped in front of his eyes.

Qi Leren stroked the dragon’s cold scales, and then hugged him. He didn't even dare to put pressure into it. He just put his face on the cold dragon scales and choked:

"Ning Zhou, I’m back."

This sentence was like a spell. Qi Leren’s tears that had been building finally flowed down. These tears were full of love and joy. He was thankful that he wasn’t too late, and that the tragedy in his nightmares hadn’t taken place. He finally came to Ning Zhou before everything was irreversible.

As long as Ning Zhou was still alive, there was still hope for everything.

It was also with this sentence that the dragon standing in the lake of fire slowly changed back to its human form—a thin, gaunt, but still alive Ning Zhou. When he stared at him with his blue eyes that held too much emotion, Qi Leren suddenly felt that Ning Zhou knew everything, and he understood everything.

Whether it was misunderstanding, deep guilt, or love, when they met again in this hot lake, a pair of loving souls embraced everything.

　　&&&

"Is this who you were talking about, His Majesty's dead lover?" The Witch of Nothingness turned her head. Although she never opened her eyes, she "stared" at the Devil of Evil, waiting for his answer.

All the demons sitting around the long table looked at him. This oppressive gaze made the Devil of Evil feel pressured. He spread his hands: "According to intelligence, he is indeed dead, but the truth of the matter doesn’t seem so simple. I’m afraid even our Majesty thinks he’s dead."

"Whose side is he from?" The Witch of Desperation only cared about this problem.

"The Holy See?" the Witch of Resentment murmured, staring at Qi Leren who was shrouded by the power of a holy angel.

"No, the intelligence said that he’s a foreigner. He came here from another world, and he had no faith. However, his strength is biased towards the Holy See. Which master in their camp gave him an item to borrow strength?" the Devil of Evil mused.

The Witch of Desperation waved her hand, and the magic mirror’s perspective pulled away, overlooking the lake of fire from a distance. The paradise reflected in the holy light covering the sky had the divine beauty of dusk, just as it had been repeatedly described in the Canon, the home of God.

"It’s the Village of Dusk’s Prophet!" The Witch of Nothingness recognized the characteristics of this miracle and revealed it in the same breath.

"It seems that His Majesty's little lover is a man favored by the Prophet. If he doesn't know what his original strength is, he’ll never become a 'guardian' like Maria, right?" The Devil of Evil touched his chin and showed innocent cruelty in his eyes. "Oh, I don't want to see the tragedy of that year repeat itself."

The Witch of Desperation looked at the magic mirror silently and said after a long time, "It's a pity... It’s almost too similar."

The Witch of Nothingness comforted: "There’s no rush for a while."

"Haha, aren't you going to rush out and stop them now? Even if you say yes, I won't go, I still want to keep this life for a long time." The Devil of Evil put his hands behind his head and leaned lazily against the back of the chair.

"Wait and see. It's not time for us to show up yet," said the Witch of Desperation, drawing a pause symbol on the attempted operation.

　　&&&

The two people didn't go far. Ning Zhou was tired when Qi Leren found him, as if he hadn't slept for several days, and he forced him to have a rest. They settled down in a secret cave not too far from the lake of fire, and Ning Zhou set up a barrier to prevent harassment from lower demons.

There were fluorescent fungi and luminous moths like butterflies in this cave, and Qi Leren took out a lantern to make the dim light illuminate their surroundings.

Qi Leren leaned against the cave wall, and Ning Zhou rested on his leg, his body covered with a blanket.

The warm light of the lantern allowed the two exhausted people to briefly escape from this Nightmare World and take a nap in a pure peaceful land. The scarred soul wrapped in its scarred body finally found rest here.

Ning Zhou quietly looked at Qi Leren, but he couldn't close his eyes for even a moment until Qi Leren secretly hooked his hand under the blanket, and their two hands clasped each other. Then, his nervous look eased slightly.

"Can't sleep?" Qi Leren asked softly.

Ning Zhou shook his head gently, holding Qi Leren's hand tightly, as if when he let go, the warmth in his hand would slip away quietly.

"Then let's talk for a while?" Their old estrangement had long since disappeared. At this time, Qi Leren simply had endless questions and endless words. He was curious about everything about Ning Zhou, his childhood, his past, his mood, and he also had a lot of things to tell him, such as how worried he was... He can talk about forever on his own.

Qi Leren couldn't help but talk about it. From the beginning when he had found love at first sight, he talked about his inner struggle and suffering.

"...I'm not afraid to love someone of the same sex, but I'm afraid my feelings will hurt you. At that time, I even thought… if I choose to be patient to let you live better, I would rather… be patient my whole life. But... but, in the end, my love has become your burden. I'm sorry, Ning Zhou... I'm sorry..."

Just as tears fell from his eyes, Ning Zhou wiped them away with his fingers.

"At that time, I wrote a 7 to tell you that I would be resurrected in seven days, but the moment I wrote it, I regretted it. Because... I shouldn't have said this... I never knew it would be so painful to tell the truth. If I hadn't said it, maybe you wouldn't be here now, you'd still be living in Neverland, and you wouldn't suffer so much..."

When Qi Leren had learned of Ning Zhou’s end in that game, besides his great fear, his heart had been filled with endless guilt and remorse.

He instinctively blamed himself for everything, and decided that his existence had made Ning Zhou embark on a road full of thorns, which was indeed the case. Without his existence, Ning Zhou's identity would still be an exorcist in Neverland, instead of... a descendant of the Destroyer.

"Then you would spend your whole life deceiving yourself?" Ning Zhou asked gently.

Qi Leren was silent.

"Calm pain is better than hypocrisy. I should pay for it all my life, but I shouldn't cheat it all my life... I’ve never regretted my choice." Even at the moment when he was determined to end himself, his heart was filled with endless sadness and despair, but there was no resentment or regret.

Even when he sank into the abyss of despair at that moment, he was illuminated by a beam of light, and he had been redeemed.

God gave him a miracle to embrace the light at the end of Hell.

He had courage and determination again. He wanted to give it a try and see if he could control the raging destruction, not sink into the power and become a slave to it. He was willing to try for the person he loved, even if it was an almost impossible challenge.

He was willing to die for this world, but he was willing to live for his lover.

Sometimes it was harder to live than to die.

"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Those who can endure and overcome temptation will be rewarded." Ning Zhou gently recited the words in the Canon and looked at Qi Leren. "God has rewarded me and he sent you back to me."

Qi Leren could no longer speak. He felt another person's heat on his skin, so warm and pleasant.

He read another person's soul from his eyes, so pure and calm.

He was glad again that he had not missed Ning Zhou.

Qi Leren took out the Canon and said with a smile: "Chen Baiqi gave it to me. I’ll read it to you. If you’re tired, just sleep."

So in the dim light, he read from the first page: "After the destruction of the ancient world, everything was chaotic and asleep. There was no past, no future, no center, no margin, only endless darkness. The gods came from outside, each sowing a seed. Some seeds died before they germinated, while others were swallowed up as soon as they sprouted. Only the seeds of Father God were born within light and darkness, sky and earth, sun, moon, and stars. Father God was happy, for he wanted to bring life into the seed and make it become its own world..."

Ning Zhou closed his eyes and seemed to be asleep.

Qi Leren closed his book carefully and gently stared at Ning Zhou. At this moment, his heart was full of both sourness and sweetness. He was glad that he had arrived here in time, and pulled him out when Ning Zhou was at his most helpless and vulnerable, so that he didn't fall into the abyss of death.

At first, he thought that Ning Zhou's death would be at the hands of others, but when he came to the lake of fire and watched the black dragon roar in despair, he suddenly understood.

What would kill Ning Zhou was not the devils hidden in this underground world, but the devil inside Ning Zhou.

At that time, Ning Zhou's heart was so desperate that he would rather die of guilt than live in the world... This thought made Qi Leren feel sourness in his eyes.

A fluorescent moth, which had stopped on the cave wall, came down lightly and stopped on the blanket that covered Ning Zhou, emitting blue-green light. Qi Leren moved his fingers and drove it away.

"I believe that power has nothing to do with good and evil. You have never fallen," Qi Leren whispered, tracing Ning Zhou's sleeping face with his eyes.

Ning Zhou didn't open his eyes, but he held his hand tightly.

A teardrop trickled down from the corner of his eye and sank into the shadows.

In this dark world where only a lantern shone faintly, they devoutly delivered trust and love, and then received redemption from each other.

The long night road that they had once thought they would never be able to see the end of, all of a sudden, had already revealed the tiny lights between the distant mountains.

Qi Leren suddenly felt deeply touched. When he was trained hellishly by Chen Baiqi, he had rationally understood that all this was for his own good, so deep down, he had no hesitation or complaints. But when he held Ning Zhou's hand at this moment, he suddenly understood everything, and everything he had endured, whether it was hard training or life and death tests, had taught him to grow with every step. He had to keep growing.

What he shouldered was no longer his own life.

To the world, he was only a trivial person, but to the one who loved him, he was his whole world.

——I am willing to create a paradise on earth for you, and I am willing to hold your wandering and painful soul here.

——At this moment, I only wish that you have a good dream.

-----

Editor’s Notes: After nearly two hundred chapters, we finally get to see some sweetness between them :’)

[Here] is some fanart of their reuinion.

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whimsicalfay · 3 years

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Adrien, the true main character of Miraculous Ladybug. (And the reasons why this show doesn't work anymore).

Yes, I'm going to write a whole dissertation on this and no one is going to stop me. No, I don't like Marinette, but not because she's a creepy and annoying character, but because she's bland a boring. Yes, I'll elaborate on that, but firstly lest talk about what makes a good protagonist!

1.They have a problem that needs solving. What does this mean? That your protagonist needs to have some sort of conflict going on, it can be internal or external, but it has to matter to them and it has to drive them to act. It has to be personal. The protagonist has to be central to the story and to the conflict, it has to revolve around them.

2.A protagonist needs to take action. This means that they move the plot forward, because the conflict of the story is about them so every decision they make and every action they take ends up affecting the whole course of things.

3.A protagonists needs to have reasons to take action. This is and point two come hand in hand. The conflict needs to be of importance to the protagonist so they can have believable reasons to take action.

4.The protagonist has something to lose. If things go wrong, or even if they go well, something has to be a stake. That little thing that's a stake has to be the motivation, the reason, to take action. It has to be important enough to force the protagonist to take risks that otherwise they wouldn't even consider, because they can't afford to lose that something.

5.The protagonist has something to gain. Again we have things a stake here. If they do the things right they'll get a reward, something to look forward to. Without something to gain for the protagonist, why even bother to try, right?

6.A good protagonist has the capacity to change. A MC needs to learn along the way, they need to grow and show development. They need to learn from their experiences, otherwise they'll be making the same mistakes over and over again and that's not engaging.

7.A good protagonist has to have compelling personality traits and flaws. The MC needs to have something that makes the audience loves them, but also a trait that needs improvement because otherwise they wouldn't have the capacity to change.

8.A good protagonist has a secret and a very good reason to keep that secret.

9.A good protagonist has a good antagonist. The villain has to be of importance to the protagonist. Why are they enemies? Why the MC needs to stop the villain? Why does it matter?

10.A good protagonist knows that they want and makes the story happen.

And based on those characteristics we can start crafting our MC, that one person that we will have to follow throughout the whole story, the character we have to root for and relate to. The one who makes us care about the events of the story. And once we have crafted our main character we start crafting our story around them, usually following the three art structure or the hero's journey structure. Since this is a superheros show, it makes more sense to use the hero's journey, right? So let's write down this structure following both Adrien and Marinette's stories.

Marinette.

●The ordinary world: This is the original world of the hero, which "suffers from a symbolic deficiency." The hero is lacking something, or something is taken from them.

We get to experience Marinette ordinary world the first episode. We watch her interact with her parents, parents that absolutely adore her and support her on everything. We learn her family has a bakery shop and that it's the best of Paris. She isn't lacking anything, nothing has been taken from her. Her life is perfect and normal. She has a best friend, she has a wonderful part time job as a babysitter for a famous reporter, she has loving parents and goes to a good school. She lives good and nothing of that is in danger. She doesn't lack anything. She is presented as this perfect girl with an amazing life. A little bit silly, yes, but that's actually a good trait because isn't she adorable? Oh, she's lacking a love life I guess.

●The call to adventure: The hero is given a challenge, problem, or adventure. Often it appears as a blunder, or chance. This stage establishes the goal of the hero.

Marinette gets the chance to become Ladybug. Why her? Because she was a nice citizen that helped an old man and that's enough. Why does it matter if she becomes a superhero? Is that a blunder or a chance? Why? We already established that a good protagonist needs to have a conflict to solve, and usually the call to adventure is the first step the MC takes to solve that problem. Does the MC wants to become rich to help their poor family? Well, their call to adventure, the inciting incident, would be getting the opportunity to participate in a poker tournament where the winner gets 20M dollars. That is their call to adventure. But what's Marinette's call to adventure? In the ordinary world we learned that she isn't lacking anything, that nothing was taken from her. Refusing to become Ladybug wouldn't have changed anything for her. Yeah, she is a nice person and wanted to fight crime because she's that noble, but that's hardly personal. It doesn't have weight and the audience won't care.

●THE REFUSAL OF THE CALL: The (often) reluctant hero has to be set along the correct path. They must weigh the consequences and be excited by a stronger motivation to proceed further.

Well, she had a moment of doubt before accepting to become Ladybug, but I didn't see the strong motivation that made her to proceed further. Remember that the motivation has to be personal and it has to matter. If it doesn't matter to the MC then it'll matter less for the audience.

●MEETING WITH THE MENTOR: The hero encounters a wise figure who prepares them for the journey. This figure (or item) gives advice, guidance, or an item, but cannot go with the hero.

Nothing to add here because it's pretty obvious that the mentor is that old man (forgot his name) and the item she gets is Tikki.

●CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: The hero has committed to his task, and enters the special world. Often he is met by a threshold guardian.

Nothing to add here either. Crossing the threshold for Marinette was turning into Ladybug for the first time and deciding it's what she wanted to do. Although her reasond to want it to do it are none existent.

●TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES: In the special world, the hero learns the new rules by meeting people and obtaining new information. There is often a "local watering hole" component. This is where the true characteristics of the hero are revealed.

She meets Chat Noir, she also learns about her enemy Hawk Moth, we see her making new friends and frenemies and what not. The thing is nothing of that feels important because she doesn't have a reason to be doing all that. There's no inner conflict, no goal other than to chase after Adrien. Yes, little problems raise for here here and there, but are not relevant to the big scheme of things. Her goals are momentary and achieved by the end of each chapter.

Now will get to a part that hasn't happened yet, but we can guess.

●APPROACH TO THE INNERMOST CAVE: Now our hero, and often his allies, have come to the edge of the dangerous place where the "object of the quest" is hidden. This stage often is the land of the dead.

This doesn't matter because, again, Marinette has nothing to lose or gain (nothing important at least, only short lived goals with no relation to the plot). She has no reason to be doing all that other than just to be a good citizen and that isn't interesting.

●THE SUPREME ORDEAL: The hero faces danger, often a life-or-death moment that is either physical or psychological.

Again, why should we care if Marinette faces danger when we know she doesn't even has a reason of weight to be there in the first place? How we, as the audience, are supposed to root for her when she doesn't have anything to lose or gain from that supreme ordeal?

●REWARD, OR SEIZING THE SWORD: After surviving, our hero takes possession of the object, typically a treasure, weapon, knowledge, token, or reconciliation.

It doesn't matter. If Marinette wins why should we feel like it all finally paid off when she didn't even have a reason to be there or something she wanted to gain? It's just silly. Unless that reward is Adrien's love, which would be pathetic and boring because this is not supposed to be a love story.

●THE ROAD BACK: The hero must now deal with the consequences of their actions. They may be pursued by remaining forces. They now face the decision to return to the ordinary world.

●RESURRECTION: One final test is required for the purification and rebirth of the hero. Alternatively, it may be a miraculous transformation.

●RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR: The triumphant hero returns to the ordinary world bearing the elixir. Common elixirs are treasure, love, freedom, wisdom, or knowledge. A defeated hero is doomed to repeat the lesson.

I didn't add anything to the last three points because I would just be repeating myself for like the fourth time. Why should we care about the consequences of Marinette defeating Hawk Moth? Why should we care if she goes back to her ordinary world when she didn't even have a reason to leave it? And that's justs makes the two other points unimportant.

That's Marinette's hero's journey. If we can call that a journey, because so far we haven't seen her face trials and dangers, and with this what I want to say is that she hasn't faced anything that threatens what she holds dear, not for real at least. When she faced the possibility of her best friend getting angry at her because she messed with something that was important to her? Oh, that was no biggie! After all Alya knew that would end up happening and was prepared for that, silly Marinette for even worrying! When she literally commits a crime and steals her crush's phone? Why she should worry? She even go rewarded by getting invited to the movies!

Marinette has no flaws (at least to the writers' eyes) to fix, nothing to gain (besides Adrien) because she already has everything, nothing to lose because everyone adores her and because she's so perfect she could never do anything wrong. That's a boring MC. Yes, she's quirky and pretty but that's no enough to make her MC material. She has the characterization of a support character at best. That's awful.

Now let's see Adrien's journey, shall we?

●THE ORDINARY WORLD: We learn that Adrien is a famous model with a rich father and absent mother (we later learn that she "disappeared"). His life is heavily controlled by his father and his assistant, to the point he can't even go to school like a normal kid or make friends, all because he has a reputation to maintain, after all he's a famous model. He's not happy with his life, he would like to experience normal teenager's experiences like going out with friends or attending school. That's his ordinary world. What he lacks is freedom, autonomy and love, and what was taken from him was his mother. There you have inner conflict, a problem that needs to be solved.

●THE CALL TO ADVENTURE: Adrien receives the opportunity to become a hero. It'd be a challenge, a problem and an adventure all at once for him. A challenge because he'll have to find ways to get away from his controlling father without getting caught, which can cause him problems, but is also the adventure he has waiting for, the opportunity to be free, that little thing he was lacking in his life. He decides to become Chat Noir because is the right thing, but also because it'll give him something that he always wanted: the opportunity to be himself. For him it's personal. And hey, maybe later on he could use his new cool superpowers to find out about his mom, right?

●THE REFUSAL OF THE CALL: He could get in so much troubles with his father for accepting this opportunity, it could also damage his career as a model. He has every reason to say no, but also every reason to say yes because he'll get to be what he always wanted. Is an opportunity he can't let go and he knows it.

●MEETING WITH THE MENTOR: Just like in Marinette's case his mentor is that old man. It's basically the same here.

●CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: This point is also similar to Marinette's. He also crossed the threshold the first time he transformed into Chat Noir, the only difference is that for him it matters and we know exactly why. It matters because he'll get the opportunity to be himself, to be free, to escape his real life.

●TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES: Also similar to Marinette's. He meets Ladybug, he starts to attend school so he makes new friends/allies, he meets his enemy Hawk Moth. We also learn a lot more about him watching his interactions with his new allies and watching him go through his tests. And most importantly, we learn that Hawk Moth is his father.

The next points haven't happened yet, but we can guess. We'll ignore the travesty they did to his character in season 4 and we'll just keep following the hero's journey like the writers should have done.

●APPROACH TO THE INNERMOST CAVE: He's getting closer to the enemy, but the closer he gets the dangerous it gets. Not only for Chat Noir, but for Adrien too, because let's remember that his father is Hawk Moth and that he knows, or suspects at least, that his son might be Chat Noir. He also did something creepy to his wife, the mother Adrien adores and misses so much. There's so much to lose, so much at stake.

●THE SUPREME ORDEAL: Adrien faces his father, Hawk Moth. He finds out the truth and that for sure will be the hardest thing ever for him. Imagine learning that your father is the one responsible for all the bad things happening in Paris, that he is the big evil you so badly wanted to defeat. His father was not perfect, but it was still his father and now he has to make a choice. What's more important to him? Family or duty? Can Chat Noir take down Adrien's father? If Chat Noir takes him down, would Adrien be able to forgive himself? Could he live with that?

●REWARD, OR SEIZING THE SWORD: He either fight his father or they talk, get to some sort of agreement/reconciliation or bails out. What will he do? And depending on his choice, how is his road back going to be?

●THE ROAD BACK: He'll have to deal with the consequences of the choice taken in the previous point. Did he fight his father? Now he'll have to learn to live with it, maybe he'll feel guilty, maybe angry. Did they talk and got to an agreement? Maybe he was able to resolve things in a peaceful way, but now he resents his father. Did he bail out? Maybe it was to difficult for him to go against his father and decided to run away, and now he feels guilty and like a failure. So many possibilities.

●RESURRECTION: His last test. He'll have to learn how to live with the consequences of his actions and make something positive out of it. It'll be hard, but it can be done.

●RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR: After coming to terms with the things that happened he gets his reward. Maybe his mother comes back. Maybe he finally gets the freedom he so much wanted without having to hide behind Chat Noir's identity. Maybe he gets the girl. Maybe he gets the three of them.

See the difference between Marinette and Adrien's journey? Adrien has reasons, goals, things to lose and/or gain, there's so much at stake for him. He could lose what is left of his family, the life he has known, his reputation, his career, his money (although I don't see him particularly caring about wealth, it'd make an impact on him to lose it all), everything. His father is the main villain, how more personal could it get!

Adrien is the main character we deserved, his journey is the one we should be following. He had so much potential it makes me sad that is being wasted like this. He was the deuteragonist, now in season four he's just a side character.

So that brings me to the reasons why I can't keep watching this show:

Firstly, if you want to keep your audience engaged with your show the worst mistake you can make is making your MC perfect from the get go, because that lefts no room for growth. And what is the hero's journey? A journey of growth, but if your MC already has it all, then why bother? Marinette bores me to death and I can't keep watching the show just to see Adrien (one of the very few well written characters that actually made the show entertaining) appear like for two seconds.

Secondly, you don't assassinate your own characters for the sake of uplifting your MC. That's bad writing. That's character derailment and you should avoid doing that like the plague. I'm sorry, but if you have to make your characters act OOC just to uplift your MC and make her look like she finally is having some development after four seasons of static personality, then she hasn't has development at all, because it's not Marinette who changed, the ones who changed are the characters around her. They all became more incompetent than her, more annoying than her, more boring than her (when that wasn't the case before) and now she looks like she's finally growing, but it's just because the writers had to downgrade the other characters. I absolutely detest when writers do that.

I hate the constant addition of new characters that literally bring nothing to the table? But I mean, I kinda understand why they keep adding characters. When your MC is so bland that following her nonexistent journey would make the plot stall, then you have to add new characters to keep the audience entertained and advance the plot a little, because the MC can't do it for herself.

I just can't keep watching only for two or three characters. Thomas and his love for Marinette are literally ruining the show. He loves the character he created so much he refuses to make her go through anything remotely negative and he hates the other characters so much because they're not Marinette, that he destroys the their arcs. His childish and he ruined a show that had so much potential.

Sorry if you're a Marinette fan, but the truth needed to be told.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous adrien #adrien agreste #marinette dupen chang #chat noir #i'm tireeeeed #Adrien you deserve so much better #Adrien honey I'm sorry #Sorry Marinette stans #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #ladybug #miraculous lb #miraculous fandom #sorry for the typos #I won't fix them I'm lazy

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asprettyasyourown · 3 years

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How/Where do you think Jon and Arya will meet again? And how/where do you think Dany and Arya will meet?

Honestly, I can’t see Arya and Jon meeting anywhere else other than Winterfell. It would be such a satisfying “conclusion” to this aspect of their storyline. For Arya, both Winterfell AND Jon have been associated with home. She has tried since day one to return to either of them, and to see her do both at the same time would be so lovely. And Jon too, who has struggled for so long with his desire to have Winterfell (feeding his rivalry with Robb and his conflict with his status as a bastard) and Arya (contradicting his position as a member of the Night’s Watch, who have no family), would then get both at the same time. I know GRRM doesn’t like to hand things on a silver platter, and that “Be careful what you wish for” is a massive theme in the series, but come on. You can’t tell me they had it easy, and that they didn’t fight for it.

Now how and when is a little trickier.

Unfortunately, it won’t happen before a loooong time. Arya has a long way to go before leaving Essos, let alone reach Winterfell. She still needs to:

Tie the story with the FM (including a “training” with the courtesans/the Black Pearl, and of course leaving them);

Deal with the wildlings women and children that are stranded in Braavos now that the Sealord captured the ship (= slavers) that intended to sell them;

As I’ve mentioned before, I very much see the Iron Bank being involved in her storyline, so there’s that to deal with as well;

Meet Dany (I’ll go back to this later);

Go back to Westeros;

Deal with the Riverlands, the Brotherhoods Without Banners and, most importantly, Lady Stoneheart;

Reconnect with Nymeria.

And all that doesn’t even take into account what GRRM could throw in her way on top of all of this. That’s a lot. And since Arya will definitively not see Jon anywhere outside of the North, it could only happen after she resolved all those things.

Jon too has a lot on his plate. He first needs to be resurrected (duh). He also needs to deal with the traitors who stabbed him and his future in the Night’s Watch. If you omit the whole murder thing (kinda hard to tbh), there is still the fact he broke his vows for Arya. He was already set to leave before he died. And since his last thoughts were about Arya, and we know the dead who get resurrected focus on their last conscious thoughts, his resolve to get her back will not be lessened.

Honestly, I think he’s done with the NW. I think he’s gonna do what he intended to before dying, aka kill Ramsay and get “Arya” back, whether by allying with Stannis or at the head of his own wildling army. I don’t know if he’s gonna become King in the North like in GoT, but he’s definitively going to be considered for the role; and since Bran, the legitimate heir, is still alive and will one day return to Winterfell, this could be the catalyst for the tension between these two George planned in his original draft. Not to mention the tensions it would create with the other northern lords, who would not see with a kind eye a bastard allied with the wildlings (enemies of the North for generations) and Stannis; or those who simply won’t appreciate a king not as malleable as a child (side-eye to the Manderlys).

(Oh, and there is also the matter with fArya and Theon. I’m going on a limb here, but I doubt he’s gonna be happy to learn that what he thought was his precious “sister” is really an impostor (though he might be happy to know the real Arya didn’t get what Jeyne had to endure). Or that she’s bringing along the guy who betrayed the Starks and supposedly killed Bran and Rickon. His first reaction definitively won’t be good, though it will probably soften once he learns what happened to them and how Ramsay is the real culprit. But I’m not anticipating much benevolence from him, especially since he’s in dark mode now).

So yeah. Lots of issues to be resolved before they can be reunited, and that’s without counting on the threat of the Others or what other characters might do. Honestly, I’m anticipating a reunion between the end of TWOW and the beginning of ADOS. On one hand, I think it would be more impactful in TWOW; most specifically, the last act of either Jon or Arya’s chapters. It would be a nice conclusion for the both of them, before the Others mess everything up. But I’m also aware that all the issues I’ve previously mentioned might not be resolved in one book, and that it might spill on the second one.

-----------------------------

Now Dany.

Honestly, it’s kinda hard to be sure of how they’re gonna meet. They will, that’s a certainty. There is so much hints, since the first book really. Remember this?

This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. [Arya, IV, AGOT]

Which is exactly how I’m anticipating their relationship. At first, things are going to be tense, especially on Dany’s side who has been fed lies about the Starks and their role in her exile (and who could blame her). So there’s definitively room for Arya to be frightened. But once she gets Dany to see her side to the story, and her vision of the events become more balanced, they’ll become fast-friends. They have so much in common, it’s impossible for them not to.

But, once again, the details of how they’re gonna meet is blurry. Arya will need to at least be done with the FM. And Dany... Dany has a lot on her plate too. She’s gonna need to deal with the khalasar she hears at the end of ADWD, and a possible confrontation (alliance?) with the Dothraki. She will also need to end the plot in Meereen (aka choose between “fixing” its whole culture or do what she always intended to, return to Westeros and seize back the Iron Throne). Of course, we know she’s gonna choose the latter - but a bunch of things can happen between that, and with them time passing.

At this point, Arya and Dany are very far away, each at one extremity of Essos. For them to have a chance to meet, I anticipate that Dany will end things with Meereen at the same time Arya closes the storyline with the FM (maybe even before, so Dany could already be on the road towards Braavos). Now is the tricky part. I have two theories on how they will meet: through the lost Wildlings and through the Iron Bank.

The lost Wildlings

We know the wildlings women and children in Braavos were “freed” when the Sealord seized the ship carrying them. Unfortunately, others were not so lucky.

“I know why the Sealord seized the Goodheart. She was carrying slaves. Hundreds of slaves, women and children, roped together in her hold.” Braavos had been founded by escaped slaves, and the slave trade was forbidden here. “I know where the slaves came from. They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome. An old ruined place, accursed.” Old Nan had told her tales of Hardhome, back at Winterfell when she had still been Arya Stark. “After the big battle where the King-Beyond-the-Wall was killed, the wildlings ran away, and this woods witch said that if they went to Hardhome, ships would come and carry them away to someplace warm. But no ships came, except these two Lyseni pirates, Goodheart and Elephant, that had been driven north by a storm. They dropped anchor off Hardhome to make repairs, and saw the wildlings, but there were thousands and they didn’t have room for all of them, so they said they’d just take the women and the children. The wildlings had nothing to eat, so the men sent out their wives and daughters, but as soon as the ships were out to sea, the Lyseni drove them below and roped them up. They meant to sell them all in Lys. Only then they ran into another storm and the ships were parted. The Goodheart was so damaged her captain had no choice but to put in here, but the Elephant may have made it back to Lys. The Lyseni at Pynto’s think that she’ll return with more ships. The price of slaves is rising, they said, and there are thousands more women and children at Hardhome.” [The Blind Girl, ADWD]

So the Goodheart was too damaged to go to Lys, but the Elephant wasn’t. It means there are still hundreds of wildlings women and children enslaved there. Honestly, I’m not sure how Arya could be involved in freeing them. Lys is a long way from Braavos, which means she would have to travel down there (with no resources and the other half of the wildlings), free them and get back up to sail across the Narrow Sea, deal with the Riverlands and then go North. It’s a little much for one girl, even one as resourceful as Arya. Sure, she could ask help from the Iron Bank (see my second point), but I doubt they would indulge her (high risk for no rewards).

But. You know who is as strongly against slavery as Arya, whose path might make her travel to Lys and who has the resources to fuck shit up? Yep, Dany.

The way I see it is, after being disheartened by Meereen and her failure to change the slaver(y) culture, Dany could very much decide to go home to Westeros - and set everything ablaze in her path. If she failed to abolish slavery from the inside, she might decide to do it by force, as a last FUCK YOU to the masters. This could be the beginning of her rock bottom, before she rises back again. It’s also coherent with the Dothraki culture of “Submit or be killed”, which could play a part if she allies with them again.

So I could see her attacking the big cities of Essos, destroying the masters and freeing the slaves as she goes along, until she reaches Braavos - who may be protected since 1. she would use its port to journey across the Narrow Sea and 2. they’re famously known for being founded by slaves and anti-slavery as a whole (and they actually enforce that rule, not just preach it and close their eyes when it counts). There, she could meet Arya through the wildlings women reuniting. Like I said, things would be tense at first, but if they might not be friends at first, they might respect each other for having their hearts set on the same goal (protecting their people). Friendship would come later, I’m not worried about that.

The Iron Bank theory

For me, the Iron Bank doesn’t get the recognition it deserves as a threat, and I fully anticipate them having a much larger role in the next book.

I really believe they will have a hand in Arya going back to Westeros. After she leaves the FM, I very much see them stepping in to offer their “help” to Arya. Personally, I believe the Kindly Man informed them of her real identity (though his motivations are yet unclear). I believe he’s aware of her value as a princess, and the (supposedly) last heir of the North. Look how people are rallying for her in the North when they hear “Valiant Ned’s precious little girl” is being brutalized. Do you think the Iron Bank is gonna pass on such a prize? I can see them trying to do to her what the Manderlys are doing with Rickon, or what Illyrio tried to do with Dany - offer their protection and help so she would be/feel indebted. They could get ahold of the North through Arya, and of the other Kingdoms through Stannis/the crown’s debt. Not too shabby.

But wait, there is a problem arising. A problem named Daenerys, who fully intends to take back the Iron Throne - and if she does, she’s not gonna care about reimbursing the debt her predecessors/usurpers left, thus lessening their leverage (and with three dragons, a Dothraki army and the Unsullied, threatening her is not gonna fly well). I can see them trying to step in too, promise the same things to her they did to Arya - except she’s not gonna fall for the same ploy like Viserys did with Illyrio.

(Btw, I’m sure Arya too will see right through them - she had a whole training dedicated to make her see beyond appearances, and she’s always been pretty observant (like when she didn’t fall for trap Cersei laid for her, with Lannister soldiers dressed as Stark men in AGOT). But she also don’t have the same resources Dany has, and if she frees the wildlings, she’ll have hundreds of mouths to feed and transport back to Westeros. I can’t see her do that without external help, so she might be playing along til a better opportunity arise.)

Now, both these theories have their flaws. The biggest one, for me, is time. Meereen is not gonna be resolved in a day (unless Dany just sets everything on fire the moment she arrives and takes off into the sunset, but I doubt that). She still needs enough time to travel to Braavos. Even if George takes his sweet time closing the FM storyline, dealing with the wildlings in Braavos and the Iron Bank, it’s not gonna take a million chapters. Unless he throws something in there to delay her departure, something that wasn’t foreshadowed yet? Because I don’t see them meeting first in Westeros. What would be the point of having them on the same continent if they don’t meet there? As always, there’s a lot left hanging in the air.

#asoiaf #arya stark #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #jon x arya #jonrya #daenerys x arya #dany x arya #my metas #Anonymous #god #it's been so long since i've published on this blog #also why are my metas always so long #but here ya go #my two cents

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bananaofswifts · 3 years

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Taylor Swift appears to be waging war over the serial resale of her old master recordings on two fronts. She recently confirmed that she is already underway in the process of re-recording the six albums she made for the Big Machine label, in order to steer her fans (and sync licensing execs) toward the coming alternate versions she’ll control. But now that she’s followed the surprise release of “Folklore” with the very, very surprise release of “Evermore” less than five months later, the thought may occur: If she keeps up this pace, she may have more new albums out on the Republic label than she ever did on Big Machine in a quarter of the time. Flooding the zone to further crowd out the oldies is unlikely to be Swift’s real motivation for giving the world a full-blown “Folklore” sequel this instantaneously: As motivations for prolific activity go, relieving and sublimating quarantine pressure is probably even better than revenge. Anyway, this is not a gift horse to be looked in the mouth. “Evermore,” like its mid-pandemic predecessor, feels like something that’s been labored over — in the best possible way — for years, not something that was written and recorded beginning in August, with the bow said to be put on it only about a week ago. Albums don’t get graded on a curve for how hastily they came together, or shouldn’t be, but this one doesn’t need the handicap. It’d be a jewel even if it’d been in progress forevermore and a day.The closest analog for the relation the new album bears to its predecessor might be one that’d seem ancient to much of Swift’s audience: U2 following “Achtung Baby” with “Zooropa” while still touring behind the previous album. It’s hard to remember now that a whole year and a half separated those two related projects; In that very different era, it seemed like a ridiculously fast follow-up. But the real comparison lies in how U2, having been rewarded for making a pretty gutsy change of pace with “Achtung,” seemed to say: You’re okay with a little experimentation? Let’s see how you like it when we really boil things down to our least commercial impulses, then — while we’ve still got you in the mood.Swift isn’t going avant-garde with “Evermore.” If anything, she’s just stripping things down to even more of an acoustic core, so that the new album often sounds like the folk record that the title of the previous one promised — albeit with nearly subliminal layers of Mellotrons, flutes, French horns and cellos that are so well embedded beneath the profuse finger-picking, you probably won’t notice them till you scour the credits. But it’s taking the risk of “Folklore” one step further by not even offering such an obvious banger (irony intended) as “Cardigan.” Aaron Dessner of the National produced or co-produced about two-thirds of the last record, but he’s on 14 out of 15 tracks here (Jack Antonoff gets the remaining spot), and so the new album is even more all of a piece with his arpeggiated chamber-pop impulses, Warmth amid iciness is a recurring lyrical motif here, and kind of a musical one, too, as Swift’s still increasingly agile vocal acting breathes heat into arrangements that might otherwise seem pretty controlled. At one point Swift sings, “Hey, December, I’m feeling unmoored,” like a woman who might even know she’s going to put her album out a couple of weeks before Christmas. It’s a wintry record — suitable for double-cardigan wearing! — and if you’re among the 99% who have been feeling unmoored, too, then perhaps you are Ready For It. Swift said in announcing the album that she was moving further into fiction songwriting after finding out it was a good fit on much of “Folklore,” a probably inevitable move for someone who’s turning 31 in a few days and appears to have a fairly settled personal life. Which is not to say that there aren’t scores to settle, and a few intriguing tracks whose real-life associations will be speculated upon. But just as the “Betty”/”August” love triangle of mid-year established that modern pop’s most celebrated confessional writer can just make shit up, too, so, here, do we get the narrator of “Dorothea,” a honey in Tupelo who is telling a childhood friend who moved away and became famous that she’s always welcome back in her hometown. (Swift may be doing a bit of empathic wondering in a couple of tracks here how it feels to be at the other end of the telescope.) One time the album takes a turn away from rumination into a pure spirit of fun — while getting dark anyway — is “No Body, No Crime,” a spirited double-murder ballad that may have more than a little inspiration in “Goodbye, Earl.” Since Swift already used the Dixie Chicks for background vocals two albums ago, for this one she brings in two of the sisters from Haim, Danielle and Este, and even uses the latter’s name for one of the characters. Yes, the rock band Haim’s featured appearance is on the only really country-sounding song on the record… there’s one you didn’t see coming, in the 16 hours you had to wonder about it. Yet there are also a handful of songs that clearly represent a Swiftian state of mind. At least, it’s easy to suppose that the love songs that opens the album, “Willow,” is a cousin to the previous record’s “Invisible String” and “Peace,” even if it doesn’t offer quite as many clearly corroborating details about her current relationship as those did. On the sadder side, Swift is apparently determined to run through her entire family tree for heartrending material. On “Lover,” she sang for her stricken mother; on “Folklore,” for her grandfather in wartime. In that tradition the new album offers “Marjorie,” about the beloved grandmother she lost in 2003, when she was 13. (The lyric videos that are being offered online mostly offer static visual loops, but the one for “Marjorie” is an exception, reviving a wealth of stills and home-movie footage of Grandma, who was quite a looker in a miniskirt in her day.) Rue is not something Swift is afraid of here anymore than anywhere else, as she sings, “I should’ve asked you questions / I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me / Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt / ‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me,” lines that will leave a dry eye only in houses that have never known death. The piece de resistance in its poignance is Swift actually resurrecting faint audio clips of Marjorie, who was an opera singer back in the day. It’s almost like ELO’s “Rockaria,” played for weeping instead of a laugh. Swift has not given up, thank God, on the medium that brought her to the dance — the breakup song — but most of them here have more to do with dimming memories and the search for forgiveness, however slowly and incompletely achieved, than feist. But doesn’t Swift know that we like her when she’s angry? She does, and so she delves deep into something like venom just once, but it’s a good one. The ire in “Closure,” a pulsating song about an unwelcome “we can still be friends, right?” letter from an ex, seems so fresh and close to the surface that it would be reasonable to speculate that it is not about a romantic relationship at all, but a professional one she has no intention of ever recalling in a sweet light. Or maybe she does harbor that a disdain for an actual former love with that machinelike a level of intensity. What “Evermore” is full of is narratives that, like the music that accompanies them, really come into focus on second or third listen, usually because of a detail or two that turns her sometimes impressionistic modes completely vivid. “Champagne Problems” is a superb example of her abilities as a storyteller who doesn’t always tell all: She’s playing the role of a woman who quickly ruins a relationship by balking at a marriage proposal the guy had assumed was an easy enough yes that he’d tipped off his nearby family. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ‘ Til someone’s on their knees and asks you / ‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s fucked in the head’ / They said / But you’ll find the real thing instead / She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.” (Swift has doubled the F-bomb quotient this time around, among other expletives, for anyone who may be wondering whether there’s rough wordplay amid Dessner’s delicacy — that would an effing yes.) “‘Tis the Damn Season,” representing a gentler expletive, gives us a character who is willing to settle, or at least share a Christmas-time bed with an ex back in the hometown, till something better comes along. The pleasures here are shared, though not many more fellow artists have broken into her quarantine bubble this time around. Besides Haim’s cameo, Marcus Mumford offers a lovely harmony vocal on “Cowboy Like Me,” which might count as the other country song on the album, and even throws in something Swift never much favored in her Nashville days, a bit of lap steel. Its tale of male and female grifters meeting and maybe — maybe — falling in love is really more determinedly Western than C&W, per se, though. The National itself, as a group, finally gets featured billing on “Coney Island,” with Matt Berninger taking a duet vocal on a track that recalls the previous album’s celebrated Bon Iver collaboration “Exile,” with ex-lovers taking quiet turns deciding who was to blame. (Swift saves the rare laugh line for herself: “We were like the mall before the internet / It was the one place to be.) Don’t worry, legions of new Bon Iver fans: Dessner has not kicked Justin Vernon out of his inner circle just to make room for Berninger. The Bon Iver frontman whose appearance on “Folklore” came as a bit of a shock to some of his fan base actually makes several appearances on this album, and the one that gets him elevated to featured status again, as a duet, the closing “Evermore,” is different from “Exile” in two key ways. Vernon gets to sing in his high register… and he gets the girl. As it turned out, the year 2020 did not involve any such waiting for Swift fans; it’s an embarrassment of stunning albums-ending-in-“ore” that she’s mined out of a locked-down muse.

#taylor swift #evermore #review

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Okay, so last post I was giving Lucifer 5B some credit for getting me interested and intrigued about a shitty character, so, as all things should be balanced, here comes the other side of the question. I'll say right off the bat that Lucifer was never a show I took seriously, all at once because of the tone, the way they chose to develop and delve into the themes, the monster-of-the-week format (though also done in spn, there it's redeemed by the darker tone and more subtle theme-development. Obviously, this is S1-S5 I'm talking about) and again the overall way this world works. I've been known to accuse Cobra Kai and even Breaking Bad for coincidence-bending, but they don't even come close to the level of Lucifer here. Then, of course, there's how easy everything is, like a bloody sled on ice: drugs - no problem, kill someone - no problem, infiltrate a mafia group - no fooking problem. How? Well, glaze over that, it's not that important. Except it is. Remember how in that same Breaking Bad Walter's team spent considerable chunks of the show planning, hiding evidence, preparing, measuring little details, diligently covering up their tracks. And they were only involved in a measly drug manufacturing business. Imagine the shit Lucifer runs, with crime bosses, drugs, demons and prostitutes piling out of his front door. Obviously it's a show about angels and demons, and the realism isn't the focus of the program, but still, these things matter. There's always a convenience to it. Like, oh, you need to infiltrate the Russian mafia or some shit? Don't worry, I know a guy - and poof, problem gone. That's not even to mention the universe bending out of shape all around Lucifer, everyone (Chloe especially) putting up with his humiliating bullshit, the fact that he would be kicked out the police in anything even remotely resembling real life, that the mc's get away with almost everything, the unrealistic dialogue that no human irl ever speaks, the second-hand embarrassment, the cheesy "morale" speeches, the dull, predictable cases that are all done by the same formula... and more. So okay, there's a lot, a lot, of problems with this show. Which is why no one really takes it that seriously, we all know it's kind of trashy. But "kind of trashy" is one thing. Now, when season 5 introduces a genuine "evil twin" that we're meant to take with even a bit of seriousness, in the footsteps of such chef d'oeuvres as Dispicable Me 3, when that twin is the most caricature-like villain in recent history, when the allmighty is a buffoon with half a brain, forget omniscient, and isn't even in-line with the stuff he's done before, when one of the main cast is offed as though mid-sentense, with no lead-up, no foreshadowing, no preamble, like a toss of a dice, when the main character is on a race to become God himself, and his love interested Mrs God, and when, oh, Jesus fucking Christ, just stop already! I truly wonder if the writer's room a big dart board with all these drunk-ass ideas stuck onto it, and they blind throw to make the next season. It's finally hitting me now, as I'm writing this, what on god's green earth I watched yesterday.

Why does Lucifer need to become God? Why does a war in Heaven even have to be introduced? Why not focus of the more intricate inter-personal conflicts on Earth, on the characters and their mentalities, on those meaningful arcs that hold actual importance, and emotion, and down-to-earth (lol), well, meaning again. Why do we need a heavenly war? Why does Lucifer need the approval of the angels, when the moral seems to be that he makes himself who he is, not his status, not his people, not his past and not the Silver City (an excellent moral, by the way, so credit where it's due. This self-actualisation business is the second best thing in the whole show)? I get that this is why the majority vote doesn't work, but then what does work? Are they ment to self-actualise into becoming God? Now, I'm aware it's left uncertain whether Luci really is God, so I won't go there for now, but then we have the issue of his resurrection. Was it a reward for self-sacrifice? That wouldn't fit so well, considering all the previous sacrifices that were much more impressive than this one. And what's the philosophy behind that - he's acting out of love? But to what end, if by dying he practically fucked all the other people on Earth, including the very same Chloe he just brough back down? Are these really the qualities for a God to have?

Or did he once again self-actualise, but this time he actualised himself to life? That would truly be a stake-killer. I saw a theory that he finally saw himself as worthy of Heaven, which doesn't quite link to coming back to life. Well, these are perhaps, once again, speculations, and maybe this will be cleared up next season. As for Lucifer's God status, it's a shitty move on the writers' part. Not only was the execution rushed, but thematically, again, Lucifer becoming God to feel worthy of Chloe is nonsense. From a plot and theme standpoint, why does this need to happen? This Godly status holds no meaning, no emotional worth, it's not fullfilling, not symbolic of anything fitting other than that same old "bad to good" and I guess the irony of the Devil becoming God, but the irony is an empty one if it has no real meaning. Which is the case. The whole thing is empty of substance, and I don't know why they went there. You know, it's hollow anyway, not least because Lucifer really doesn't deserve it. Even this season, he is nothing but a child - he acts and thinks like a child, he unchangeably does the same "projecting" bs from season to season to season with no actual sign of emotional maturity other than that in the words of other characters. But you can say he's different all you want, it's not gonna work if the subtle signs of his change aren't there. Say, imagine if Endeavor kept running his mouth about atonement, but kept dutifully abusing his kids - this is that. And yeah, Lucifer loves Chloe in his own way, cares about her, and even comes out of his self-absorbed little world for her, which by the way bugged me about their uneven relationship since season 1 (you know, treating her like shit with a flimsy excuse and then "making up" for it with a grand gesture of sacrifice or a round of angsty suffering. Time after time, every time.)

And finally, of course, there's the issue of how inconsiderate it is to Chloe for him to become God. I mean, it's dead obvious no relationship will be possible there, not without becoming even more unhealthy than it already seems. Themathic significance and meaning aside, even then, even in-universe, it's a shitty thing Lucifer does, again, for himself. So that he feels worthy of Chloe. What she feels, once he's made it his goal to do something, essentially doesn't matter anymore. And the plot fascilitates this splendidly, I mean, she always forgives him without fault like a well-oiled machine. Always, whatever he does, and it's gotten old a long time ago. We know Lucifer can do anything, anything at all, and he will be forgiven - by Chloe, by Maze, by Dan, by Linda, by Amenadiel, by anyone that he needs to forgive him. You'll be lucky if they don't do it the same episode, and extraordinarily lucky if it takes them three or four.

There are many other things to discuss this season, like Dan's ridiculously badly written death, Chloe's whole character stagnation, the, khm, the musical episode, the saturaday morning cartoon villain problem, the fact that Michael manages to descieve an omniscient being, and God himself. I might do those separately, might not, we'll see, as those aren't nearly as interesting to dissect as the above.

Aaaand, anyway, if he is now God, I strongly suspect they'll play the angle of "even though he's God, he stills feels shitty, as true self-love/worth comes from elsewhere" and the usual thing.

#lucifer 5b #lucifer season five #lucifer season 5 #lucifer season six #lucifer #michael demiurgos #michael #lucifans #lucifer netflix #lucifer 5x16 #lucifer 5a #lucifer x chloe #chloe deserves better #chloe decker

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