#ghostly rambles

[romanticallyghosting]

ik the internet has mixed views on matpat, but hes leaving yt. if anyone cares

#matpat #ghostly rambles #im sad idk bout yall #no one cancel me over this pls and ty <3

[lightparty-fullparty]

Can't possibly be me Zenosposting again - what is this a day ending in Y?

Anyway, I've been thinking about the murder boy again. This has mostly spawned from my replaying of the Stormblood patches and seeing Amnesiac Yotsuyu, which sparked a bit of a Nature vs Nuture debate between me and my friends.

Basically, my question for this post is "How much of Zenos' whole deal is Nature (aka He was just born like that) and how much of it is Nuture (aka the enviornment he grew up). Some of you might content to say Nature and leave it at that, which is a completely valid outlook to have. But for me there's just one... teeny... tiny... little detail that has sent me on a wild consipriacy theory of a ride that's resulted in this post. Emet-FUCKING-Selch.

Listen to me, listen okay? I cannot, CANNOT ignore the fact that this absoulete motherfucker (affectionate) is Zenos's cannonical Great Grandfather. Who was very much alive and kicking during his childhood. Emet-Selch or Solus zos Galvus whatever moniker you wanna give the man, is an Ascian. One of THE Ascians. Not only that, he's 'The Architect" the guy who's job it is to design and engineer the calamities meant to rejoin the Shards of the World back together again. What does he do to achieve this? He builds empires, he starts wars, manipulates people and situations to result in untold elemental chaos. Iirc correctly he's responsible for causing all eight calamities that have occured so far in FFXIV. (Eight got undone but I'm still counting it).

Now for this post I'm going to be focusing mainly on the Seventh, Eighth, and Fourth Umbral Calamities. (Which are the ones coincidentally we're told the most about in game). This Calamities all involved Empires. The Allagan and the Garlean, both of which Emet-Selch was responsible for creating. From the Allagans we have the creation of Dalamud, Cyrus Tower, and the Ultima Weapon. As well as an extensive history of biological research. Cloning, Gene Splicing, Mutation and so on. (A sundered mortal's attempts at creation magjicks perhaps?) The Garleans too, have a notible history of biological research, they draw a lot of their modern technology from Allagan design. No coincidence there given Emet-Selch's involvement. But we've seen them use genetic mutation, cyber augmentation, and cloning (Emet-Selch's shadow the hedgehog ass clone bodies because he refuses to look like anyone other than his unsundered self). The also so a lot of research into the Echo. Hydalyn's mark for her champions, and soul maipulation. (Ala Mihgo Dungeon and In From the Cold Duty both points of note for examples of the Soul being manipulated here - physically torn out of the body).

"Now Gengar " - I hear you ask - "What does this have to do with Nature vs Nuture or Zenos?" Well, I tell you, everything really. Hear me out. Emet-Selch designed the Garlean Empire to be the perfect chaos causing conquest force. They have no ability to use either, making them initially vulnerable as a people to the rest of the races. Building up a tasty, tasty resentment and need to feel superior. He sent them marching to 'reclaim their home' and then to 'unify the three contents under their superior peaceful, organised leadership'. The 'Savage Races' summon evil primals and weild evil distructive magjiks. He gave them a perfect cause and reason to hate everyone else. He gave them magitech to level the field and make them supieror at combat. Garlemald as a nation is the perfect war machine. Allagan 2.0 if you would. And Zenos is the perfect 'Champion' to lead that nation into battle. To spark that next Calamity. Look at the guy. Garleans might be on the taller side (depending on the character. Cid is a shorty), but Varis and Zenos are HUGE. Emet-Selch isn't nearly as tall as either of them despite being a blood relation. Which makes me think there was some of that Allagan/Garlean/Ancient playing with genetics and form at work. Make them bigger, more durable, stronger, more intelligent.

It's like Captian America. You want the perfect solider. And a perfect solider for Emet-Selch would also need to be cold, ruthless, manipulative.

There was a post I saw a while again about Mecha Pilots. And OP pondered on the idea of physcially having your brain and body contiditoned to love battle. To love destruction and killing and fighting.

Do you see where I am going with this?

You want someone bloodthirsty enough to cause a Calamity for you, you need them to feel nothing for their fellow man. (Insects all of them. Disappointing. Found Wanting.) You need them to find such overwhelming joy in battle that no other earthely pleasure can compare to it. (Brilliant. Blinding. Trandsenant Moment.)

No attatchments. No emotions, Just violence. I offer to you dear readers, that Emet-Selch carefully modified Zenos' litterally brain chemistry. Making him predisposed to a lack of empathy and his brain releasing those pesky joyous chemicals during battle. Inflicitng and feeling pain. I offer the theory that Zenos has literally been built for combat. If you cut him open, his bones and muscles and organs would be so alienly perfect. Denser, perfectly optimised. Exceedingly perfect. His brain remapped for pattern recognistion and quick skill building, Easy to train in the art of slaughter and tactics. Unable to forge the emotional connections that would only serve to hinder him. (To isolate him from family).

What evidence to I have? Outside of Emet-Selch's known history of building Empires? Easy. I already know he's done this kind of thing before.

Vauthry. The baby Emet-Selch mutated into half a Lightwarden. Able to command the Sin Eaters and ensured would be raised into a tyranically, childish, king. To keep the First from Uniting. To ensure the Eighth Umbral Calamity would continue along it's march to completion.

Why wouldn't Emet-Selch have done as much to Zenos too?

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #zenos yae galvus #emet selch #solus zos galvus #DO YOU SEE IT? #DO YOU SEE MY VISION? #MY REVELATION? #IT'S HIS SPECIAL BOY BONE STRUCTURE GODDAMIT #It's the Frankenstien Allagory #You were *made* monsterous and alien #Body Bone and Mind #Designed to be PERFECT #but Perfect for what? #ghostly rambles

[ghostlyposts]

My biggest flex is that back when Drdt Ch2 Ep 3 came out, when we first saw Charles's scar ever, me and a friend spent 30 minutes analyzing it and came to the conclussion that maybe it was a dog bite,,

I am not making this up we literally just went "haha he dislikes dogs and he has a scar what if a dog bit him"

And we also googled dog attack wounds,,,

All of this on a discord vc

We are like prophets at this rate. If you ask for proof maybe i can dig up my texts (my friend was talking on vc and i was muted texting)

#danganronpa despair time #charles cuevas #Drdt #ghostly rambles

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Playing a boy in the eighth grade play

or my trans awakening: a lil’ comic

And then a month later I realized I could look like that forever.

#trans stuff #trans #lgbtq #pride month #trans artwork #ghostly rambles #trans man pride

[leatherandlipstick]

god. i am far too pretty not to have someone obscenely gorging themselves on my pussy right now

#nsft #ghostly rambles #daydreams

[glassymoonstone]

My entire goal as an artist, is to see my art on Pinterest under the search title; “Character design inspo” (or something similar). I don’t even care if there’s no credit, once I see that, I’ve known I’ve really succeeded.

#ghostly rambles #art #pinterest

[awn-moo]

Since I briefly touched upon it last night while talking with Maro, I've been thinking about the ghost Pokemon of ancient Hisui. I'm well aware of the efforts by historians and scientists to bring these pokemon back. But I personally dislike these efforts.

They no longer have the environment and niche they fulfilled long ago, still present. There's a reason these pokemon don't exist anymore.

Hisuian Zorua/Zoroark were created by humans turning them away, leaving them to die in the cold wastelands. Zorua/Zoroark no longer as ostracized, so there's no need to subject these Pokemon to such cruel fates.

Hisuian Typhlosion was a guide for lost pokemon souls amongst the region. It would purify their souls and guide them along, as well as getting a chance to eat. They work a bit like Dusknoir, which were really only common in one area of Hisui.

And Basculegion, who evolved to protect the souls of Basculin who couldn't survive the journey back upstream.

As much as I love the idea of being able to interact with these lost pokemon, there's no environmental niche for them to fulfill anymore. They're lost for a reason, and not to sound harsh or cruel, but I don't see the need of bringing them back.

#pkmn irl #pokemon irl #pokeblogging #ghostly rambles

[ghostly-below-dark]

Hey!

I’m @rose-above-dark art blog

I use krita / ibis and please ask me abt OC’s thank you

I usually draw for any fandoms I’m in + OC’s, but the main one is ultrakill. Though you might see some splatoon, touhou and madoka stuff 👍

#ghostly rambles

[ghostlyruinstrash]

Idk about the old voxtagram posts, but in the series proper, it seems like Vox gives as good as he gets with Val. Like, Val throws the drink at Vox, Vox doesn’t really seem to care, and then later, Vox grabs Val by the hair (neck fluff?) and screams in his face, and Val doesn’t seem to care either

oh yeah definitely

in the show they're relationship is still far from healthy but it's definitely more... balanced?

like at most they get annoyed with each other's behaviour (vox in the 'just another day with val scene) but, to them at least, the pros of their relationship seem way out the cons

but at the same time their relationship is and always has been very up and down, and while we saw the best parts of it in ep8 i really don't think ep2 was as bad as they get

so yeah i agree that it's definitely a mutual thing in the show that neither of them seem to care about that much, i do wonder if that will or has already changed as time goes on

#did that even make sense? #ghostly rambles #basically ur right but i still like to think about the voxtagram era and how it compares and contrasts to the charcters we have now

[yearnfulghost]

They make me love living

I love being alive next to them

#ghostly rambles #yearnposting #nblnb

[vampyangel]

need to live in a small town that's creepy and has a local diner that I can go to and get a strawberry milkshake and burger late at night whilst I read my book

#scenarios #creepy cute #ghostly whispers #ghostly rambles #mysterycore #horrorcore #small town aesthetic #small town horror #small town mystery

[romanticallyghosting]

gotta pee and get a snack i call that one the piss and chips

#get it #like british people #ghostly rambles

[lightparty-fullparty]

Oh, would you look at the time? It's me having thoughts about Zenos O'clock.

This time, I want to break down what I think the central concept of who and what Zenos is. And why he lives in my brain rent free.

At his core, Zenos is a character who does not understand, nor is himself understood by other people. I don't think that's a very controversial or even new thing to say. It's repeared and reinforced at several points during the narrative, across multiple expansions. Lyse does not understand him at the Royal Menagire, Varis does not understand him at Garlemald, Jullus does not understand him at Camp Broken Glass.

They do not understand who Zenos is as a person. What he values, or what he cares about.

Zenos is shaped by absence. An absence of purpose, motivation, drive. An absence of connections, friendships, love.

Let's break it down.

The Absence of Purpose:

This is his boredom. What fuels his need to find a challenge. That spark of something, anything, to break through the utter tedium of his daily life. The short story claims that he has always been incredibly gifted. Learning and absorbing information with little effort and incredible speed. Before his new swordsmanship instructor, Zenos has never found anything difficult to do. He has not been sufficently challenged. Nothing has managed to retain his interest because he has mastered it too easily. He is a child, and he is tired of his life.

The encounter he had with the Corvosi tutor/assassin was the first instance where Zenos failed to achieve something immediately. Where he had to exert mental and physical effort. Where he developed a desire to overcome repeated instances of failing.

This is why he is desperate to recreate that feeling of challenge. Why he thinks that combat is the only available source he has. Because nothing, absolutely nothing else up to this moment, has done what his instructor did. Made him fail. Made him feel.

What this does to his outlook is narrow Zenos' world view. It gives him a single desire to recreate the feeling of motivation and drive he had towards finally besting his instructor. This is why I think Zenos was content to go along with the Empire's conquest of Eorzea and the rest of Hydalyn. Because it gave him the opportunity to battle. To test himself against other warriors who maybe, just maybe, would give him the same feeling his instructor did.

Nothing else mattered because nothing else made Zenos feel much of anything. It was all the same. Tedious. Bording. Easy.

To Zenos, the pursuit of a person's goal doesn't require any greater justification other than "It's what I want to do." You do things because they serve your greater purpose. You eat to keep yourself alive so you can train, so you can be strong enough for combat. That's it. There is no enjoyment, no pleasure, to be found in the daily living of life. The only moment of catharsis is finally reaching the end.

Zenos does not care about why the Empire is conquering the world. The Emporer simply wants to, that's it. To Zenos, all of the reasoning of "making the world better" of "spreading the glory of Garlemald" does. Not. Matter. Because it does not change the core belief that people do things because they want to.

Jullus asks him why? Zenos asks him why that even matters. People do things because they want to or because it allows them to achieve the thing they want. That's it. That's all. There is never a greater meaning than that. No dressing it up in philosophy or politics. It won't change the outcome of the actions. It doesn't affect anything at all. The dead are still dead. Zenos still wants his fight. Garlemald still wants its glory.

Jullus here is confronted by Zenos' nihilism. The realization that there is no justification. No meaning. Not for Zenos. Not for Garlemald. Not for anything. The reason is meaningless because the reason doesn't change a single damn thing.

And yet. How can we say that the reason never matters? Never changes things? How can we look at FFXIV as a story and say that this is right?

Reason is everywhere. Reason gives context and produces empathy. Understanding. Of course, you resent the outcome less when you understand that the problem was caused by someone trying to help. To make something positive. That it was a simple mistake instead of a purposeful act of harm.

This is where the second absence comes into play. This is where tragedy lies.

The Absence of Connection:

Zenos has no friends. No family bonds. No companionship. No understanding of other people. He sees people only in terms of his own goal. Weak and boring. Or strong and interesting. His emotional range is severely restricted. Fluctuating between bored or frustrated. Anything else only comes to the front after his encounter with the Warrior of Light. Where a faint hope is sparked that this person might just be the one to challenge him. This blazes to life at the Royal Menagire, and Zenos spends the rest of the game chasing that fading comet.

The short story shows us a bleak view of Zenos' life as a child. His mother is dead, and he has no memory of her. His father is absent, dismisive, and uncaring.

The servants and staff around are mere robots to Zenos. Implying they have little to no personal interaction with him. Or are so chained by the rules of Garlean High Society that they can not interact with him or risk punishment. On top of this, I believe that Zenos was also being taught due to the war propaganda, that these servants (possoble taken from conquered nations) were lesser. Were not people. Were to not be seen and not be spoken to.

His tutors were boring. Since lessons were easy and rote. Other children held no interest because Zenos was so far beyond them mentally. I imagine that given his genius that the average child his age must have seemed like a toddler to him. Zenos has never had a peer. Someone of equal standing. Someone he could connect with or was able to empathize with. I highly doubt that anyone else around him found lessons and training to be so easy. Who found living itself to be dull.

Zenos IS an island. Zenos IS alone. And this affected him deeply. He has never learned what a healthy connection with someone else is. His emotional development was so utterly stunted and warped that it left him unable to empathise. To Zenos, his life has been so empty of warmth and care for him that he is unable to feel that towards other. Due to this, he can not understand motivations outside of his own narrow scope. To Zenos, life has never had any meaning, outside of his pursuit of challenge. Whereas others around him, who struggle, who fail, have always had this deep rooted purpose of striving to improve and succeed. Their dreams and goals pushing them forwards because it doesn't come easy. So here we have this isolated, empty, genius. Who has never struggled, has never managed to connect with anyone. Chasing desperatedly after the one, singular person in his life who managed to change that. it's so important that he called the Warrior of Light his 'First Friend'. The first person Zenos has been challenged by, who has sparked insterest. Who he has connected to. I do believe that, as least for the 'cannon events' of FFXIV, the Meteor Survivor Box Art timeline, the Warrior of Light does have things in common with Zenos. The enjoyment of a good fight. A want to face tough opponents, to seek greater and greater challenge. Zenos sees this, and for the first time in his life, he is able to in part understand someone else. He is only able to return this gift of purpose and connection in the same way he recieved it. By throwing himself at the WoL in combat. To try and recreat that spark he felt. This is also the reason, I think, that Zenos didn't change his approach after he resurected into EleZenos. I don't think he ment to come back. It was an accidently biproduct of the Resonant. Zenos was suddenly faced with the possiblity that he was now immortal, and I think the implication that his life of utter tediom would never end drove him to chase the WoL all the harder. He needed something to give him meaning and purpose, or be faced with a bleak eternaty forevermore.

This is what Alisiae is able to see. Past all of Zenos' outward neutrality and boredom, she saw that desire in him to keep that connection with the WoL. That's why she called him out on it, becuase Zenos did not understand himself and his emotions enough to idenitfy what it was he really wanted. A friend.

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #zenos yae galvus #ghostly rambles #I am obsessed with him #I love him so much as a character #he is my blorbo #blorbo from my game

[justyouraverageghost]

agjhfdkdf someone yell at me in my inbox if you want me to post stuff about my Gaster AU because I want to but I’m SHY and NERVOUS AND-

ajhksdujf

#awkward ghost is awkward #ghostly rambles

[aliceinunderland-supernatur-blog]

#spooky #cute #ghostly rambles #first post #dark aesthetic #sexy

[ghostlyposts]

Crossover fanfics will mix the Muppets with Batman and make the most soul wrenching and most amazing piece of literature ever seen in the 21st century with amazing character development, deep, meaningful writing, and be like 300k words long.

#fanfiction #Fanfic #ghostly rambles