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aleksanderscult · 29 days

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So how do you feel about Alina's character?

My feelings for her are complicated at best, anon.

And only lately I realized that I'm more in love with the potential she had rather than her canon self.

In the beginning, I liked her because I found her a mood. Her humour and attitude were entertaining to me. But as the months passed I realized that her main personality traits do not fit in this fictional world.

She's irresponsible, immature (and nobody start the "she was a child/teenager" bullshit to me. She was a legal adult by the Grishaverse standards and you would expect someone that had a rough childhood mature faster), selfish and lacks common sense and empathy. If she were a side character these characteristics wouldn't bother me but alas she's the main character. The girl that both the Ravkans and the readers expected to bring positive change and balance with her efforts by the end of the trilogy.

And guess what? Nothing of that happened.

I have one question for Leigh Bardugo.

If you wanted to show how not all girls want crowns, then why did you pick the main character that everybody depends on to show it??

We have wars, a genocide, hate, corruption and imbalance plaguing the main kingdom of this story and for two books straight the author had the readers and the character herself believe that she'll change everything. But not only didn't any kind of change happened, but the main character herself didn't change LMAO.

Alina had no character development and when a main character doesn't have that, then the story itself can't develop. Leigh stripped her of her powers and made her go and marry Mal while the main problems still reigned.

So my feelings for the potential she had? A girl that turned her weaknesses into strength and decided to find courage inside herself instead of depending on her toxic "friend". A woman that embraces both her light and her darkness and decides to protect her people no matter what, even if she has to sacrifice her own happiness. Now that character I love and stan.

My feelings for her canon self? I feel sorry for her mostly. She deserved a better author that would allow her to develop and not take away a huge chunk of her soul. People say "Oh but she deserved happiness". Well, aside from the fact that her ending was NOT happy, when you create a world that is full of problems you can't expect to keep your MC happy AND the rest of the Ravkans happy.

Take Daenerys for example. Is she happy? No. Did she still sacrifice everything to fight slavery and keep her children safe and free? Yes. And that made her a very sympathetic character to the rest of us that has read her story.

Because it's not about "the main character deserves happiness" but "the main character needs to do the job she was assigned to do, no matter what". Main characters exist to get the job done (whether that is to free slaves, rule a country or kill the bad guy) and Alina did nothing.

#friendly reminder: there are people out there who are happy with Alina's fate 😀#anyway it's not that much of the character that annoys me as much as the author #Leigh tried to “pass on her message” and instead created a disappointed end for all of us (the readers and the characters alike)#I've seen many people hate Alina and honestly I don't blame them anon #there are times myself when I have to lower the book and stare at the wall after she says or thinks something stupid #alina starkov #anti alina's wasted potential #leigh bardugo #grishaverse #shadow and bone #grishaverse trilogy

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synthwayve · 4 months

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The Micolaurence text post ever.

Shoutout to the people in my replies, I blame all of you in the most positive way possible.

Poorly formatted “essay” about the connections they have that make my brain spin because yes :} new years is a time of lawlessness impulsivity: keep in mind I don’t own the actual game to confirm some things, most of this is compiled from item descriptions, cut content, reading the wiki over and over, and my own analysis. I could be totally wrong about some things + this is just my own analysis/interpretation**, have mercy upon my soul 🙏

The biggest thing about them, and the thing I simply do not shut up about if you happen to hear me talk about them, is that both Micolash and Laurence’s respective obsessions/virtues/main associated game mechanics (Insight and Blood respectively) directly influence each other. Not only do they influence each other, they also relieve the negative effects of the other stat. Why is this such a big deal to me? WELL:

Beasthood, the negative effect of taking too much blood, scales negatively depending on your Insight. The more Insight you have, the less Beasthood, and vice versa. Contrarily, Sedatives, crafted from blood(yes, Sedatives are stated to be thick ‘human’ blood and will reset your Beasthood as well, but this does not necessarily reduce it- more on this later*)

Will relieve Frenzy as their primary purpose, which is the main negative side effect of having high Insight i.e going mad.

I think this is very intentional outside of just pure game mechanics and design: there is a running theme in Bloodborne, that being that every enemy you face has succumbed to one side too heavily. BSB, the half-beast Yharnamites, Gascoigne, Amelia, Laurence, and all the other beast enemies you face have relied too much on the blood and fallen to its curse. Brainsuckers, Rom, Winter Lanterns, Micolash, and arguably other insight-heavy enemies like the Celestial Emissary are heavier on the Insight side. What makes YOU, the player, different? It is your ability to balance both.

The creatures that have gotten closest to ascension are ones that we can assume have undergone the effects of blood and insight, but still haven’t gotten there all the way. Rom is probably the biggest example, along with other Kin/Great One enemies. They are physically transformed, as the blood will do, but they are not beasts. Rather, they often have the numerous eyes that are granted with Insight.

The ending that allows the Hunter to ascend reads to me as an ending where you have successfully balanced both mediums: using Blood to tame the negative effects of Insight and vice versa. What I interpret from this in regards to Micolash and Laurence specifically is that they could have come SO CLOSE to achieving what they wanted!! If they had just worked together, and the schism hadn’t happened, perhaps Micolash would not have gone insane with steady treatments of Blood and Laurence would not have transformed with the help of his Insight being steadily raised.

Maybe it’s just me being insane but I don’t know, there’s something pretty gay to me about being in charge of/cursed by an obsession with something that only someone equally as obsessed with its opposite can cure.

I honestly think Micolash and Laurence might have even ended up in a sort of prisoner’s dilemma situation: they both think their own method is correct, and refuse to give in to the other’s perspective. In doing so, they actually end up royally screwing themselves over at the same time whereas cooperation would have led to the best outcome. Laurence, the general posterboy for the blood in general(and most other blood related things) is not someone who I imagine would be keen on giving up his faith in the substance. Especially when he’s being told this by a man who’s sanity is hung by a thread. But if only Micolash listened to HIM, his insanity would be relieved and he would go back to the mostly sensible man he might’ve been- only of course, Micolash would not see it that way. Why would he take something that is quite literally killing Laurence? I find it interesting that Sedatives are a hint of insanity(like with Edgar) yet Micolash doesn’t drop any. Perhaps he’s not the type to invest in Blood, especially if he had to watch it slowly chip away at Laurence’s health who was too stubborn to listen to him instead. You see where I’m going with this- around and around they go.

*while Sedatives are stated to be thick human blood, I have three theories about this.

1. “Derived” from Byrgenwerth implies to me that the formula has undergone some modifications. I would not be surprised if holy blood is used as a thickener.

2. I imagine most “human blood”, at the point that Sedatives are distributed more abundantly, is already tainted with holy blood. I mean, come on. This is Yharnam. Blood is the name of the game.

3. Sedatives reset Beasthood, but for you the PLAYER, your beasthood remains at more of a net neutral than your Insight which the game relies on to progress the story. I imagine that for a scholar like Micolash, who does not fulfill the role of a hunter or a soldier, beasthood would be less of a concern.

OKAY THAT ONE POINT GOT REALLY LONG I’M SORRY so I’ll rapid fire some other things about them:

-Micolash seeks to abandon his humanity in his boss form, Laurence seeks to retain it in his boss form. Micolash seeks a blessing from Kos like that which was granted to Rom, you know, the giant very not human spider. Laurence wants his memories and his head back. Neat!!

-while there seems to be clear animosity between Mensis and The Healing Church later in the timeline, I think it is often overlooked that they DID work together at some time. I can imagine The School of Mensis to be research and science heavy: looking for ways to perfect ministration technology, understand the specifics of the blood, and research what else can be made of it to further humanity. The Healing Church distributes it, covers. The School’s reputation(presumably), and uses that research to further their own ideas of ascension. Bloodborne likes to do things in threes: Willem, Laurence, and Micolash are respective leaders/founders of Byrgenwerth, The Healing Church, and The School of Mensis. Interesting note that the latter two originate from the former, who is the only still “living” character amongst the 3 as far as I can gather. He warned those morons and it meant absolutely nothing LMAO.

-There is something so satisfying to me in how Micolash is generally associated with the dark and dim: Kos- a goddess born from the watery depths, an infinite labyrinth of dust and old tomes, and dark robes of Byrgenwerth. Laurence, on the other hand, is associated with all that is bright: fire, a bright pale moon, white and blue robes of the Choir, and the candlelit cathedrals that are more wax than they are pews. Parallels! Beloved!

-fellas is it gay if we both destroy a city for our own ends. YES yes Old Yharnam specifically was destroyed by the Powder Kegs- but I have a complete crack theory that Laurence saw the Ashen Blood poisoning go down, thought “ah, that is terrible for our reputation”, and sent the then-still loyal Powder Kegs to kaboom the issue away. The Powder Kegs then begin to protect the very beasts that Laurence is trying to sweep under the rug(because panic never leads to anything good), so the Healing Church Workshop as a whole denounce them as heretics.

…but also crack theory aside I still hold him half-responsible for the fall of Yharnam as a whole. And Micolash fucking obliterated all of Yahar’gul so. Yeah. Do NOT let these 2 work together, I think they would destroy all of Yharnam if they could.

-Consider: academic rivals that end up side-by-side, foraying into the brand new promising field of human ascension with matching ambitions and stars in their eyes. That is, until a cost that neither is willing to pay(the health of the other) shows up, and they end up splitting apart in a violent schism that brings them right back to where they started. CONSIDER. For me 🥺

-The Mensis cage obscures everything BUT the eyes, the uniform of the Choir allows for mobility (even enough to fight- like with Yurie) but it blinds the user. Also: Micolash, weird crazy guy who was probably not adored, or at least not as adored as Laurence, dies surrounded by people. Laurence, the guy who put Yharnam on the freaking map, dies completely alone in a big empty room. At least, that’s how we find their bodies in the nightmare!

- “We were friends! How could you?” Is tragic to me in any interpretation

-WHY DOES MICOLASH HAVE A CALL BEYOND. That is a CHOIR SPELL TO THE CORE!! And also, iirc, shared only amongst the higher ranks. I understand him having stolen it from Laurence is the general interpretation- but I like to think that perhaps it was a gift. A show of good faith, even? 😏 to wield the very stars in one’s hands seems like a very apt gift for a guy who is obsessed with the cosmos.

-Laurence 100% stole some of Micolash’s homework on contacting Great Ones imo and the effects of insight. I don’t actually have anything to back this outside of speculation I just think it’s very funny. Endless loop of copying homework. Micolash has more insight naturally, Laurence uses this to learn of the ritual, Laurence does his ritual, Micolash copies his ritual. No credit in sight.

-Micolash has an interesting line of cut dialogue where he claims he “was the head…of this treatment church”. I don’t have the original Japanese text, but I wonder if perhaps Micolash was meant to be an NPC, still fulfilling his role as both the headmaster of Mensis AND the main scholar overlooking all scientific and arcane research on behalf of the Healing Church? If he was the head of the healing church, did an earlier version have Laurence fulfilling his theorized role as a re-incarnated hunter?

-Micolash’s ritual, which I gather(and this is where my knowledge is the most shaky so BEAR WITH ME) summoned the blood moon, seems to be a direct copy of Laurence’s ritual to summon Flora. Whereas Flora took Gehrman as a host, Mergo took either Micolash as a host, or sacrificed the rest of the school in his place. Keep in mind: The Moon rune(found at the bottom of the stairs in Micolash’s boss arena, also eerily similar to the Communion Rune that I imagine would be a big hit with Laurence) DIRECTLY states that the Great Ones are sympathetic in spirit, and answer when called upon. I don’t think Mergo nor Flora are intentionally malicious. I just think these two idiots didn’t know what they were bargaining for, or with. Fellas is it gay if we both change the sky, both sacrifice something we didn’t necessarily mean to, and both suffer in the Nightmare for our sins? Asking for a friend.

-Micolash’s first move is running away from you, Laurence’s first move is to lunge directly at you. Ah, they would have made such a horrendously destructive pairing if the divorce hadn’t happened.

-bonus note!! I have ANOTHER crack theory that the “Moon” and “Communion” Runes have some neat parallels :smear:

Moon Rune is blood red like Micolash’s blood moon, Communion is pale white like Laurence’s pale moon. Moon allows for more blood echoes, Communion for more vials. Moon focuses on the Great Ones answering when called, Communion focuses on Blood Ministration. Moon has the eye in the center surrounded by lines, almost forming another circle(perhaps, and this is a stretch, even the dias that the catalyst is meant to be at the center of?), Communion is surrounded by 3 distinct dots(Laurence, Gehrman, and…Flora? Still not certain who the 3rd dot would be). Reading runes is fun! “Beast’s Embrace” may be closer to Laurence as a character(I mean, you obtain it from him) but since Micolash has no rune to drop as a counterpart(probably because he isn’t a DLC boss), I went with striking parallels between Communion and Moon instead.

-Fellas. Final question. Is it gay if my mild interest in that which lies beyond humanity (POSSIBLY) turns into a rapid obsession/a race against time to save you from yourself and reverse the effects of this poison you so adore, only to realize you won’t hear me, you will never hear me, and it is too late for both of us to turn back? Just wondering. JUST. WONDERING. Maybe trying to stop the other’s descent got too frustrating, Micolash and Laurence both sort of strike me as stubborn pricks in their own ways. Hence the big divorce. “If you won’t see things my way then you can sit with the consequences” (said both of them, equally suffering from consequences). I can only imagine Micolash did not expect for Laurence to prove him right so soon. (It’s funny, because they’re both dead, so really neither was right.)

**(Also I just like relating my headcanons back to canon for fun, I’m not trying to say how ‘canon’ something is should influence how people make hcs. Bloodborne’s not a very romantic game in a traditional sense so this is all mostly me rambling around anyway x,D)

OKAY SORRY IM FINALLY DONE. HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY. I THINK THEY HELD HANDS MAYBE. I also think they would actually literally maul each other to death if given enough reason.

#bloodborne #micolash host of the nightmare #laurence the first vicar #micolaurence #bloodborne theory #bloodborne headcanons #I could actually go on for pages I may be insane #I dunno me personally I think it is a little bit gay to have an immoral science guy at your beck and call to do immoral science for you #while you maintain a pristine and holy image that also happens to provide him with materials #imagine you’re some guy in Yharnam and now Thing 1 and Thing 2 want your eyes and blood respectively #personal hc: Micolash is anemic af(sickle cell) and Laurence is so so pissed off that he doesn’t like transfusions #I think they hate each other(bonded together by fate)#okay its 5:00 am goodnight

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