#iirc it was the first time the 'real world' had been used in lore

[directdogman]

Hey dogman, idk if you answered this

Who, out of both DSAF and Dialtown, was your favourite to write and/or create?

It's very hard for me to pick favourites with my characters because I don't tend to give characters a lot of screen-time unless I find a character interesting or fun to write. You've caught me in a talkative mood, so warning, there's an onslaught of text coming!

DSaF: Dave was the most fun to write for, as I remember it. I mean, the guy is the walking personification of chaos and even when he's being constructive (eg, rigging robots to do insane stuff), it's usually in a destructive capacity. Dave will do LITERALLY ANYTHING but contribute to society in meaningful/valuable ways.

In terms of what character-writing I was most 'proud' of, I was also pretty happy with Dr Henry Miller, as a villain. Namely the research he embarked on, described in his logs in DSaF 3 (which the fandom evidently agreed with, as I got really strong feedback on those logs.)

One issue a lot of people (including myself) have with canon William Afton is that he's this kind of mad scientist character but his research doesn't really seem to be... idk, going anywhere? Other than using remnant (soul nectar?) to make kids possess robots, it's kind of a mystery how he got to this point he did from running a bad fast food restaurant. William gets fleshed out motivations in TSE and even then, it mainly revolves around his relationship with Henry Emily, iirc. It's actually pretty accurate to how real serial killers think, imo, but there's a pretty wide berth between this kind of serial killer and becoming a sci-fi fast-food mad scientist... So, I decided to try to bridge that gap.

DSaF Henry's logs actually mention where the idea for his research came from, namely the fact that he existed in a world with normal scientific rules just like ours and seemingly discovered something supernatural, and he approaches it like an amoral scientist would - trying to figure out how to figure out more about the fabric of reality using the newly discovered phenomenon of possession. The 'joy of creation' phrase people pulled from Golden Freddy's phone call in FNaF 1 is given context - Henry is trying to find out what's on the other side (and eventually, how existence itself formed.)

There's other aspects to his character that make him more interesting too, like the implication that his research is partially an excuse for him to act on an underlying sadism (with scenes implying that he inflicts damage on others than can't be justified as assisting with his research.) His background as a dissident/quack laughing-stock scientist (thanks to pushing his soul theory in a best-selling book, which is considered pseudoscience) BEFORE he embarked on his journey to become a fast food tycoon also makes it less farfetch'd that he'd be capable of y'know, harvesting human souls intentionally to continue his research?

I had more for the character on paper that people haven't seen but some of it wasn't revealed due to it feeling a bit too disturbing to publish. None of the contents would've been all that controversial, more just too tonally disturbing when written about in detail (like a omitted part from his backstory/lore post where he managed to pick up a hazy audio of his wife + son's crying from the radio of the car his wife/son drowned in and reacted with genuine elation upon realizing he'd discovered a new scientific phenomenon (as this was the first time Henry witnessed soul-possession.)) Yeah.

I don't feel much of a need to revisit Henry as a character because as a series villain, he was pretty thoroughly-written and he did his job effectively... And his fate was well earned! (He even got an epilogue short-story a few years back, further cementing his fate!)

Dialtown: From the characters/writing that the fandom has seen? Tough to say. I genuinely really like every DT character. Gingi and Mayor Mingus are two of my favourite characters to write for because they're both really insistent and react to adversity in a really comically indignant way. Mingus is more like Gingi than she cares to admit in very specific ways, which is the core hypocrisy of her character - she's one of the most abnormal things IN Dialtown, and spends the game on a quest opposing abnormality that she, herself, can't stand.

Many absolute rulers have debilitating physical and/or mental cruxes and despite that, usually have the final say on what is/isn't okay, often guided by arbitrary preferences. It's funny to remember all of the ancient kings and emperors who dictated how others should act, talk and even think, when very many of them themselves were anything except a good reflection of their own subjects! It's an irony I quite enjoy and leads to a fun character to write for!

My favourite DT writing is probably some of my Callum Crown speech drafts. I have a definite bias here since Crown's character is based on many figures I've encountered in my own reading (and his story relates to topics I enjoy reading about.) A lot of that is real nerd shit that wouldn't be interesting to 99.9% of DT fans (like a long conversation where Crown + Milt discuss a campaign speech Milt wrote for Crown and they bicker about if the wording/arguments used are truly honest.) Again, not super relevant to Dialtown-proper, but it explains a lot about why the world of DT ended up the way it did.

Realistically, the story of Dialtown itself is basically a weird little epilogue to a story that ended decades upon decades ago, centered around a bunch of small-town nobodies circling around the carcass of the last surviving main character of the old story.

I'm also very happy with Gingi's character partially because I know more about Gingi's past/future than you guys do. Gingi has such rotten memory that Gingi's backstory before DT's story begins is basically a complete mystery. Thanks to Gingi never getting close enough to any humans before laying its eggs, there's nobody in Gingi's life that can fill in the gaps. Companionship means so much to Gingi because prior to meeting The Gang, Gingi is aware of a massive and unknown block of time that's a complete mystery precisely because Gingi had nobody in its life. To Gingi, this time was basically akin to being non-sentient or dead, and Gingi would never go back.

While I was making DSaF, I drafted a ton of other stories on paper. I considered making most of them, but decided not to for various reasons, despite getting some solid feedback from collaborators. Bits of almost all of those project ideas made it into DT, with Gingi having traits from several other main characters I prototyped years and years ago. This includes where Gingi came from and what exactly Gingi is. I don't want to mislead people into thinking Gingi is more important than it is, like Gingi is the key to unlocking DT lore (I promise there's a LOT of aimless scuttling/devouring in Gingi's past and relatively little else!) BUT: Of everything from those old scrapped projects, Gingi is what I decided deserved to survive the most. And that has to count for something.

One day I'd love to make sequels to DT and perhaps explore some of the stuff I've described above, like why the hell the world of DT is the way it is or maybe where the hell Gingi spawned from. Thanks

[morimonchi]

I made a list of all Real and AI characters in Duel Links so far! (with some of my own theories too)

So, one day I decided to take the time to investigate/study the lore of Duel Links because the voices in my head won’t shut up, is not an easy task since not many people archived that much info of the events and lore of this game until recent years. So, with the help of talking with some people online, the insane and cool people of Tumblr obsessed with this game and its lore as much as I am, and me playing the game myself and seeing the event and making my own theories, I ended up with this list! Warning: is a very long wall of text.

(shoutout to @cyberdragoninfinity and @fortuneangel on Tumblr, they are very cool and obsessed with the Duel Links lore which is based and their posts helped me out a lot, I even copy-pasted from some of  Cyberdragoninfinity’s lore posts and Fortuneangel's own list because turns out they made a list of this stuff too, very good for me it made my job easier, although it would've been cool to find out about that earlier and not after I finished my initial list that took like 2-3 days to make lol)

Ever since the game first came out, the clues where always there that the Legendary Duelists and NPC duelists were all AI made by Seto "mentally unstable" Kaiba, which is kinda fucked up to begin with.

However, they are pretty bland and boring AI, since Kaiba probably only had second hand knowledge of some of the Duelist or he meet them but doesn't know them on a deeper level to make a good copy of them (heck some of them he didn't even meet at all). It’s all stuff Kaiba either heard about secondhand, or was physically present for to see in some way. He made the best approximation he could, on his own, but they’re just that: approximations.

however, starting from a certain event, things got weird: The Yami Bakura Event.

Easy best example is the first ever event character, Yami Bakura. A fascinating character in Duel Links lore, simply because he's the first Self Aware AI! So now, all character after the Yami Bakura Event aren't basic AI copies like the ones before, but instead AI SOUL copies (that's how I call them at least, but I'll be saying AI copies here for easier understanding/reading).

Meaning that they are copies made by the Kaiba's soul printer machine (insert crazy explanation of what the heck that is supposed to be) that uses the memories of the people connected to Duel Links in order create the DL world and the new AI copies in it.

suddenly characters felt way more alive and "real", even evolving pass their latest character developments from the manga/anime somehow? (and yes, the DM world is based heavily on the mangaverse! but somehow the characters have memories from the anime events).

However, not all characters moving forward are AI copies, some are the actual Real-Life characters, so I will only talk about the Real Life and AI characters that are self-aware to some degree, and some AI that I think might be unaware-

If I don't mention a character is because they’re probably 100% AI copy with zero awareness of what's going on in this Cosmic Horror Trading Card Mobile Game.

DM WORLD

All other DM characters before Yami Bakura are normal old AI copies, they were made by Kaiba himself so that's why they kinda bad, specially Yami Yugi being the first one to be made, making it the blandest AI of all and not like the real Yami Yugi at all.

So, starting from the original anomaly we have:

-Yami Bakura: the first self-aware character AI copy, 100% fully aware of it and even comments on it.

-Yami Marik: AI copy, iirc I think he’s fully aware of it too? He’s just here to have a good (violent) time.  (EDIT: Fortuneangel on Tumblr was informed he’s fully aware of it, so yea, he’s an AI 100% self-aware).

-Pegasus: AI copy of mangaverse!Pegasus specifically; not only is he fully aware of that, he’s also aware of the multiverse inhabiting DL AND the fact that he’s dead! Fun!!!

-Ishizu: she’s a weird case I just got reminded by the fact that she like. can tell something is Amiss and wonders why she’s still wearing the necklace. So, she’s like an AI clone of post Battle City Ishizu being kind of forced to play out the role of mid-canon BC Ishizu, and she’s not fully aware of the details. ok cool Kaiba!!!!!

Now funny thing with Pegasus, when the Thousand Illusion structured deck was released, you can actually go check it and the text in front of it says:

"I'd like you to meet my key monster! Thousand-Eyes Restrict!"

so yea for this one Structured deck I think Pegasus pretty much told Kaiba "stfu this are MY monsters and I WILL present them!" which is very cool and epic and go Pegasus slay.

DSOD WORLD

Now here is where we have the man himself, not the DM one, but the DSOD one:

-DSOD, Seto "In need of goddamn therapy" Kaiba: who is 100% the real Seto Kaiba, playtesting and all that stuff. He's here doing crazy people stuff and playing God. I’m pretty sure DM Kaiba was only an avatar unlike this one, who is the real deal.

-DSOD, Mokuma: is also real and helping his brother with his ego projects and digital world domination or whatever the heck Duel Links is supposed to be.

-DSOD, Yugi Muto: is probably the only real Yugi Muto in the game, and is very sad when he duels AI Yami Yugi and I want to hug my boy Yugi pls.

Ok then, unlike the clear as day old and new AI copies of DM world, I'm pretty sure all the members of the DSOD world are the real-life characters themselves who actually got into Duel Links somehow (this is based on Joey's unlock event and the dialogue where he says that some KaibaCorp employee put a VR device on his head, I wonder if that happened to everyone else in DSOD World?).

Well, everyone except maybe that ugly humpty dumpty looking ahh dude, Scud is probably AI. Reason being he freaking died in the movie and we never see him come back, so I just assume he stayed dead and this is some AI error or smth, the game does say something about an error in the system when you get the Scud unlock available.

GX WORLD

Ok so, at first, I didn't think any of the GX would be the real versions other than Jaden/Yubel, but after some research I found info that makes it seem likely that Dr. Crowler of all people might be at least 1 of the real ones, this is because in his event he says something along the lines of “…Unbelievable! There are so many Duel Academy students here! WHEN THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN CLASS! If they stop showing up to my class, Duel Academy will cut my salary...”.

There’s also another dialogue with Jaden where Dr. Crowler says he’s on vacation so, we can be sure that AT LEAST Dr. Crowler is a real person, and that he got into Duel Links on his own.

And again, I found this info of Dr. Crowler and I’m like “ok so is just this two people, Jaden/Yubel and Dr. Crowler, cool” but then I found new info and…

THE CHAZZ

Yeah, Manjoume Thunder of all people is ALSO probably the real deal, the one and only, The Chazz himself. And that is only because of the “friends” he brings with him, Ojamas Yellow, Green, and Black wouldn’t be there if Manjoume was an AI, and even if they were they wouldn’t Leak Yubel's Event like Yellow did. I didn’t know this info before so thanks @ask-maxie-boy on Tumblr, owner of the one and only @incorrectduellinksquotes.

Then the list we have is:

-Professor Crowler: the one and only character I can say for sure is (maybe) real, like 90% probability of being real. If not, then I was lied to, backstabbed and quite possibly, bamboozled.

-The Chazz: another one with hard evidence to be the real thing, proving his humanity thanks to Ojama Yellow. truly only the best for The Chazz.

-Jaden/Yubel: is probably real? like at least he's aware of the AI copies and stuff, he knows about AND can see the other 2 Jadens and the one Yubel in the game, it should be clear as day for him.

-Supreme King Jaden, Yubel and Satorius: These are AI copies for sure but I don't know if they are aware of it.

-Jim Cook: He’s suspicious of Duel Links during his Character Unlock Event iirc, not sure if he's the real one or an AI.

And everyone else in GX is a mystery! I can’t say for sure if they are AI or not and don’t have enough clues to make a strong argument for neither of the two options.

5D'S WORLD

-Team 5D’s: WELL OK I WOULDA SAID THEYRE AI BEFORE BUT THIS LAST CHARACTER EVENT (Z-one) MAY BE IMPLYING THEY (yusei, jack, crow, akiza, and the twins) ARE ALL THE REAL DEAL SO.  THAT’S AN INTERESTING TWIST IF SO!!! (Fortuneangel on Tumblr said calmly). Yeah, I agree with this information.

-Bruno/Antinomy: 10000000% AI copy, is actually fully aware he’s just some code on a hard drive and has commented on it!

Not sure if he knows he's dead but knowing Bruno, he probably knows that.

-Kiryu: OK, hear me out, this one? I'm not really sure if he's real to be honest, BUT, during Z-one's event he had such a cool interaction with Z-one that I think he's a "post-canon" version of Kiryu????

which is very freaking cool and not something that I could say is AI. But again, is my personal theory that this Kiryu is THE real Kiryu, however, I could be wrong.

-Paradox: aware of his own dead, Pegasus dead, the Illiaster's deaths, the multiverse and that he is probably an AI copy (thanks for that Pegasus, very cool).

-Z-one: Aware of being dead and all that, not sure if he knows he's an AI? probably knows, if anything Bruno might've told him

-Aporia: indeed, all Illiaster are self-aware of being dead, yippieeee!!!

-Primo: AI copy 100% for sure like no doubt and probably unaware of it, a sad creature (also, during Z-one's event, he had a realistic depiction of a panic attack).

For the rest of the 5D's cast, I have no idea but I think they are AI? say some of them like the Dark Signers are definitely AI, no doubt, but I’m not sure about the others.

But then we have someone like Tetsu Trudge… Who I have no fucking idea what's the deal with him. Is he a copy of first season Trudge, the one with no character development? or is he the real one? He can’t be the real one, he’s a mean dude again! I really have no idea about him and it annoys me. I’m going to say he’s AI.

ZEXAL WORLD

Ok so, I have no idea what's going on with Zexal, I think almost everyone is AI? but like, I'm not sure? You see, events in GX and 5Ds are just repetitions of sorts, and everyone seems aware of it and having Deja Vus, that’s why I believe that al least some people in GX and 5D’s are real. On the other hand, we have Zexal which is also repeating itself, but no one is going "Hey didn't this happen already?", which is very odd and makes me believe they are all AI in there, and both Arc-V and Vrains are continuations of the original stories.

 however, we do have one group of people in Zexal that might be relevant:

-The Arclight Family (III, IV and V): probably the only real persons in Zexal, or at least, the only ones we know might/could be real.

during III's event, III decides to study duel links and find out what it is, why events are happening again, what the heck is a KaibaCorp, etc.

also has the theory that Duel Links is a Chronomaly of some kind, because you know, is III of course it's a Chronomaly he thinks about, but he’s theory has some merit I’ll give him that.

Now V... I forgot V's event, sorry, but he's aware too.

IV on the other hand, is also aware, but not because he figured it out or something, III pretty much just told him lol. Doesn't seem to care too much he's just vibing in DL. Of course, he's helping his brother when needed, but he seems chill about it.

ARC-V WORLD

I have no idea who is real or not. We know the events in Arc-V World are a continuation of the end of the anime, so that’s at least a good sign but…

Declan and Shay, Yuya, Sora the bracelet girls, all seem to be aware that something isn’t right here, but to say they are fully aware of what's going on I can't say. So even with the self-awareness, they are most likely AI, all of them.

They at least know the whole "Memories brings people" and are investigating what's going on with that which is cool.

I can say Yuto is most likely AI, same goes for Yugo and Serena. But they don't seem aware of it and think they separated from Yuya/Yuzu somehow instead.

The only one I trust might be able to figure something is Reiji, because is Akaba fucking Reiji.

VRAINS WORLD

FINALLY, A WORLD WERE NOBODY IS AN AI COPY (I mean, there's Ai, who is obviously and AI but like, you get what I mean lol)

So yeah, Vrains World is pretty much just a sequel to the anime so everyone here is not only the real ones, but also the only characters that are aware that the other worlds exist (aside from like, Yugi, Jaden and Yusei because you know, Paradox’s Event and Bonds Beyond Time, but they only know each other’s worlds/eras so they don’t really count).

 This is because in the Ghost Gal event they reach the limits of Duel Links and get to see the other Worlds (DM, GX, 5D’s, Zexal, Arc-V and even Sevens!)

So yea the VRAINS cast in DL effectively becoming horror movie protagonists wasn't on my bingo board but I'm totally in for this.

All of this happening in a free trading card mobile game… thanks Konami you epic.

SEVENS WORLD

Yeah no, they’re all AI SOUL copies let's be real here, maybe Yuga in a future event will do the classic Yuga thing and be like "Oh, I already knew we are AI and that this world is a fake recreation of ours, is the first thing I checked when I got here" or something. And I have hopes in Nail to be cool and epic and figure out the situation but for now the Sevens group knows nothing (except maybe Yuga, because is Yuga).

Now that’s all the characters we have available for now, once we get some new events and relevant information and lore, I will update this list to see if we can add someone else new or an older character that we didn’t know was aware this whole time! This was a fun thing to write, I hope I managed to explain it all correctly and that is easy to understand, if anyone has some information that they would like to share feel free to ask! Again, I want to say thank you to @Cyberdragoninfinity and @Fortuneangel from Tumblr for being so cool and having so much info on Duel Links lore available and for sharing with everyone, now I’ll see you all next time Konami decides to hit us with a sledgehammer of info out of nowhere in a Tag Duel Tournament or something, byeeeeeee!!!

#yea seems like i got a lot to say huh? #yugioh duel links #yugioh #duel links #duel links madness #so this what having a brainrot feels like #why is the lore of a free mobile game so deep wth Konami #keep doing it tho #it's very cool and epic #thanks to #cyberdragoninfinity #Fortuneangel #for the help and info

[maifazcomics]

After a little discussion i had about if the ARG is important to understand and appreciate Sea of Stars and the Saboverse as a whole, i have some thoughs

Mainly that: no, you don't need to read the ARG

It was always planned as something only for the most hardcore of fans, the ones actively searching for more stuff

There are only three informations that are at the moment ARG exclusive:

- the Demon King in The Messenger (AKA Dweller of Strife + the Acolytes) is a pale copy, and the real one's remnants are inside Clockwork Castle

- Resh'an and Aephorul were lovers, and created the Elixir of Life to escape until society accepted them

- the Shopkeeper is a woman, and she descended from The Watchmaker

The rest is just community fluff and Resh'an being incredibly emo, nothing essential

I feel like these informations are important, but they just weren't able to be explored yet.

Continued ramblings below:

About the DK, with Picnic Panic being part of a planned three-act DLC (Barma'thazël's Revenge) that they stopped working to prioritize Sea of Stars, and the final one presumably having you reach Clockwork Castle, this could have been explored there. Or maybe in another game. We still have 3 more books to go, in the end

Shoppy descending from the Watchmaker... with the DLC being called "Throes of the Watchmaker", this has the potencial to be explored there. Or not. They are characters so far apart, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS APART, knowing this information would change your whole perception about the games? This only happens because of the curse of knowing stuff lol, and as someone that knows I would like to see this being explored. But my point is that this isn't fundamental.

And Shoppy's gender... people misgendering her after playing The Messenger bothers me, but it isn't the devs fault IMO. They never use pronouns with her in the game for a reason (iirc Thierry said he didn't want anyone to assuming stuff about the Shopkeep, and that's one of the main reasons behind him writing first in English and having ENG as the only canon language), and people using he/him are taking that out of their asses. Just a one minute Google Search and you find that information, you don't need to read all the ARG logs

There are other stuff like Primals or Shoppy being the first Messenger, the Artificer giving the scroll to Monk that Bowman got because she got transformed into the Queen of Quills and then gave to Ninja, or the entirety of Void Logic being explained and still making us confused to this day, and this is all fluff. Like for real, all that was needed to be in The Messenger for the BIG LORE is already there, and for Sea of Stars too

And for the big elephant in the room, Resh'an and Aephorul being really gay for each other. This is something not even the ARG explored further! Resh'an said that at February 2019, when we didn't even knew who a Fleshmancer/Aephorul was, then when he got to tell the community about him Resh'an explicitely said that he didn't want to elaborate further on his personal past with Aephorul. And with Sea of Stars, we got a taste of that, but it was only their introduction to the world!!!

More like anything else, this feels like something to be explored on the next books (just explaining this better, Thierry Boulanger, aka Creative Director and Writer and some other stuff, has come and said that his dream is to tell this grand story in 5 arcs/books (books because Sabotage works directly with Resh'an, translating the books he writes into videogames) book 1 being TM and book 2 being SOS). This narrative, at least for me, feels like it is about them. About these "gods", the harm they created to this world, and how Resh'an wants to redeem Aephorul. It feels... like a slow burn. And that's why i think they didn't want to tell this right now

Like, Time Shards. We didn't have much lore about them in TM, then SOS comes and BOOM, Time Shards indicate the presence of a timeloop. And maybe Resh'an created them too?? This recontextualizes the nature of the Messenger narrative. And them being More Than Friends can be that too, both for the general public and the Lore Nerds. We still don't know about their society back then, or if the flashback cutscene was pre or post elixir, or why specifically Aephorul became evil, etc. This all feels intentional, ya know

The rest of the ARG is just a bunch of fun interactions the characters and the community had, and a buuuunch of foreshadowing to what we get to see in Sea of Stars. Either Clockwork Concierge (AI Core) hinting about his past with Caël and the Kids, Arty saying he was a robot, or Resh'an literally infodumping about the Guardian Gods, Dwellers and World Eaters. We see all of this in Sea of Stars, and that's amazing!!!! It's so cool to see all of that being real, and that makes me confident that all of this unresolved stuff is something thar Sabotage wants to make real too

/rant over

But would i recommend reading the ARG? oh sure i do. It's very fun. The narrative framing of the games being books written by The Archivist and SaboTeam working for him is so interesting. And also, we get tons of insight into Resh'an's mind and how he's just extremely depressed, how he misses Aephorul and yearns for being loved but doesn't know how to deal with that when people love him back

Also Clocko's adorable

---

EDIT: After chatting with someone, they pointed something about Shoppy's gender that is really relevant to bring out. Yeah yeah, Sabotage wrote the game with English in mind and in ENG they didn't pronoun her at all. But two things

First: in many languages got translated into, including Quebecóis which is a script Thierry himself wrote, since you need to gender stuff, the Shopkeeper got treated as male because of defaulting. So if you played the game on those languages, and didn't follow any stuff related to it, you just assumed Shoppy was a man and moved on with your life.

Which, by the way, is something I MYSELF made. I stopped following the ARG in 2019, so I didn't see the conclusion about her gender for years until some months before SOS came out. And as something I still haven't told, I come from the forbidden land of Brazil, and the PTBR translation of TM is one that suffers from that, so I defaulted her as a dude for years and years

And second: even if you played the game directly on english, if you speak a language that also does the male-defaulting, you probably did that too, and that is not your fault

In the end, this isn't anyone's fault. I may have been too mad at seeing native english speaking redditors calling her a dude? Yeah maybe. But yeahhhhh we live in a society in the end, and them being explicit on the text about her gender on the future would help that at lot

Thankfully on the easter egg she's referred as a woman on SOS in PTBR, which is GREAT

#sea of stars #the messenger #resh'an #aephorul #the shopkeeper #long ass rant #random saboverse thoughts

[souryogurt64]

never watched stranger things bc i do not care for that shit but it's so popular that i actually wanna ask what you mean abt it being propagandistic. i trust your media analysis and you've never missed so. am sitting on the floor in front of u and listening

Huge essay on stranger things and propaganda lol

I majored in Communications in college which was a lot of media studies and we did talk about this in class from time to time so I'd like to think I'm not just a looney tune whose brain is cracked from smoking too much weed in college.

Part One: Country Depiction

Obviously ST is a fun sci-fi show that takes place during the Cold War so some of this stuff is just a given. But I think it's um... a bit interesting that this massive, massive cultural phenomenon comes out during a major US election where there's accusations of election interference by a country the US has a long history of conflict and propaganda and ideological type warfare with. And then that angle of the show seems to steadily ramp up as time goes on.

With the most recent season especially, the structure of the release and the runtime of the episodes was a bit strange, and this season was released shortly after the whole thing with NATO and products made in that country being pulled from US shelves.

Obviously they had been filming for years and I think this weirdness was partially due to Covid, but also. They brought back a beloved character, who was a cop, from the dead this season with no explanation whatsoever so he and the other side characters could go on this elaborate mission.

This subplot had very little effect on the main plot of the series, and I have only watched it once, but I imagine if you removed this subplot from the show, nothing would change up until the very end when all the characters are emotionally reunited.

This entire subplot revolved around portraying this country in a very negative light in ways that were much more horrific and violent and disturbing than the content of past seasons of the show (IMO), and included some historical information about this country that was factually incorrect (peanut butter being illegal) as a main driving narrative force in this subplot. The previous season had also employed this tactic with red icees.

Part Two: Govt. Lore Retconning

A lot of the most recent season especially retconned a lot of the central lore of the show. IIRC, the first three seasons seemed to toy with the idea that the Cold War itself and the military's experiments and desire for total destruction and power had opened up this dark supernatural world by torturing children to be weapons, which is a really cool premise obviously. They were also portrayed as a primary villain and trying to kill Eleven because of the powers they had given her via horrific experimentation and training.

Yeah, there were monsters, but they were just like wild animals without true sentience, and were a side effect of the military's poor decisions. This aspect of the show was based in MKUltra. MKUltra was a real thing that happened where the military tried to develop mind control and other stuff. Obviously MKUltra didn't accomplish this, but people actually died, were tortured, and were destroyed mentally and it was illegal.

In this season. God. In this season, one of the main villains and the head of the child experimentation program, "Papa," is suddenly brought back from the dead and presented as morally gray. Basically, they retcon the previous lore of the show by creating this character named Henry, who was a child that randomly developed horrific powers and tortured and killed his parents and was adopted by Papa and studied until he grew into an adult, and the experiments on other children were to try and replicate Henry's powers.

Part Three: Henry

There is no explanation for how Henry was created whatsoever. None. Zero. He just spawned from nowhere. Papa is also weirdly somewhat redeemed before his death in the most emotional scene of the season, and several sympathetic government characters are introduced as well. Until this season, Papa had been using Eleven to attempt to retrieve monsters from the sci-fi world to use in war, but now it's revealed Papa was just driven by mad by grief and was trying to rescue Henry from the sci-fi world the whole time.

I cannot stress enough that the addition of Henry retcons the basis of the entire show and a lot of the important ideological themes within it about power and greed creating evil. It also makes no fucking narrative sense.

The explanation of Henry's backstory is that he's a young child that is angry his father is a former soldier that burned a baby to death while fighting in WW2. The father says this was a mistake. So Henry inexplicably and randomly develops superpowers and decides to torture and kill his mother and younger sister and frame his father as punishment.

Henry's backstory of being angry that innocent children die horrifically in war also resembles a lot of propaganda-type plots in sci-fi- I think Killmonger in the Black Panther series is seeking to end the oppression of Africa and Magneto in X Men is a Holocaust survivor who is concerned about mutants being killed for being different. Except these characters just start killing everybody for reasons that are kind of narratively unsound to make their whole ideology seem insane and unreasonable.

Part Four: Copaganda

Next, the first few episodes of the most recent season contained scenes that were very difficult to watch from an emotional standpoint but were completely and utterly ludicrous from a writing perspective. For background, the cop's adopted daughter and main character of the show, a 14 year old girl named Eleven, switches schools and is horrifically bullied en masse by both adults and older students because she is traumatized after her police officer father supposedly died rescuing people in a "fire." (Not a fire, sci-fi related, but that's not important lol).

The writing is so unrealistic it is almost obscene and culminates in a scene where a handful of other students take over an entire roller rink to publicly humiliate Eleven for being a "crybaby" and telling her she can't cry to her daddy because he's dead. This is in front of a million people, no one stops it, and the employees participate, but as soon as Eleven retaliates, the police are called and Eleven is taken to literal actual PRISON.

A big part of the show is Eleven having speech issues and difficulty fitting in since she was raised as an experiment in a lab, so it's... Interesting that the show chose to make the recent death of her adopted father as the reason she is singled out by her peers rather than this. It's like they wanted to attach this series of emotional scenes on the idea that people, especially young people, have no respect for cops putting their lives on the line to save people and think cops dying is the funniest thing in the world.

Conclusion

Everyone knows propaganda happens deliberately with stuff like Marvel, Top Gun, The Wire, every other cop show, etc. So I don't think this is too far fetched even if I feel a bit crazy saying this and it might not be that deep haha but I definitely thought it was kind of glaring in the most recent season to the point of being a bit distracting as the plot no longer made a lot of sense

[cherryistired]

god i hope this is coherent. i’m just a little tired and under the weather n i don’t wanna proofread.

the thing is, i get why people assume spamton and jevil know they’re in a game. it does seem like they know, at a first glance, and if you’re gonna make fandom content around them, it’s a good trope to reference without having to dig deep into the lore. but like, that’s never been how meta stuff works in ut/dr?

i recently watch a video essay that talked about why that specific person liked undertale, and one of the main points in that video was the meta elements of ut. i won’t go too deeply into it (it’s a good video but also super long and dense), but one thing that stuck out to me was the basic description they used for most “meta” media and how ut differs from that. they said that while most media assumes that the real world isn’t real and that the fictional world is real (one of the main parts of suspended disbelief - you have to pretend a fictional world is real to get invested and enjoy the story, and the story does the same), most meta work does the opposite, acknowledging the real world as real and the fictional world as fake (think doki doki literature club). whereas undertale does something completely different - it acknowledges that the real world exists, but it also asserts that its own fictional world is also real.

this is a pretty significant difference i think. like with ddlc, the horror came from these characters being warped because they were in a video game. whereas in ut, all the “meta” elements were non-diegetic game elements (save files, the player vs the player character, etc) being diegetic, existing within the underground. and the characters that knew about these things didn’t know they were in a game, and interacted with them like they were facts of reality, studying them and taking control of them and using their knowledge of them to their advantage. the world of undertale is real to the people inside it, even with all the video game elements! taking all these meta elements and integrating them into the world lets ut tell a much more unique story, but people keep reducing it to “it’s just a game” because... it’s easier, i guess?

and like i said earlier, i do get it. it is easier to just say “sans get depressed because he’s in a video game” and move on. there’s a lot of interesting stuff you can do with the premise (see ddlc again - i’d cite other examples but i’m tired and also probably a little sick). fanworks can diverge from canon and explore different themes, that’s the whole point of transformative work. it’s just not what undertale does.

and deltarune is shaping up to be basically the same, at least in terms of meta stuff. like, you, you reading this, are canon to deltarune. you are not kris, you can just control their soul, and because you are, canonically, only in control of their soul, they can fight back against your control in really interesting ways (see the end of chapter 2)! and that’s just one example of this stuff (like, the first time you boot up ch 1, you overwrite kris’s save file. the implications).

but then we get a mad clown that likes to play games and a computer program that wants to gain his freedom and like. everyone looks at those two and goes “oh they know they’re in a game” and. i just. sigh.

the really interesting thing with spamton and jevil, i think, is that they’re some of the first characters that might actually know about our world. jevil i’m a little less familiar with (i don’t really. like clowns. so i never got into his lore) but as for spamton, the way he talks about “heaven” is different enough from the way he talks about the light world & to kris that it seems like he knows about our world & wants to go there.

but again, going off of what i previously discussed, deltarune definitely asserts its own world as real, even while acknowledging ours, so jevil and spamton knowing they’re in a game is pretty much out of the question. and (iirc) they never really had any dialogue about their world being a game, so it’s safe to assume that they don’t know about that, even if they do know about our world.

and that’s interesting! thinking about what they might know about our world, what they might not, and how they might interpret that is fascinating to me. i’d go into it more but this post is already long enough. maybe later

#undertale #deltarune #ut #dr #utdr #spamton #spamton g spamton #jevil #gaster #w d gaster #a little? he's related #not sure how to tag this #cherry rambles #god i have SO many thoughts about spamton re: heaven #could not fit it into this post though. too many words already #this is nearly 800 words and i didn't even get to the part i wanted to write

[terrialways]

Ring ring land legend of mana

And don't forget Gaia force, who also has unique dialogs with each companion. And to make this process faster and more convinient, such cheat would be of great help.Įdit. Not to mention that you must search throughput the corridors to find all of them.įor me who beat this wonderful game about 10 times in past 20 years would be awesome to learn every small detail we are able to learn. The problem is that you spend too much time on changing every available character in world who may be connected to some particular character and returning to a designated location. Such rooms may be located on the most lower stages of Underworld, this point I forgot. And if this character and your current companion are connected lore-wise, they will have some interesting lines! As it is obvious, such characters bound to hell are mostly of Jumi people. Iirc it's sort of secret thing in game that never got explained that you can bring any of your friends to Underworld, where some of your friends can be found chilling after they passed away. I do wish they’d given us a more crisp depiction of the characters because that really hurt the eyes.Did somebody came across some method to easily change your companion? I have no problems saying I thoroughly enjoyed this game, maybe even more than I let on during my descriptions. In conclusion, Legend of Mana Remastered is a successful remaster, but with some minor caveats. Maybe this is the limit of the current-gen of Nintendo Switch showing? Like they had been pixelated but needed to be crisper. The difference was too big and I wish somehow there was less of a feeling that the characters did not belong. Legend of Mana remastered is a very pretty game, though I have to say that on a 4K TV, I was not so impressed by the contrasting characters and amazing backgrounds. I am amused by the gameplay, I love how if you exceed your stamina, that you literally get a time out that can be deadly due to the time needed to reclaim your energy. A ton of storylines will divulge around you and I enjoyed pretty much all of them so far. I do love how every place on the map is basically its own story, from wacky penguins following a walrus into battle to a guy looking to protect someone close to him. I did not and never ran into any issues so far. T nh pht hnh ca Life is Strange: True Colors, bn lm li Legend of Mana mi ny ha hn mang n nhng cuc phiu lu tuyt vi v y bt ng cho nhng ai yu mn phin bn gc trn PlayStation. You actually play god in a certain way, though you should not think too much about what goes where. Legend of Mana b sung mt mini game mi tn Ring Ring Land. Nintendo has revealed that a remaster of the 1999 RPG classic Legend of. Each section of the world being its own empty spot at first and after a “level”, you usually get a new piece to place and create more of the world. Legend of Mana is getting remastered visuals, a new soundtrack, and the previously Japan-exclusive Ring Ring Land mini-game. I do like how you need to build your own world. I do feel it is all part of the appeal of the game, but it can get tedious when fighting a massive boss and being next to it while still somehow missing your strike? Battling is more or less real-time, but what this remaster did wrong, is how you still miss a lot of hits. This information can be found on their Monster Encyclopedia entry. Legend of Mana is a classic that cherishes a reputation of being among the better RPG titles out there, great story, and a special way to battle. There are a handful of 'tanky' monsters in the game that get severe health and defense boosts from having certain mana levels in the lands that they are found. Other features have also been added, including the ability to turn off enemy encounters, and the never-before-released mini-game “Ring Ring Land”. Not only has the music been rearranged for this remaster, but you can also alternate between the new and original soundtrack. Meet a colorful cast of characters, square off against fearsome monsters, and complete quests in the vast world of Fa’Diel. Set off on a journey to find the mystical Mana Tree seen in a dream, before discovering… the world map is empty! During your travels, you’ll acquire special artifacts place these wherever you’d like on the map to bring towns and dungeons to life and advance the story. The HD Remaster of Legend of Mana is coming to Nintendo Switch™. Welcome to our review of Legend of Mana, a classic given a new lease on life! Out now on Nintendo Switch! Legend of Mana plays more like a collection of loosely connected fairytales all set in the same world, connected to each other in various thematic ways.

#Ring ring land legend of mana

[themountainsays]

Okay, but how catgirl is Khajit!Isabela? Like, if Mira is not even recognizable as a furry is Isabela more anime!catgirl or is she full on Tony the Tiger. What about the other Madrigals. Is Luisa mostly cat like her mom? What about Pepas kids? Also How cat are the triplets? Was Pedro a cat or was he The Cat and Abuela was Not Cat? Or were Pedro and Alma both cat? Inquiring minds need to know!

ahhhh catgirls zkndaklnd.kejwfnked

I mean

*clears throat*

thank you so much for this ask anon TT_TT I've been wanting to talk about this idea for a while because I just love he khajiit sm i always play as a khajiit because i'm a shameless furry but it's so silly and self-indulgent I didn't want to be what kids these days call "cringe" BUT since you insist..........

Idk how much you, anon, know about this obscure piece of khajiit lore but I'm explaining everything so that it's clear to everyone else including folks who never played the game.

In summary: the khajiit are an intelligent race of cat people from The Elder Scrolls games. They are most commonly seen as regular people with a cat's head, fur, tail and claws, so, a classical furry, but in reality there are around 16 different "breeds" of khajiit, all of them equally intelligent (iirc) but which vary drastically in appearance. A khajiit person's breed is determined by the combined phases of the two moons (not sure if it depends on the phases of the moons at the moment of their birth or conception). A khajiit may look like the regular furry I just described, or they may look smaller, bigger, have digitigrade or plantigrade legs, they may be bipedal and humanoid or cuadruped and more like a real lion or tiger, they may look indistinguishable of normal housecats, they may look like anime cagirls with a thin layer of fur covering their skin, or they may look like very short elves. More information here.

I don't wanna get too into detail on khajiit lore but these are the basics. This is really just a crack AU born out of my furry brain, but my idea was that khajiit!Alma would try to heavily control when and when her children had kids to pick and choose the "breeds" that were the most useful to the family. For example, the Sanche-Raht is the largest breed, looks lowkey like a lion, and is largely used as a beast of burden by their own people, so if Alma felt the family needed someone to fulfill that role, she'd ask one of her kids to have a child calculating the times and the phases of the moon to guarantee they got the cat they wanted. And that's how Luisa was born :D It's horrible and fucked up and that's why I love it. Mirabel just happened to be born an Ohmes, which is the breed that looks indistinguishable from a very short elf (I'm thinking she's just about the same height as she is in canon). However, as a baby she somehow got separated from her family, and grew up not knowing she was khajiit at all, thinking she was an orphan, homeless wood elf (bosmer) who just happened to have legendary stealth and acrobatics levels.

The happy ending would be Mirabel discovering she's a khajiit and reuniting with her family uwu and if Alma could stop treating her children and grandchildren in such a gross way it would be great.

I imagine Alma might have left Elsweyr, the khajiit homeland, shortly after the birth of her children and moved to the Blackwood region in southern Cyrodiil, which is mostly populated by humans iirc. So she's trying to raise a family on her own in a world that is hostile to them. I also imagine that, while she pressured both of her daughters to have children on certain specific times, only Julieta could fulfill her demands and only during her first two pregnancies (roughly). Pepa kinda ended up in shouting matches with her because the cruel stress of calculating such things as the conception and times of birth of her children was driving her insane and and never managed to have the kids Alma wanted. She still loved them of course, but Isabela and Luisa were always her favorites.

Ok ok but you asked about the other characters' khajiit types yeah. Ok this is what I got so far:

(disclaimer i am no khajiit expert, so if any lore information is wrong feel free to correct me).

Isabela: Cathay. Bipedal, humanoid, same height as the average human. Plantigrade legs. They have a tail, fur and a cat-light head. Regular furry. The cat you play as in Skyrim and Oblivion and the most common kind outside of Elsweyr. I imagine Alma wanted a first grandchild that was perfectly balanced: not intimidating and difficult to raise outside of Elsweyr, but still cat-like enough. She has a bit of a bias towards what is and isn't "khajiit enough". To Alma, Isabela was a perfect success.

Luisa: Alma wanted a Sanche-Raht, a ridiculously large breed of khajiit, which is usually ridden into battle and used as a beast of burden, but Julieta gave her a Pahmar instead, which has roughly the same size and appearance of a normal tiger. Quadruped and all. Though imperfect, Alma thought she could still find her some use, and Luisa works REALLY HARD to prove her worth, often pushing herself beyond her limits. She often feels like she's not good enough even though she's the largest and strongest member of her family. Big kitty.

Alma: Cathay. Ahhh see this is why she wanted Isabela to be a Cathay this woman can be vile sometimes.

Pepa and Julieta: Listing them together because they're twins. They're Ohmes-Raht. Now this is what I mean when I say "catgirls", though in this case they're more like catmilfs. The Ohmes-Raht is a bit shorter than humans, has plantigrade legs, an elf or human like face, possibly cat-like ears, a tail, and a thin layer of fur covering their entire body. So like, also like a furry. This is irrelevant but I imagine Julieta does that thing that cats do, licking her kids' faces giving big gross mama cat kisses that feel like she's rubbing sandpaper against your cheek. But she does it out of love!

Bruno: Alfiq. ok this is the interesting part. In this AU let's say a khajiit's breed is determined by the moons on the moment of their birth rather than conception, as it was never specified in canon iirc. And let's say Bruno was born quite some time after his twin sisters, like a bunch of hours later idk. Long enough for the phases of the moon to change juuuuuust enough and Oh No Secunda is on its full moon phase and now he's stuck as a housecat while his sisters got to be big humanoids with opposable thumbs! This is a 50 year old man in the body of a scrawny black cat and it gave him HUGE self-esteem issues through his life. Now, of course, he's Not Around™ so his youngest niblings may assume he wasn't an Alfiq from the way in which the rest of the family talks about him (when they do talk). So, he has super stealth abilities. As long as he nakey (cos Alfiq usually wear clothes made for them) he can pass as a regular cat and no one would notice. Great for a surprise reveal of some kind.

Agustín and Félix: listing them together because they are not indeed khajiit. They're two cute 50 year old human bois. Félix is redguard and Agustín is imperial. Now khajiit and humans having family together is rare sure but not entirely unheard of. I think. This is an AU anyway I do whatever I want. Anyway, in The Elder Scrolls, when two parents of diferent fantasy races have a kid, the kid always inherits the race of the mother but with a few physical traits from the father. So, for example, with Julieta being Khajiit all of her kids are 100% khajiit, not "half khajiit" because they have a human father, but one of his kids could inherit his impaired vision. So I'm having that in mind when deciding these things. As for Félix and Agustín's story, the idea is that they were both sorta outsiders, but Félix earned his place in the family a lot more easily than Agustín, because he was born and raised in Blackwood and knew Alma's family since he was a little kid, was childhood friends with the triplets and always helped them out when he could, so Alma liked him a lot and was very happy to hear Pepa wanted to marry him. Agustín, on the other hand, comes from the Imperial City, and he was idk a scholar of sorts, maybe a historian. And he doesn't act very Blackwood he's a very Imperial City kind of guy. He's nice but he was very clearly not made for the swamps of southern Cyrodiil and if Julieta wasn't so well-versed in restoration magic and alchemy this poor man would be super dead. Butttttt she still wanted to marry him, and Alma couldn't say no ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dolores: Suthay-raht. Idk I just think it'd fit her. They're slightly shorter than Cathay and have digitigrade legs. Kinda to show she was ALMOST as good as Isabela but didn't quite get there and forever lives in her shadow. I get the feeling Suthay-rhat may be slightly better at stealth than Cathay because of their legs so there's that as symbolism.

Camilo: Tojay-Raht. Bipedal and slightly smaller than Cathay. Still regular furry without anything crazy. I hear that they're great tree climbers and I think Camilo could cause a lot of mischief with such great levels on acrobatics.

Antonio: Suthay. Basically just suthay-raht but a tiny bit smaller. Cat head, cat tail, cat fur, lil cat feet. Still taller than Tojay-Raht. I just think it'd be really funny if Camilo ended up being the shortest one out of his siblings.

Mirabel: Ohmes. The Ohmes is oddly enough my favorite kind of khajiit, because there's so much you can do with the idea that they don't look like khajiit at all. They look more like wood elves. They're also short and thus imo very cute. They usually paint and/or tattoo their faces to have more cat-like feautures and look more like the rest of their people, but Mirabel in this AU never got to do that, because she was separated from her family at such a young age. She doesn't even KNOW she's a secret furry. I think Alma might have asked Julieta to have another Cathay or succeed at having a Sanche-Raht, but Mirabel was born too early and ended up looking nothing like what Alma expected. Now, I don't think for a second that Alma would have given her away because she didn't live up to expectations. She has a rough heart but it's not so rough ;-; in fact I don't know how she gets separated from her family, exactly, but it would be very interesting if it was indirectly, accidently, Alma's fault. Or if Alma felt guilty even if she did nothing, if she felt guilty over "wishing she were different" so much that she disappeared. Mirabel ended up growing far away from Blackwood in the Imperial City, possibly under the care of the Thieves' Guild? Her family has been looking for her for fifteen years.

BONUS: Pedro: I imagine he was Cathay-Raht. Like a Cathay, but larger and stronger. He probably made Alma feel so protected and safe. Eventually, he showed her one last act of heroism, and then he was gone forever.

Ngl I worry this is silly and dumb lmao watch me come up with a furry AU based on obscure khajiit lore only me and like 3 other people care about. Plus there's the matter of the khajiit being a racist caricature of romani people and the implications of that and the question of what we as fans should do with them in fanwork now. As for the idea of "dehumanizing POC characters", idk as a POC (or what anglos consider POC, because the term is rather derogatory where I live) and a casual furry I think we deserve to have to have POC furries. dunno if i'd trust a white person to make them tho. Maybe? if they know what they're doing? But how do you even measure that. Whover wrote the Khajiit Like That in the games clearly didn't. Ah I don't know. I just like my latin american catgirls and I hope to handle them in a way that doesn't play into the racist origins of the khajiit, because, what, are we never gonna play as khajiit in the games again? Hopefully there's an ethical way to handle the khajiit in fandom, and I think aknowledging the racism in the games in a good first step. I still kinda worry that it makes no sense, like ok those names are not the names you find in the elder scrolls lol. Mmmmmmaybe Antonio, Félix and perhaps Mirabel may be able to pass as imperial (latin) names but others like Alma or Dolores are wayyy to hispanic and that's where we have to suspend our disbelief a little because this is really just my very dumb, very self-indulgent little furry AU.

Thank you sm for this ask anon! It took me like an hour to write down the full reply but yeah this is what I got so far and I had a lot of fun figuring out who was what :D

#encanto khajiit au #terrifying words i never thought i'd type #anyway yeah #catgirl isabela my beloved

[sneverussape]

snape fic recs - old magic/epic worldbuilding

related to this post. i decided to dig through my bookmarks and wrack my brain for some of the fics i remember reading that scratched this particular itch. this will have fics that had the characters practice old magic and are more focused on the adults/hogwarts staff rather than the kids, or if the kids would be mentioned they would not be the main povs. these will be multi-chaptered, often long (and obviously au), and some of them have pairings. please heed the tags and warnings that the individual authors would have left; what you consume is your own responsibility. the fics are also listed in no particular order:

In His Name by moira of the mountain -  After the Final Battle, a fallen Snape is hidden, bearing Tom Riddle's last Unforgivable. There are three Secret Keepers and a Muggle healer to protect him, but will it be love - or an obligation - which finally frees him?  - no pairings // kinda brotp between mcgonagall, snape, and hagrid // also unfinished so fair warning. the lore is so rich though, it feels like how magic in hp should have been.

Death’s Dominion by MMADfan - Severus Snape’s life was changed when he was hit by an errant spell, and he comes to a decision that defies Dumbledore’s wishes. Even the fate of the wizarding world is altered by this ill-cast curse and Snape’s subsequent resolve.Long after the spell has dissipated, its effects continue echoing in the lives of Severus, Albus, Minerva, and Hermione, and they bring with them a shadowy figure whom Snape does not trust and whose motivations and influence on Minerva are murky. Not all is as it seems, and conspiracies and schemes swirl around Severus as he continues on his path of deception to his final confrontation with the Dark Lord. A “Light” fic of love, loyalty, and redemption. - mm/ad, ss/hg // this fic. is LEGENDARY. this is one of those fics that require your full attention and will eventually suck you in and spit you back out with your whole life changed. it will take you on a whole rollercoaster of emotions. the mm/ad pairing is quite an obvious one but the ss/hg is a subtle one and it’s more friendship throughout the whole fic than an actual romantic relationship. the ocs (a lot of them minerva’s family) are also SO well-made you’ll forget they’re not canon. 

FALLING FURTHER IN by kaz2 - Hermione begins to learn something of the man behind the dark sarcasms of the classroom. - ss/hg, also features wolfstar, brotp between the faculty and severus // this was one of the fics i had in mind when i did that last post about missing old hp stories. this was started in the early 2000s and the author had free rein on a lot of the material. flitwick and sprout are married here and are the cutest things on earth. it’s also set during the summer leading into harry’s final year so all the teachers are staying at hogwarts and are all good friends with each other. hermione is there as well because her parents had been murdered by death eaters and so she’s spending it with them. the way the ww is written here is so...epic, jkr couldn’t even. snape lives in an invisible tower called serpens tower, the teachers often go to a brothel-which-isn’t-really-a-brothel in hogsmeade, the other teachers often baby severus subtly because he’s the youngest, wolfstar are tolerable and remus actually learns to brew his own damn wolfsbane, etc. the story is in story format until near the end iirc and then the author outlines what happens next rather than writing it out. i can’t blame them; it really is a massive undertaking.

The Crest by sheankalor -  Dumbledore only holds partial say in who the Head of House is. Severus Snape is nominated as the Head of Slytherin, but has to pass a final test. Can he? Does he work well with the other three Heads of House? And just what is The Crest? - no pairings // staff fic // one of the rare one-shots but it’s in an au which feeds into other stories // i loooove the lore in this. it provides an explanation as to how a house head is approved by the school and i’m a sucker for any fic that has the faculty getting along.

Balance by rabbit and -v-Jinx-v - Hogwarts is under siege, and it's going to take everyone to find a way out of danger. - no pairings // brotp minerva and severus, also harry and draco form a friendship // this is one of my personal faves. it’s not only old magics but the entirety of hogwarts come together to battle against dark forces (not even death eaters but...balrogs...and other things). there’s no build-up to it; you enter the story after the battle’s already begun and then you get taken along for the ride. also has a part where the heads of houses meet the founders and there’s this epic dance that’s reminiscent of the danse macabre in The Graveyard Book (if you’ve read that you’d know what i mean).

Another World by Aeryn Alexander - Detention with Snape turns into something of an adventure for Hermione and Ginny, not to mention Professor Lupin, as they all discover that Hogwarts holds a terrible secret that none of them want to learn. - ss/hg, rl/gw // this fic took me by surprise because i didn’t expect it to go the way it did based on the summary lmao. the 4 basically get trapped in a mirror version of hogwarts after a potions accident, and the mirror world has literal demons in it. they have to find a way to get back into the real world while not getting killed at the same time. i actually liked lupin in this one and he and severus form a tenuous friendship. 

In One Spirit by mavidian - Voldemort and Dumbledore prepare for war and survival. Plans go awry, intrigues abound and nothing is what it seems. Snape created the Dark Mark but that mistake may cost him everything. Can Hermione be his saving grace? - ss/hg but it’s such a slow build you barely notice it during even the first 20 or so chapters because he’s his usual asshole self and they’re too busy trying to protect hogwarts // the concept of this fic and the lore it built up...wow. the faculty are all friends and they’re trying very hard to protect hogwarts using their own magics and their own clever schemes (war brooms? battle wands? blessing tree? filch even gets powers!). voldemort is also equally devious here and snape has loving pureblood parents! (not that it matters, he’s still an ass, but then it’s nice to read about him having a nice family for once). neville also steps up as a member of one of the Traditional Families so he’s quite a BAMF here. 

yo pls feel free to add your own recs to this post, i’m pretty sure there are loads more out there!

#fic recs #old magics #worldbuilding #snape #hp

[scope-dogg]

Just watched the Re:Rise finale, which I thought was fairly good and a nice way to round things off, even if it kind of felt like the actual, proper climax of the show was last week’s episode, and this was more like an epilogue featuring a showcase of characters from the series as well as the original Build Divers and a quick tie-up of the dangling plot threads. If I had to pick a nit it’s that this is the one episode in the series that felt the most like a toy commercial, with it being almost like a slideshow of new variations of mobile suits at times. I get that you can boil all of Gundam to being a toy commercial if you want to be cynical, and doubly so for the Build series, but I feel that one of the things that set Re:Rise apart from the more mediocre entries in this line of shows is that it felt like it was less beholden to selling toys and leant more on telling a unique story, complete with its own bizarre lore, intriguing set of plot hooks and better character development than pretty much any other Build series you could name. Still, it’s not like the mobile suits they showed off weren’t cool, and eh, I think Bandai have earned their pound of flesh this time. Ultimately I'm satisfied with this ending and very satisfied with the series as a whole. It feels like the end has been forever coming, what with the abrupt end of the first season and the fairly lengthy wait for the second, and then coronavirus imposing another one in the middle of the second season. I’m glad to see that the payoff was all worth it.

Overall, as I’ve said, I think this is probably the best Build show so far. The fact that watching the original Build Divers, which was rather mediocre on the whole, is a barrier to entry is probably an offputting factor (although it’s worth saying that Re:Rise’s plot points retroactively improve the original series’ story) and I still don’t think Re:Rise is going to bring around too many people who never liked the concept of the Build shows to begin with, especially as this is probably the one that feels the most self-contained within its own universe, with a lot less references to the source material Gundam shows. However, I think that’s the thing I like best about the show though, its commitment to its own ideas.  It’s not as extreme as something like, say, G Gundam, but it feels like it was made with the same mindset, to basically take a familiar franchise and tell this weird story about going from a videogame to this real-life mission to save a distant alien planet. I think it’s extra impressive seeing as how the original Build Divers felt like a very formulaic idea (the whole MMO / virtual world setting already being used by about a million different anime and other franchises like Yu-gi-oh) and the same people who did Re:rise also did Build Divers and IIRC the even more mediocre Build Fighters Try. It feels like Bandai / Sunrise let a little more slack in the leash around the production team this time and they took full advantage of it. So yeah, overall, I’m very happy with how this turned out considering I never even expected it to be good in the first place. To me it looks like they’re not quite done with this setting either, so if they carry on with these I hope they do so with the same philosophy they employed with this one.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

my guess is the whole cognition thing was meant to vary between individual targets since they see the world differently, thus allowing for different moments like one allowing the PT to change outfits (I haven't played PQ2 so I have no idea how cognition works in that game sry) prolly to make the writing process more flexible so things like that wouldn't be plot holes, buuuut I don't think it worked (or the frantic rewriting led to them just not caring like "eh it's a nitpick they won't care")

I’d agree, but considering this is such a key piece of lore, you’d think they’d mention it (again you’d think, but this is P5, no one needs to think, not even the writers 8U). Tho there is one thing that might play into what you are saying (spoiler for below: it’s the threat count). In all honesty I’m been wracking my brain around Shido’s Ship, MC’s initial summon, and PQ2′s lobby (esp since my last post, linked below when talking about Futaba).....and the only thing I can figure out a reason is probably this (under cut because I’ve lost control of my life, actually no I’ve always been long winded...aka....under the cut cause of the usual 8U):

(also they have their shoes off here, and then shoes on after the cutscene, makes no sense, just a daily reminder of this 8U) The only time Mona is in his “outfit” and no one else is-is when: 

The person hasn’t obtained their Persona yet

After the MC obtained his Persona, his clothes reverted back (only to come back when he has to do another tutorial fight), it takes till the next day for him to constantly have his outfit on. (but it’s stated it’s because he doesn’t have full control over his power yet)

Shido’s ship when the girls changed into swimsuits 

PQ2′s lobby (everyone else’s outfit disappears).

Uhhhh when they first go to Mementos, before they descend (tho once they do their outfits change) (that being said they said it’s cause of “the Shadows knowing they are there”....wait)

Futaba’s dungeon at the beginning as seen above

Oh almost forgot Sae, before you go inside her Palace, at the entrance and before that you don’t change, but after you meet her the Shadow deems you as a threat then even at the entrance you a deemed a threat.....BUT after you are caught you aren’t deemed a threat (but even Goro isn’t deemed one but....sigh). And I guess the interrogation room your clothes don’t change.

#1′s easy and consistent so no need to look at that. Just seems to mean Mona is susceptible to all and any level of cognition/distortion. 

#2 is really interesting and wish we got more of it (or at least explained more cause....I have questions) esp since it seems to be explained by #6 (that being said, they said it’s cause he doesn’t have full control over his power so.....¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ll try to fix it with later reasoning but hey it’s hard when the game has multiple answers for the same gd question lying to us trying to convince us it’s consistent when it’s not). In #2′s setting the MC isn’t considered a threat yet, at least his IRL identity isn’t. It’s only after he really talks to Kamo after escaping the dungeon, do we see a change the next time he goes in (aka Kamo saw him as a threat). Tho, here’s my question to that he also instantly sees Anne and Ryuji as a threat not long after they gain their Personas. Ryuji I get it, there’s always been animosity, but you’d think Anne wouldn’t be able to touch him IRL. so she’d be outfit-less outside of fights. It’d also make me question why, if they’ve never met a target IRL did they have their outfits equip? I mean iirc their outfits didn’t change for Okumura, and the reasoning is that he sees EVERYONE regardless of who they are, EVEN HIS OWN DAUGHTER as a threat! And tbh that makes sense for his dungeon. And you could retroactively apply this to previous dungeons (minus Kamo and Futaba) but......why wait till the 5TH GD DUNGEON FOR THIS KEY PIECE OF INFO??? *inhales* lfjksdafj;af

#3, watch me become an olympic pretzel trying to make this square peg fit into a round hole. By changing into swim suites the girls are not deemed as a threat, and will change into PT outfits if/when threatened like what happened for the MC on his first day. Except, PT outfits are kinda like Keyblades and are always with the characters, so.....even if they took them off they should just appear back on. Esp if Shido is like Okumura and deems everyone a threat, the PT don’t have control of their outfits to a big extent, the world overrides their wants the majority of the time (aka if they see you as a threat, you’re a threat no choice in the matter. BUT the one time the outfits overrule the world, is if the user is under a threat despite the world deeming them to not be one). 

#4 I don’t know. Maybe the PT aren’t deemed as a threat, or the shadows don’t know they are there (can’t be because they are n00bs tho)? From what I can find/remember it’s not explained. That being said, P3/4 guys should 100% have PT outfits in that game, no if ands or butts. The ONLY thing different between PQ2′s world and the Metaverse is that they can’t use guns (BUT they can have outfits). And the lack of outfits for the P3/4 cast is lore breaking in and of itself. No really, I explain it all here (most of it is showing how the lore was built up throughout the game so it backs up the conclusion, but the real smoking gun is Futaba, so just ctrl+F “Futaba” and it brings you to the conclusion). 

#5 *sigh* that stupid reasoning aside, I’m not against the idea (but it’s inconsistent, because wouldn’t Shadow!Kamo deem him a threat as well, and be forced to keep his outfit on? “Oh but he’s a n00b” no game, you have three explanations for one gd thing and they don’t mix well together pick one and stick with it...threat level via the host not Shadow makes a lot of sense just keep that one). Technically Mementos is its own palace, so not going inside it would mean you aren’t a threat to that Palace. Which I could work with. BUT since this is the public’s Palace, and they don’t know who the PT are....shouldn’t they not change yet? It’d be more impactful if over the course of the game, as they got popular they were finally deemed a threat to society and thus the gained an (consistently of course, with the outfit triggering for battle) outfit when they walked in. 

#6 Makes sense tbh, tho, while I’m on board with it, it does make me wonder how far the threat level reaches.......is it at the entrance? Is it the entire plane? What is it? Also it’s high key stupid that they were deemed a threat by Futaba’s Shadow, esp if her Shadow has her best interests in mind....this dungeons just a mess from start to finish it makes no sense. 

#7 Haha...really makes me wonder how far the threat level stretches. Because Mementos it’s not till you get inside the station that they deem you a threat, so there seems to be a distance thing (I mean so is pulling people in but we don’t need consistency :’D). Cause if they are far enough (which they are they freaking checked that their clothes don’t change), then there’s no need to worry about her “suspecting Goro” (cause his outfit would change otherwise, but since they are far enough they don’t have to worry)....BUT by her sending him and her to the Metaverse, that’d mean she DOES suspect him.....so wait what’s the point of her “not suspecting him”??????? It’d also be more interesting if Mako and Goro didn’t change outfits, because she doesn’t suspect them but kelsfjldkjfa

P5: We’re so smartMe: Why do you keep doing dumb shit then???? 

Anyway I’d agree with you that maybe they wanted to be flexible, but they don’t......provide the ground work for that. It def feels like they threw shit together and didn’t think we’d notice. I mean there are A LOT of writers in this game, that could explain the consistency issues. I mean it explains it not excuses it, they had years to fix it (unlike Ultimax it seems, that shit was ruuuuuuushed in such a short time). 

Anyway if they wanted to make it flexible, they’d make it consistently the IRL Palace host’s threat level/way of thinking (not the Shadow self, nothing else, just the host). Cause everything, even their shadows in P5, reflects their state of mind. It’d also make for great visual storytelling too, such as Kamo deeming all the guys threats after he realizes he can’t control them, and never viewing Anne as a threat (aka showcasing he can get away with it). It’d give Okumura’s “doesn’t even trust his own daughter” thing even more weight when we got to it. Or Futaba’s complete and utter desperation to be helped more impact as well (it’d at least be a step to fixing that horrible Palace, eff it’s lore and the sphinx it rode in on). It could showcase another Palace hosts’ growing anxiety, and how they trusted people but now trust no one since the start of the dungeon. It could showcase their preferences (aka Kamoshida views rebelling males vs subjecting males/any females), or maybe they don’t like cats so Mona’s appearance is veeeery wonky in one. It could be a great way to reveal different things about the Host in a short amount of time, but this is P5 and we don’t care~! :D DX

Then again this might butt heads with the Cognitive versions, but then there’s no reasoning behind MC’s inability to maintain his outfit the first day (or why no one else has this issue). No the n00b thing makes no sense (esp since it consistently shows up when there’s trouble and disappears when trouble is gone, so it seems less about control than it is only essential when there’s danger around), because we still have the Shadow explanation from Mementos to go by and Shadow Futaba’s threat level too. But I’d say it’s totally possible that they can both exist (if explained right), Cognitive selves show 100% what that person thinks of them, while if they deem them a threat or not only affects if their outfit appears (because that is tied to the cognitive world, not the real person). With the cognitive selves serving as insight and an explanation as to why the host doesn’t deem that specific person as a threat. 

[bastardsunlight]

//LONG-ass headcanon sesh for D, Alucard (Hellsing) and Adrian (CV’s Alucard) all kinda rolled into one.

So, since I don’t have radiantDecay anymore, I’ve sort of pulled back from the verse where Adrian BECOMES D. There was a lot of movement and timeline adjustment that had to happen for that one, and while it is in some way still possible, I’m not terribly interested in upkeeping a unique interpretation for a character that’s never really going to come into play. If you’re writing with D, it’s thousands of years after he was Adrian. If you’re writing with Adrian, it’s pre-1999 pretty much.

So, I have some documents someplace that I had written regarding D’s origins. The novels heavily imply that he’s somehow enhanced—y’know the movies hint at him just being super powerful Mary Sue turbo ultra dhampir simply because he is the son of “Our Sacred Ancestor” whomst we all pretty much know is Dracula himself right? Certain novels even hint that Mina Harker is his mother, if they don’t just outright state it. It might be the clunky translation (they really should have been more carefully transliterated because WOW some of those sentences just… don’t), but thus far it’s not been made CRYSTAL PERFECT CLEAR. However, I’m more than willing to run with that idea.

Dracula is, by the time Mina et. Al. come up against him, quite old, nigh ancient. I think that the Dracula of the Bram Stoker novel is or, rather, was the historical Vlad III Dracula Tepes (the impaler), born in the 1420s, “died” in the 1470s, iirc. Supposedly, the sultan at the time… Mehmed Fatih, kept his head in a box for a while before pinning him up on the walls of Constantinople, which the Turks controlled at the time. Ugly period in history for Eastern Europe… With Wallachia and Transylvania, in particular, two kingdoms in Romania, times were triple trouble. They were sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire to the east, then west was Eastern Orthodox Christendom—further west was Roman Catholicism and if you think THOSE guys didn’t fight, ding dong ur wrong!

BUT this period of violence produced one of the most well-known and controversial heroes (sometimes called a war criminal) of all time. Also he had a great ‘stache. Now when I write Hellsing’s Alucard, I roll with this same lore, so D and that Alucard could absolutely exist in the same ‘verse. It’s kind of a “darkest timeline” deal, a world in which the Belmont clan never existed. Before that even, Lisa never made Dracula’s acquaintance so the guy’s motivations are a little different. In addition, he is NOT Mathias Cronqvist, a tactician during the first crusades in 1090 AD. In that case, he would have revamped (PUN) his whole personality and integrated himself into one of the other great houses of Wallachia/Transylvania and re-emerged four hundred years later as Vlad the Impaler. That could work fine—not like he hasn’t got time—and that would have been around the time he met, and lost, Lisa. Now whether THAT part of history looks the same is dubious, since Vlad’s exploits during the period of his reign/deposition/reign/deposition/beheading are pretty decently documented. In this case, I’m going to say the Belmonts’ existence is in a timeline where those conflicts also may have played out differently. As these are all fictional worlds, I guess this’s up to ME atm. Nice.

So this is part “how I write D” and part “how I’d be inclined to write Alucard (Hellsing) in interactions that take place BEFORE the manga—like WAY before”. Since Adrian would have been a major contributing factor to the Belmonts’ strength from Trevor onward (so in the games idk if folks know this, but Adrian is Trevor’s father, with Sonia Belmont being his mom), that would also have contributed, at least in part, to the ability of the Belmonts to stomp Dracula and his minions.

With D, there is no need to include Mathias and his ebony/crimson stone conundrum, which does tend to throw a small monkey wrench in the ol’ gears (but not big enough I can’t adapt, trust me). The difference, aside from lack of Belmonts, is the origin of vampires. Clearly, they’re a magical construct or a spell-woven form of sentient life in Castlevania. In Vampire Hunter D, it’s heavily implied (once again, not outright stated) that the Nobility, some of them anyway, are simply a mutation of humanity (Dark Gene vs Light Gene, Lina’s whole deal, among other passages here and there), who also happen to be allergic to garlic, crucifixes, running water, and basic-ass Bram Stoker weaknesses. They’ve even got labs full o’ Nobles tryin’a conquer the sun issue.

So to know D, we gotta know his dad first. At the beginning, Vlad III is born to (big surprise) Vlad II. He and his brother are sent to Edirne as part of the Ottoman Empire’s “tribute” of however many young  boys from noble houses, to be trained in the ways of Islam and Turkish mannerisms, etc. This is more for pacification of that region of Europe, which is still Eastern Orthodox, than it is for real “peace”. It’s “peace because you guys are a good buffer zone between us and the rest of Eastern Orthodox-dom”, anyway. Every _voivode_ of Wallachia has to swear allegiance to either the Ottoman Empire or to the Eastern Orthodox church. While most of that area is EO, it’s in their best interest to swear to the Ottoman Empire. They’re bigger and closer. Vlad’s dad has done some underhanded shit, but he’s also a member of the Order of the Dragon and has propelled it to new heights within the EO and that’s where Vlad gets his name: Dracula, which is Son of the Dragon. So Vlad II’s immediate family are known as the Draculesti, which is fucking cool—it’s like “children of the dragon” and that’s not even his like, NAME name—it’s a frickin’ nickname, or sobriquet, as is Tepes.

In the world of Vampire Hunter D, vampirism appears to be a genetic phenomenon—ironically, a mutation. No Noble is going to admit that, OBVIOUSLY. And while it’s true, they were probably born that way, they’re still a mutant human derivative. Rather than mutating due to radiation or whatevermstthefuck like the actual mutants in VHD, they’re just born that way. So what I’m rolling with is Vlad III was born with that particular mutation and, kind of like my OC Toby, who is also a genetic vampire, it takes a violent or unnatural death to trigger the actual symptoms, else you’re just a normal-ass person. In fact, in this interpretation, I’m going to say that maybe quite a few people are BORN with that mutation, but if they live to a ripe old age and die, it never triggers. Most likely, the body is too enfeebled to handle it, maybe it dies after menopause/andropause? Either way, the body has broken down too much and there’s no material to work with.

That might also go a long way to explain the animosity many old vampires have toward humanity. Sometimes it’s straight up contempt, of course, but every single time, it seems to be a removal. Carmilla is a good example. Most of the time, her backstory involves a vicious assault that might very well have killed her. Imagine dying that way and waking back up to find that you had to KEEP living in the world that did this to you, that death is FAR far off. I can understand being VERY PERTURBED, to put it mildly. By the same token, what about war? How many folks die in war? Thousands? Millions? Of all those, how many have the mutation? Probably quite a few. Some folks might not figure out what’s going on and stay where they are, buried for decades, before just wasting away without sustenance—Vampires DO require blood, after all, to keep doin’ their thing. Plenty more are probably just torched in the sun. Since they were KIA, it might be rough finding their bodies in the first place…

So Vlad is beheaded—now this part intersects VERY well with Hellsing’s Alucard in my portrayal—and Mehmed Fatih keeps his head close at hand for a bit, probably talking to it. What happens when it starts talking back? We know Dracula has some SERIOUSLY kickass abilities and putting himself back together would definitely be one of ‘em, in my humble opinion. Mehmed dies not long after he achieves “victory” over Vlad the Impaler and no one knows where Vlad’s remains are. Maybe they up and walked the fuck away, hm? Maybe it was HE who ensured Mehmed’s destruction. How poetic would THAT be? Spoiler alert ||very||.

Now imagine going through everything he did—the guy had a tumultuous life. He might be one of the few, lucky ones who figure out that sunlight is a no-go, hide himself away, eventually go back to haunt his castle in the mountains between Transylvania and Wallachia. Now fast forward to the 1800s, MODERN TIMES (heehee okay) and one very ambitious realtor who wants to sell a creepy old abbey to some weird foreigner. Seems legit. Anyway by now we can see that Dracula’s gotten kinda nutty? He has three scary “wives” but he doesn’t seem to care much for ‘em. They’re obviously vampires, too, though I cannot recall if they’re turned by him or if they’re LIKE him—anyone who’s read it recently, do feel free to refresh me.

He’s kinda senile and while he’s crafty, he’s outsmarted by a dandy, an ancient-ass doctor, a dude who cannot stop fainting, a man named Quincey (my husbando), and Jack Seward—nuff said. He has some kind of congress with Mina, though ofc it’s the Victorian age so the only penetration is that of his li’l toofers on her poor neck. Nom. I don’t think Dracula banged Mina Harker. I think that, in THIS world, a dhampir is a nigh-impossibility, because at this point (and their cool-ass vampire science might’ve changed this), vampires are The Undead™ and therefore cannot CREATE LIFE. Not even if they have a raging turboner (that’s a turbo boner, for those of u not in the know). So he bit Mina, but before he did that, Mina married Jonathan—like as soon as he got home. They were married and living together and doing the frickle frackle, presumably, before Drac shows up in London to mess up their day.

In this case and for the sake of sanity, to create a dhampir, the vampire must chew on a pregnant lady. The curse lifts from her when the master is killed, but his blood has already entered and changed the child; the process is much longer and more involved for an adult human, who has an immune system and much more ground to cover. If the smol bean was in embryo stage or even fetal, it had no defense and mom’s body provided it with everything, Dracula’s blood, included. The final set of letters in Dracula mentiones a young boy, Jonathan and Mina’s son, Quincey, named after their fallen friend. So little Quincey is a dhampir!

Now, a bitten vampire cannot, in this universe, turn anyone else. They can feed and create thralls, but they can’t make VAMPIRES. In Hellsing lore, if a vamp bites you and you’re a virgin, you become one—if not, you become a ghoul/zambolio thingamajigger. Integra narrates this for us pretty early on. But it’s not Alucard’s venom doing this. It’s the vicar of Cheddar Village, who is a manufactured vampire. He’s not a true vampire, not like Alucard. Now, Alucard DOES ask Seras if she’s a virgin ‘fore he kills and bites her, which makes sense… IF HE LOVED MINA.

Hear me out. So, he saw this strong-ass bitch and thought “goddamn I’m sick of my whiny, vicious wives UGH I need me a woman like that”. So he’s gunna turn her. It probably takes longer since he hasn’t been powered up by Hellsing and their dark science-magic shit, or whatever it was… OR as he chomps on ‘er, he realizes “well fuck me she’s preggo, so even if she changes, I can’t have her”. Pregnant blood has GOTTA taste different, all those hormones and shit, even early on. I think he did have some weird admiration-affection for her. His arrogance and greed, however, has taken him over, so perhaps he decides to change her slow, to make the fellas suffer. They’ve fucked with him so he’s gunna fuck with them, but I think it pains him a little to do so, because lbr Mina’s the woman of his dreams.

So when Quincey is born, he’s perfect, healthy, rosy-cheeked, and by god only Mina knows something’s amiss. Damned if she’s going to say shit to Jonathan, who’s liable to faint, the absolute fucking walnut. They live fairly well, having taken over the real-estate business from their wonderful, generous, dead benefactor. 

Much like Carmilla’s weirdo ghost, however, Dracula’s spirit absolutely lives on.

TL; DR D was born Quincey Harker. 

#aboutdmeta #aboutadrianmeta #aboutalucardmeta

[dramarising-replacement]

Flight Discourse.

Arcane: Total Tumblr rejects: whether this means "soft autistic spacegay uwu", an #aesthete who types in size one right centered pale pink cursive, "HAHA SPACE IS SO COOL (neil degrasse tyson quote)", or one of those people who roleplays their DDLG my little pony OC sex scene on your unrelated post depends on which one you talk to. All, unfortunately, are completely disorganized and borderline ADHD because they can't get a single thing together... except the Celestial Council, ahahahahahahaha

Earth: Now about 5% Facebook grandmas, 85% people piggybacking off their recent Dom success, and 10% people who were there all along for some reason who still believe they are the ""underdogs"" and are better than former champions Ice/Lightning/Plague/Light used to be because they have 5% Facebook grandmas and about 100 people in the whole flight. Can get their flight together for Dom but not for festivals, which are consistently below-average.

Fire: While Earth has their 5% Facebook grandmas, Fire consists of approximately 100% Facebook soccer moms-- the ones who post Minion memes. Or wine memes. Literally the most whitebread flight in existence, between their forgettable userbase, forgettable lore (dragons...that breathe FIRE), zero attempts to capitalize on their Dominance potential unlike fellow small flights Earth and recently Water, and absolutely horrendous ""meme"" Flambebes. I'm sorry, it's terrible. It's Flight Rising minions. Face it.

Ice: Catty rich bitches and accent/G1 whales. The kind of people who have an entire boring lair of color-coordinated gem-gened G1 Wildclaws with expensive accents and the exact same silk/flowerfall outfit. The kind of people who snipe G1 auctions after they've been sold. The kind of people who would secretly take you off G.A.S.P. so they have a shot at a new release. The kind of people who try and buy Kickstarter items with real FR cash on the black market. The kind of people who use the black market. Unfortunately, all the money in the world can't buy a win against Water, who at that point had not won a non-fest conquest in about two years.

Light: Sort of a horrible combination of Earth and Ice: not as good as Dom as Earth, not quite so many whales as Ice, but with an ego big enough for both of them and then some. Despite hosting a large contingent of horrible people, will defend all of them unilaterally because.... they don't like being criticized, and after all all Light members are sweet and innocent rays of sunshine!! Only Light is allowed to criticize people, considering their moaning on both DR and AR-- most users of both are Light. Most of the Dom vultures have flocked off after their humiliating loss to Earth, which is some small consolation, but it only goes to show the kind of people who are left. Interesting but underutilized lore and a wholly boring aesthetic means that if you don't like what Dom there is left or gossiping about other Flights there isn't much for you.

Lightning: They attempt to portray themselves as the "lore flight", but it's all so one-dimensional and repetitive (and a wholesale Portal ripoff) that they really have nothing going for them whatsoever. Eyes? Boring yet still somehow obnoxious on any non-matching dragon. Aesthetic? It's sand. Dominance? Hahahahahaha. That's literally all I can think of, which if you look at every other flight in this post is not a good thing. At least be memorably terrible, not boring terrible.

Nature: Nature is the nice flight. The caring flight. The succulents-and-kitty-cats flight. Sorry, wrong post. They're actually backstabbing cliquey adolescents who try and put up a cutesy front to bring in new members, which fails anyways because they are second-least-attractive after Earth. "These dragons are nice and like plants. But actually THEY HAVE A DARK SIDE OOOOOH" but so does every single other flight except like whitebread Fire so ???? who gives a damn. When they aren't R or those people who vehemently hate R and write essays about all the things that are wrong with R, they are the people who post dashboard-long screeds on animal abuse because someone posted a joke about bear racing and maybe some rich people will capture bears and ride on their backs I guess, which in my book is about on par with Rhea/anti-Rheas. Also the bunny mod is in here.

Plague: Used to be THE dom tryhards, but after their wholly embarrassing and pitiful fall from grace is now about 50% edgelords and 50% the whiniest losers on the face of the planet. Edgelords - You know the drill. Whether it's just dumb "teehee my dragons like BLOOD and drink BLOOD from BABIES" edgelording or straight up like borderline-alert-the-authorities-incest-rape-sex slavery-regular slavery-abuse-whatever-edgelording, Plague has it. Crybabies - You know them. It almost seems like they joined Plague to be personally victimized by every move the admins make, and in fact they did. Non-Plague venue? No gory accents? Shared lore with Nature? God forbid, zombies? These are all personal attacks on Plague and are signs that the admins literally wish they and their families were all dead.

Shadow: Shadow is entirely Plague edgelords except if they were all age 7 and this was their first time on Teh Interwebz XD. Actually, if their first time on Teh Interwebz XD was reading horribly bad creepypasta at their slumber party, and this was their second time. Their lore either attempts to be scary but fails miserably (creepypasta XD) or attempts to be funny and also fails miserably, because Shadow Isn't Funny. It isn't. Ever. Of course it isn't, because all of its members are literal children or timetravelers from 2007, when things such as cookies and drooling and le dark side might have been still novel and sort of cute. It is no longer 2007, and/or most people are no longer children. Also, that introduction post that people use to recruit is stupid and I hate it. Terrible eyes also.

Water: Water still manages to slip under the radar hatewise, so I don't have a good unifying theme for this one. Give me a year when they are probably the new Dom flight and I'll have something. Instead, have a collection of things: Their April Fools "jokes" peaked two years ago and have been going from semifunny to baffling. People who say Tidepappy make me want to rip out my tongue through my sinuses. Their forums are about as fast as a dead sloth. The "oooh water is so mysterious" is so constant that they are actually not at all mysterious and are actually just annoying. Horrid eyes. No Foddart this Wavecrest. Has like two or three mods when other flights have zero mods despite being like 10x bigger. Anyone remember that illiterate edgelord who was in Water who basically told someone to kill themself iirc???? ...Give me a year.

Wind: Wind is exactly the same as Shadow, but replace the creepypasta kiddos with an equal mixture of weeaboos and DeviantArt kiddos and the cookies with their stupid meme dog. Their eyes are better. Otherwise, go read Shadow.

#drama #flight rising #sarcasm #dominance #festival #lore #long post #forums #submission

[inigostears]

so how about those hints loki was dropping

i maaaaayyyy or may not have gotten carried away with loki’s statements during the newest paralogue. it seems preeeeetty damn story heavy, so here’s a little fates meta flexing/heroes theorizing for all of you.

first off, let's do a little fates recap. 

there are twelve* of the first dragons in fates. each one of them gave their blessing to a certain society within fateslandia (excluding moro and the rainbow sage, who weren't really stated to do anything like that), and thus their descendants received a certain power (for example, the ice tribe worships the ancient dragon of ice and received ice powers). anankos was a particularly special case for the first dragons, in which he dearly loved all of his people; so much so that he essentially created his own pocket universe with his most devout followers when the war between the first dragons was intensifying so they would be safe. some time after the war of the first dragons, anankos had to split his heart from his body in order to escape degeneration ("going mad" as many people put it, including anankos himself, but we all know what it really is). 

next comes zenith itself. 

 if i remember correctly, alfonse said something along the lines of "if the whole world is engulfed in war, then an evil being will arise from their slumber and plunge the world into chaos" (kind of also "a la tellius" if you ask me) in book one. since heroes is painfully obvious that it's at least loosely following norse mythology, we can safely assume that this means ragnarok is going to be a thing (you know, the huge battle from norse mythology? yeah, that one). 

despite having limited lore, i don't think that it would be a stretch to say that there might be a possible parallel between the dragons in fates and the dragons in heroes. dragon gods (or dragons hailed as gods for that matter) have been quite a staple in the series, so it's not surprising that zenith would be similar to the rest of the games in that regard. after all, zenith seems to be the captain of "let's fuck with the multiverse" train, so having overlapping themes doesn't surprise me at all. 

finally, we get to loki herself and the question of "what the fuck does loki have to do with any of this?"... so here's where the theorizing REALLY begins. 

loki's research itself can't just be a coincidence, and if i had to guess about what prompted her to do it, i'd say that she probably also noticed the possible little parallel between fates' first dragons and zenith's dragon gods. considering how she just held the leaders of a whopping four countries hostage just to get her hands on some ancient texts, she almost definitely had some other evidence to back up her own theory of "resurrecting her lord" and decided to see if anything about fates' dragons meant more than she already knew. since she learned about anankos of all things (who had pretty much been erased from nohr and hoshido's history, mind you), she had to go in pretty goddamn deep into those texts. 

regarding naglfar, if we consult norse mythology once again, it's actually a ship made from the nails of the dead that is commanded by loki during ragnarok to carry an army to fight against the gods. pretty gross, but considering how loki IS, it's pretty obvious that naglfar is paramount to her plans. all of this gives me two ideas of how loki's true role in the game will play out: 

loki turns out to be the REAL big bad in the series and just wants to fuck everyone and everything over with ragnarok and her true lord, who is very likely the same dragon/dragon god that alfonse mentions to be the one to "plunge the world into chaos". after all, it's probably not a coincidence that loki got the name of a god and surtr got the name of... not exactly a god. especially since intelligent systems appears to REALLY like the significance of names**. 

loki is actually a force of "chaotic good/chaotic neutral" and is specifically trying to get her lord out of his slumber before he completely degenerates as a dragon and fucks everything and everyone up before prophesied. it's not that she wants a fuck ton of people to die in a war, she believes that they are merely smaller sacrifices for the greater good and for a better future. naglfar will not only just serve as a carrier for the muspell crew, but also for the askr and embla crews (along with the heroes, of course). the only reason why she joined surtr's cause is because she knew of embla's ability to control the heroes, and therefore could use her ties to muspell to weed out anyone she thinks isn't strong enough to face her lord. after all, the greatest peace a degenerated dragon can get is death itself. 

if either one of those happen, i'll be thrilled and intelligent systems owes me $20 if i'm right. $20 and a character alt of my choosing if they go with the second option. 

in terms of getting actual heroes added, do i think this explicitly means we're getting anankos very soon? nah, probably not. i'll be damned if they do (and i kinda hope they do since anankos would be fucking bomb to have in heroes, i adore anankos' design), but there's still a good chance it won't happen soon. here's hoping, though. 

if you read this far, then holy shit dude congrats. but you're also probably wondering why i put some asterisks in here. so here's some small footnotes: 

*"twelve" may actually not be the correct number of first dragons in fates' history itself. there's a few interesting lines in the japanese version of the  invisible history dlc that heavily implies that the dawn and dusk dragons are really just anankos. iirc, said lines were lost in translation a bit to the english version, but the japanese lines are as follows:

Anankos: That is a dragon vein. A place where the earth’s energy is concentrated… In this world, only those with the blood of the Dragon can awaken that power. 

Severa: Hmmm. Meaning, we can’t use it. 

Anankos: No… There’s a way. I’ll give you my blood. If you drink this, your body will take in the blood of the Dragon God, and you’ll be able to use the dragon veins temporarily.

note how anankos only specifies himself having the power to activate dragon veins. there's a bit more to the theory... but if you want to read more about it, here’s the post that goes more into detail about it. 

**the first and best example that comes to mind for this is probably within fates itself. owain, inigo, and severa all had their names changed as we all know by now, but the pattern for them is pretty interesting. owain and severa, in both the english and japanese versions of fates got their names changed to gods. inigo was the only one of the three who wasn't, being named either after a jewel or a king depending on the version you're looking at. interestingly enough, inigo, the only one with the non-god name, is also the only one of the trio who dies in birthright when defeated.

#fire emblem #caylee plays fire emblem heroes #s/o to my brain for theorizing at 100 mph at 3 a.m. #i haven't really done much analyzing or theorizing since miiverse closed down... it feels good to do it again

[sleepymarmot]

COUNTER/Weight liveblog, part 2

Episodes 23-40

Keith hasn't listened to the previous episode and Austin & Ali are cackling like “You got a big storm coming” lmao

…Look I understand the idea of making Tea an ally after the players and audience got to know her in the Kingdom game but the excuse is really thin

“A gift for his little brother” You guys are really bad at this gender neutrality thing huh

AuDy talking to Orth makes my head spin a bit now

Oh so Addax is the leader of the Angels? The person who has been watching the Chime from the shadows = the group that has been spying on them? Okay, I now feel dumb for not putting this together myself.

Wait I lost track again. Who were Jacq & Jill working for initially that gave them access to those immortality tanks? Iirc it was Odamas who had that technology and then gave Horizon access to it while imposing strict rules on them during the merge? So why does Jacqui get less fun assignments now if she was a part of the winning faction, not the losing one?

Oh cool, so Jamil wanted to hand over the virus to the Angels because they're both just from the Rapid Evening?

“A bard notices their enemy's heart isn't in the fight, so they stop fighting, fall in love” is such a specific thing. How the hell did it happen twice on the same show. Is this the new big gay trope now

Heeeey could you stop punching me in the stomach with intros

So, Jacqui was working for Horizon, which in turn was given this job by Petrichor? Still doesn't answer my question…

Do I have to mentally rewrite the entire holiday special so that in every scene on the Kingdom Come everyone is floating in zero gravity all the time?! I'm sorry but this makes no fucking sense!

The doppelganger thing started really creepy but now it just makes my head spin! Please stop it with the names, I'm too easily confused, especially with a show that has a record of passing characters back and forth between the GM and the players!

Re: that whole thing: aaaaAAAAA???

I don't understand what Austin and Jack are doing but it's pretty magical

God, the Aria/Jacqui scene is so… tender? Idk. Austin's gentle “PC's love interest” voice has murdered me again. I'm not sold on Jacqui by herself as a character but on the feelings between the two? Definitely. (Though I still wonder about Aria’s heroism vs Jacqui’s disregard for life. That’s a biiig value clash)

Okay, this was all very unsettling and I still understand so little

I really love that Sokrates' refusal to make that one nameless person take the fall, which seemed (at least to me) kinda stubborn and shortsighted, turned into a key moment, both because it demonstrates integrity, and now because that person becomes an actual NPC as an important asset in their faction

I love how the idea of moving Rigour to September comes up and everyone starts screaming and I do too! They sure love leaving horrifying surprises for the ground team to stumble upon lol

Is it too callous and unwise of me to react to Ibex overthrowing the Hands of Grace as “good riddance”?

Maryland's letter has strong Alyosha/Arrell vibes

I love the “reluctant alliance with an antagonist” trope and was hoping it'd happen with Ibex so I'm happy! Also in one of the early episodes Austin mentioned the Anders-Justice storyline and I'm glad to hear him finally deliver. (There was stuff about the pilot/Candidate->Divine influence with Order, but not about the other way around or fusion, like with Vengeance)

Okay thankfully things are clearer now (I'm reeeally glad I wasn't spoiled on this) but I still have so many questions. How were LD made in the first place? Why and how did they hide in/turn themselves into a simple robot? What are they – just software, like Righteousness, or is there some Divine hardware core inside the normal Automated Dynamics unit that nobody has noticed somehow, or is the hardware in a remote location they access through the mesh? Did Ibex know AuDy was LD the whole time – he didn't act very surprised? Why didn't Ibex rescue his brother, did he die really quickly? How will Mako be able to fog without Righteousness? Shouldn't AuDy be gamebreakingly powerful now? How and why do LD count as two Divines but have a single consciousness, are they like Garnet?

Lazer Ted feels like a fucking TAZ character lmao

The comic relief was welcome but at the same time I'm continuously like “What is AuDy thinking and feeling. Why are they acting like nothing happened. Where's the existential crisis. How do you realize you're a pair of ancient gods and just proceed with your life? Are they so impenetrable on purpose because they're a robot”. Like, it was chilling when they were suddenly chatting with Ibex like old friends, and now it's chilling that they're acting just in the early episodes.

I'm glad the robot incident made everyone realize it might be unwise to put the two charming extraverts in the same half of the party lol

Looks like they decided to permanently switch back to “he” for Cass… Probably for the best.

Jack keeps excitedly jumping at every opportunity for creepiness™. God, AuDy makes so much more sense as his character now after the Reveal

Is September just fucking Solaris now?

I think this is the first time I'm not excited to hear a faction game episode because I really didn't expect it at this point in the story. My reaction was “Wait what? Are you telling me everyone gets stuck on September waiting out that storm for a whole month?! I wanted to hear what that cliffhanger led to!” Idk, the September arc was generally kind of a let down after the intensity of the episodes leading up to it, and this further deflates the tension.

Speaking of tension and letdowns, I just have to complain… It's really disappointing when the show sets up really big dramatic hooks and then does practically nothing with them! I complained about Addax and Cass in the previous post and that point still stands. Case two: Mako and Righteousness/Voice. It's set up in a faction episode, and in the immediately following arc Mako indeed is in danger from something inside his own head, but it's a completely unrelated thing! At the end of the arc he finally finds out, but the threat immediately gets nullified with no consequences – no self-doubt or identity crisis, no diminished abilities in terms of game mechanics. Case three: Ibex himself. Out of the reasons the Kingdom game is what it is, the excuse for it happening in-universe was to give more details on Ibex, and at least half of it featured a collective effort to make him as central to the story and as threatening as possible. But as soon as that flashback ends, so, counterintuitively, does the role of Ibex as an active antagonist to the Chime -- the role which was literally just supposed to begin in earnest. So by this point I can barely recall why we were all so intimidated by this guy in the first place. I'm more like “This is a useful ally to have”. This is what I don't like about the world-ending threats like Rigor: all other interesting conflicts fade in their face.

Dang, I thought Isurus was a cooler name than Enhydra!

Sokrates, forced to shake Ibex's hand: *clenched fist meme*

Wait, I missed something, why is Rigor deep underground and has to dig itself out?

Okay, after the lore episode I'm also confused how Rigor ended up underground on Ionias after it was blown up 20000 years ago in a completely different place

I'm very distressed by the idea of Hieron as a future popular franchise!! No, it's supposed to be real when these people are talking about it!! Oh wait a fucking second, does this mean Jace's Panther was a deliberate reference in-universe?? Like you're fighting in a real serious terrible war and you model a giant war machine after, like, a thestral from the fucking Harry Potter and just call it “Thestral”??!

No, no, wait, do tell me who Cass and AuDy would cosplay!

Oh no, Rigour wants to talk to Voice(?), great

Hey Cass, your Hadrian is showing??

Speaking of Hadrian, I was caught off guard by description of Tower as a “hot young Hadrian”, for some reason Hadrian never struck me as a character who's supposed to be exceptionally attractive. But then again, I imagined him as very young until that letter to Hella, and then I imagined Cass as a young adult until I did the math, so I might just be bad at visualising Art's characters lol.

Austin is so generous and unsubtle about throwing hot gay NPCs right at the players. Too bad Mako doesn't sound as interested as Aria did.

I expected they'd find a room with one copy of everyone plugged into the mesh, that'd be even creepier. What's with the false memories though? This doesn't explain them.

So, how does this whole clone system work? How does time work? Why don't the real students like Tower or Maxine notice that there's a new guy who looks just like their friend, but doesn't know them – or, for that matter, why don't the other clones notice? Oh, maybe that's the purpose of the fake memory aura? So that Maritime-4 could continue right from where Maritime-3 left off?

When Cass saw Apokine's face I thought it meant that the humans had genetically engineered the Apostolosians and that's what “we made them look like us” meant, which would be two of my long-standing questions answering each other. And then it was just another giant mech.. :/

Wait, does Orth calling Cass “Apokine” mean that he pilots the mech now or that Sokrates died and Cass inherited his position?! I'm worried now…

I'm even more worried about Mako, because at first I of course reacted to the question about being in two places at once as “hah, Larry”, but it's probably the other thing, and on one hand that must mean that the rescue of clones was successful, but also that means that our Mako might be dead and the one in the intro is one of the clones… Considering that in the Winter post-mortem I caught Keith saying how emotional the C/w finale was for him before I started fast-forwarding in fear of spoilers, do I need to start mentally preparing to bury Mako already or what?

Speaking of spoilers… The farther I go, the less I understand the advice to skip Autumn. I thought that at least for C/w it wouldn't matter, given it's a whole different universe, but they keep referencing it, and then casually dropping major spoilers, and then referencing it again in a story-relevant way. (The Ordennan ships arrive on the screen as Rigor does, and the next episode is named “The Storm over September” and quotes Lem's poem in the description. That's really cool but I somehow feel vaguely irritated on behalf of my potential alternate self who skipped season 1.) I really hope they've grown more careful about this by now, because I'll probably not even begin Twilight Mirage by the time the next season starts, and I would really like to stay in the dark about the intense events they're all vague-tweeting about at the moment!

Why was AuDy alarmed by Voice's presence as “a” Divine accompanying Maxine? Shouldn't they be familiar with it already because of Mako? (And I don't want to even ask about the ontological difference/border between Righteousness and Voice. I'm tired and feel like a nitpicker. But just for the record, this still isn't clear.)

Well that's a sadder family reunion than I hoped for!

So AuDy does have a split personality to some degree?

Oh well. AuDy's got a fate worse than death: Liberty and Discovery, imprisoned indefinitely. Or devoured I guess, I didn't really get it. Great. Thanks. Fucking RIP I guess. Out of all ways I expected them to go, this wasn't one.

(By the way I still don't understand how the portal works. Where is this portal to? Why can't L&D fly out and take the slow way home, and why can't Rigor?)

There's still about ten minutes left in the episode and I don't understand how it isn't the finale. What's there to do for three more episodes now.

“With Rigor defeated so easily, so permanently, she thought” *Rigor screech*

Yeah, fuck Grace btw

Sounds like cultivating saplings is not a priority anymore for a certain someone… (Wait, btw, what happened to that patch/seed they left? Will it ever come back into play?)

“...Why they would put themselves into a body like yours? And I think, maybe, it's that they were curious about what it would be like for four years to feel like a long time” AAAAAA

Okay, things are better on September than it sounded initially, but still… Wtf's going to happen? Rigor repairs itself, takes over the survivors, takes off again? But what's the timeline on that? I genuinely have no idea wtf the finale is going to be about after this.

Oh, what happened to the clones btw? Did Larry manage to get them off the planet in time, despite the Minerva ships in orbit and, more importantly, Rigor? Or are they stuck on September, unable to continue reenacting the plot of Orphan Black?

From how it's been described in this episode, feels as if Liberty and Discovery are a candidate of AuDy… They didn't want a candidate but were curious to learn how it feels for the other side?

Paisley's dead-eyed, Tower's gone, and even Ibex, who is barely holding on himself, loses his ex… Everyone's love life takes a nosedive: the episode. At least Jacqui's okay… (And because of Jacqui, it was doubly sad and surprising to hear Aria still has feelings for Paisley…)

#friends at the table #blah blah blah

[felassan]

Because we're talking about Felassan. Something has always bugged me and I would like to hear your opinion! I always wondered why Solas would kill him. I mean, he can be pretty harsh and cruel, using killing as both a tool and a punishment (see the "kill the mages" during his loyalty quest and the lore in trespasser), but it didn't make too much sense for me why he'd kill Felassan just because F. didn't give Briala the Eluvians. Just as punishment for disobeying? What's your opinion on this?

sure thing! love me some talking about Felassan / Solas / elves / elf-related plot-threads. discussion under the cut due to length.

first, some context: prior to Trespasser (with its slow arrow line and Solas’ explanation of how he obtained control of the eluvian network from Briala), I was in camp “the entity that killed Felassan wasn’t Solas”. now I am.

and a minor correction (a typo mixup easy made!) - it’s not because Felassan didn’t give Briala the eluvians, it’s because Felassan wouldn’t take the eluvians from Briala to give to Solas.

I don’t consider Solas cruel. cruelty for me implies an active vicious sort of maliciousness - a desire to see others suffer and to cause that, for no real reason, and a lack of feeling and compassion. he’s firm, harsh and furious at times, yes. though he takes no joy in it, indeed he’s usually immensely sad about it, he’s evidently capable of ruthless decisions and moves in pursuit of his goals (as in like, do what needs to be done/acceptable and unavoidable losses and sacrifices, in his eyes). I think he can also be a bit callous. that aside, let’s start with the fact that it is pretty much as you say, i.e. Solas observably is capable of killing in retribution or as punishment, and/or as he lashes out in anger (prime examples, All New Faded For Her - the specifics though depend on your interpretation of his actions there - and the “only fitting punishment” for Mythal’s killers). I think personally I’d ascribe ‘retribution’ rather than punishment, probably due to associated connotations around both words. he’s also demonstrably capable of the ruthless moves and decision-making I touched on above if he feels they’re necessary (healer has the bloodiest hands, didnt lead a rebellion against immortal mage-kings without getting his hands bloody, the ugly work, some of his banters with Sera where he talks about organizations and how to run them, the chess match with Bull, killing Flemeth to take her power even with her consent, etc - they’re all relevant to and illustrative of his character).  

but no, I don’t think it was done just as punishment for disobeying. there’s two other things going on -

from his perspective at the time, it was likely necessary. Felassan betrayed him by actively working against his assignment/Solas’ instructions. Felassan was likely an ancient elf and an agent of Fen’Harel, therefore probably party to some amount of knowledge of who Solas is, what his plans were, how he operates. not lots, because that’s how Solas does things, but enough that Felassan out there, a rogue agent, who’s turned against him and the Cause and come to form some kind of an attachment to the world as it is, or the modern elves in it? with that knowledge? he’s a loose end with inside knowledge, he can’t let Felassan wander around Thedas with that. he’s potentially a liability. the loose end needs to be tied off. it could be argued that there could have been less permanent solutions to that problem - couldn’t he imprison him somewhere? put him in some kind of stasis? temporarily disable him? to sleep? I guess Solas thought the permanent solution was the only option (due to risk). course around this point, you also get into the cracktheories some people have that Felassan isn’t really dead, but that’s not pertinent to this post. he says to Sera, “Some of your forces, valuable until now, have no interests beyond creating disruption. Chaos for its own sake. They must be re-positioned where they can do no harm, or removed if necessary. You replace them with organizers willing to build a new system and carry out the ugly work that must be done.” he’s talking from personal experience there from his experience leading rebellions and organizations and agents. Felassan was no longer valuable, no longer willing to do the work that needed to be done, and was even a liability/risk - removing him was necessary. Cole tells us he thought that it was necessary (for whatever reason) - “His friend had to die”.

you also need to consider what Solas’ character was like at the timepoint in which he killed him. his values, his views on the modern world and its people. he had just woken up in the modern world, a world he didn’t understand. literally everything had gone awry and to shit (like the alternate future the Inquisitor can experience) and he was super-intent on righting this wrong and making things the way they should be again. it was like walking through a world of Tranquil and by his own admission, he didn’t see modern people as people at first. this was before he spent a year with the Inquisition, getting to know its people, forming friendships with and gaining respect for some of them even, potentially forming a friendship and gaining respect for a high approval Inquisitor. before he had any ties or attachment at all to the modern world, before he came to see them as people. then his trusted agent and friend Felassan betrays him and pretty much tells him, you’re wrong, these non-people are people, they are stronger than you think, they remind me of you, and you should give them a chance. absolutely untenable in the eyes of Solas at the time. Cole straight up tells us, “His friend had to die, because he thought they were people”. what the hell are you saying Felassan? these fingerpuppet shadows on the wall, these empty shells from a waking nightmare, these non-people sundered from themselves, are people??? and you’ve sided with them over me??? you’re going against our plans and throwing away the world we had, and the People? for this?? you’re wrong, and this world is all wrong. that Solas hadn’t experienced the character development and changing of his views that we see in DA:I and Trespasser.

a potential third point: iirc PW said that the character of Solas changed quite a lot during development, was harsher/less compassionate or something. it’s possible the Solas of TME was closer to that kind of Solas than the Solas in DA:I. idk, throwing it out there as a possibility. I think those other two bullet points + the fact that I feel like it was an in-character move for him explain it well enough anyway.

still though, while I like Solas and love him as a character, I still hate him for killing Felassan lmao

#bioware #dragon age #felassan #solas #mj replies #anonymous #video games #mj meta #Best Elf

[geekmodeactivated]

My 40k fluff and headcanon

Unapologetically long post below!

As an equal opportunities gamer I just wanted to give my two cents on gender, race and sexuality in my armies because representation’s important. If I got anything wrong or you have different views to me and want to discuss it like adults then cool, be my guest. If you want to cry about female Space Marines don’t. Just don’t.

Eldar: Craftworld Saim Hann 

Eldar use both male and female warriors, (all answer the call to defend the craftworld after all) so in my head half my Eldar are female, even if they haven’t got the boobplate armour to prove it.  They’re Saim Hann, so family is the strongest bond and the title of chieftain passes to the eldest child (not just sons).  

All 40k Eldar and assorted elf-inspired beings are and have always been pale so I try and get that on the few models that aren’t wearing a helmet.

Idk why but I always imagine Eldar as super-cool forward thinking and progressive beings so is imagining them all as pansexual wrong? I know they look after children together but I don’t know if they marry or what but 1000 years with one person is a very long time, especially when the survival of your species is counting on you sleeping around. On another note trans Eldar should be a thing... There’s probably a Path dedicated to it. And if not there is now.  

Guard: 38th Cadian regiment.

Mixed regiment of men and women. Because damn it women can fight and if nothing else the Imperium isn’t going to turn away half of it’s potential military. Also if you’ve seen a woman with body armour on you’ll notice they look the same as a man with body armour on any differences irl don’t actually equate to anything in 28mm scale.

Cadians are based on WW2 forces like the rest of the guard but they dont have as direct real-world counterpart like Valhallans=Russians Krieg=Germans Preatorians=British Empire etc. but because Dawn of War got me into 40k in the first place I’ve always had Cadians pinned as British. So even if you base your racial diversity on London alone you’re sorted. Give me all the skin tones!!

As I said about gender I really don’t think the Imperium cares about who a poor little trooper wants to snuggle up with (as long as it’s not an alien etc) and trans guard? Why the hell not? If I had time to write stuff with a gay colonel, an asexual female commissar and a bisexual trooper then damn it I would.

Marines: Ultramarines

So the big point of contention with 40k, female Space Marines... See, when I first started out I thought it was dumb that you couldn’t have female Imperials. If you want to field women, you get the super-expensive out-of-date canonically-terrible nuns with guns and suffer the damn consequences but I’ll get onto that*. As with my Eldar half my Marines are women because I’m more progressive than some stupid out-dated lore. Female bodies can change to deal with growing babies and giving birth but apparently it’s women who are ‘unreceptive’ to growing a couple more organs and some muscle mass. And besides, if you cant tell who’s wearing flak armour, you sure as hell aren’t going to be able to tell in power armour. Jakes (@kaijuslayer) female Marines are a thing of beauty, go tell them they’re not real...

Ultramarines are based on Romans, and ancient Rome was the original cultural melting pot. It follows that race amongst the ranks of the Ultramarines would be equally as wide-spread. However, only like 6 of my Marines don’t have helmets so you’ll have to take my word for that.

Space Marines have always been asexual in my head. The transformation process sorta reduces all non-essential body parts (IIRC) and when your primary reason for existing is to purge the shit out of everything that looks at you funny, then pray to the Emperor, then to the machine spirits in your weapons, ain’t nobody got time to bone! 

Chaos: As above with everything I’ve said about Imperials. I imagine Chaos gods care even less about diversity, they just want blood and your soul to toy with for eternity.

Orks: Errrr.... Well gender is Ork, race is Green and sexuality is WAAAAGH.

Tyranids: Space bugs are N/A to this post. 

*I‘ve been longing since I started to have a proper release for Sisters. By this I mean new models that don’t cost £50-£60 per fucking squad (preferably without giant boobplate chests because it’s unnecessary)  And I know you can do it, just look at Saint Celestine from Fall of Cadia! And the Sisters of Silence. SO. DAMN. CLOSE. I will give you all the monies GW come on! Bring back the Forge World Repressors and Exorcists because those were sweeeeet.

Also; rules that work and fluff that doesn’t make them a power-armoured speedbump just to make everyone else’s codex seem better. Give me fluff about Sisters being awesome and kicking ass and then let me cleanse my douchey misogynistic opponents in a blaze of righteous feminist wrath so I can see the look on their faces as the long-time fap bait wipes the table with them.

#warhammer 40k #lore #fluff #you can't take my headcanon