#my pet theory that I know is highly unlikely to be canon is that -assuming there was a formative betrayal and it involved the Great Warrior

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Catching up on Tower of God, and all these theories about how obviously Zahard is the one who did something to Traumerei’s memories and that’s the only reason he could possibly be loyal to him, and as soon as Bam or Gustang or whatever gives him back his memories he’s immediately gonna turn on Zahard are reeeaally weird to me, and diminishing to both Zahard and Traumerei as characters. 

Everything we’be been shown about Traumerei so far paints him as a huge cunt, by choice, who gets off on the suffering of others (which is why he’s a favourite, of course <3 ). When he’s not napping or dead inside he’s short-tempered, capricious and cruel.  A feature not a bug, if you will. While it’s true that we haven’t been shown the origin of his memory-and-emotion-discarding habit we have been shown occasions where he proactively chooses that course of action by himself-in the Yasratcha flashback, where he returned from the Nest to feed some more to Leviathan before dealing with Nen Nen and Wang Wang, and sometime after the incident, if you go by his distorted recollection of the event to Yasratcha. We know from Leviathan that Traumerei is the one who created him and kept feeding ‘filthy’ memories and emotions to him, in quite the amount from what it sounds like. These memories, going by what we know so far, would contain Traumerei at his worst, such as his punishment of Wang Wang, Nen Nen and Yasratcha for example, and likely be coloured by resentment and hatred rather than regret and sorrow (something soldified by Leviathans demeanour, imo) (meaning the current Traumerei is the ‘sanitized’ version).

That aside, how exactly would Zahard have found a way to force Traumerei to cut unwanted memories and emotions out of himself in a way that seems distinctly Traumerei (involving the creation of a Shinheu)? This is not the Hidden Floor, where they were simple data to manipulate and erase (without ill effects to their real/outside selves)! Why would Traumerei have kept up that coping mechanism over the millenia, if it was something forced upon him by Zahard? Why exactly would Zahard himself inquire after Traumerei’s memories, if a key piece of Traumerei’s loyalty to him was their erasure? Zahard himself is the one who brings them up in the first place! What seems like a realtively recent problem to boot, and in a way that seems more eager that he remember and out of worry for an old friend and comrade (’By the way, what kind of nightmares have you been having lately? Do you still not remember?’), (at the end of their strategy meeting, after the ‘business talk’ is already finished) than as some sort of insidious check-up to make sure that he doesn’t remember something from tens of thousands of years ago. It honestly feels like people projecting their dislike of Zahard onto Traumerei, when everything we’ve ever heard about him and are ever shown about him shows him as an ‘enthusiastic’ follower of Zahard and having an absolutely insane treshold of what counts as genuine loyalty. Heck, going by everything about him, it’s more likely that even if he had harboured resentment against Zahard, he would erase it himself to uphold the standard of loyalty he preaches!

In fact, I’d go so far as to say, in view of the Yasratcha flashback and obvious mirroring between him and Traumerei, that it’s far likelier that Traumerei came up with some weird revenge scheme as punishment for ‘abandoning’ him rather than simply being yoinked along by Zahard in something, and that, if he erased his memories because he found them unpleasant to deal with, it was not due to guilt or sorrow but anger and resentment (as we eg. see him exhibit in the flashback upon returning from a trip to the Nest, where he clearly has some leftover frustration).

A lot of fanon seems to view Traumerei as former emotionally softie of the group, who was a poor little meow-meow before he experienced a deep betrayal that emotionally hardened him. While I’m ready to concurr with the latter (and the general fact that the Great Warriors devolved into worse personalities with time) I’d like to point to the examples of what Traumerei perceives as ’betrayals’ in the story, and whether they seem reasonable and justified to feel betrayed by in the first place, or deserving of ‘punishment’, and then reflect upon the likelihood of Traumereis formative betrayal (assuming there is one, definitive one, or that it even involves the Great Warriors) being a cut and dry affair.

As for painting Zahard as the instigator of his unpleasant personality, it reflects an unwillingness to let people other than him be fucked up even though we already know plenty of other family leaders who are, as well as lack of consideration that Zahard might care about some people, like his oldest comrades, and they care about him in turn. Zahard confiding in Traumerei with regards to his views and plans in the first place, Traumerei going above and beyond his assignment to try to turn Bam against Gustang if he proves useful, for example. ‘But the order concering the Poe Bideau family!’- Gustang is the one who stirs the pot in the first place, the one who stole an item whose sole purpose is to defeat Zahard, the one who basically declared if not war certainly conflict, and let it be known that it’s not like Zahard put out a hit on Gustang (which would arguable be pointless, but we do know people as powerful as Eurasia Enne Zahard are capable of getting imprisoned) but merely his family, Gustang’s major instrument for affecting the politics of the Tower.

As of now it seems far more plausible to me for whatever leftover memories that are haunting Traumerei as nightmares to be something done by him instead of to him.

I think that it’s been set up that Traumerei is gonna remember something at the least, and likely something big (maybe eventually prodded by Bam, whom Leviathan told of at least some memories fed to him), but when he does it’s not gonna lead to a sudden heel-turn and alliance, problem solved, but instead a Traumerei actually out for blood, instead of bored and dead inside (anyone remember Bam’s refusal to let Leviathan go free bc ‘if I let it out [...] I’d be committing a sin against the world’ (TOG #531)? That Shinheu formed out of all of Traumerei’s most negative memories and emotions he discarded? That would presumably bubble back up inside Traumerei himself when he remembers?)

To close with a Maschenny quote that summarizes my hopes for Traumerei:

“Has it really disappeared now? That rage of yours? [...] Even if you say that rage has hardened and sunk in your mind, I don’t understand how it could just fly away in the wind like that. It gets more intense and clings to you even more firmly as time passes and you recall those memories. That’s the kind of emotion that rage is. And as long as that rage lives-war can break out at any time.”

-Khun Maschenny Zahard, Tower of God #390

#Tower of God #Lo Po Bia Traumerei #my pet theory that I know is highly unlikely to be canon is that -assuming there was a formative betrayal and it involved the Great Warrior #is that Traumerei was the one who instigated some sort of messed up retaliation or whatever in some form #(forced V to kill himself?) #if we take leviathans demeanour as a genuine representation of Traumerei emotions (excepting eg the resentment of serving as smg to dump hi #negative emotions into) #there is some resentment against Zahard (unless the king he's talking about is Traumerei as his creator) #so what if...the person Traumerei felt betrayed by was Zahard? Maybe for proposing to Arlene even after their huge disagreement..? #So he did something to mess things up even further so V and Arlene really 'betrayed' Zahard (trying to steal the key..?) #(mirroring how Yasratcha framed Wang Wang as a traitor to Traumerei) #(so he'd have no choice but to disregard him either way and come with Yasratcha) #(which I realize is not an exact copy but slightly inverted in the scenario I'm proposing) #boom #Zahard feels betrayed by them for real and retaliates and no more talk of reconciliation #yes Traum talks about dominating those who betray him into forcefully staying by his side but consider: #his 'domination' is literally manipulation? #Emotionally as we see with Wang Wang and Nen Nen even if he seemingly had no set goal #manipulating others be it by controlling their bodies eg Yasratcha or their choices and actions #ngl part of me just wants him to be the toxic gay best friend à la Yasratcha sooo bad #if you want wholesome stuff there's Bam and Khun and whatnot the Great Warriors are for toxicity ONLY #also do not care about leviathan as Bams xth absorbed power show me those memories or perish!

[adarkroomandawallflower]

So, I just had a thought (& possible realization that could be canon?):

As I'm sure many of us TNG fans are aware, it's never canonically addressed where, how, or when exactly Data got Spot. However, based on the order of the episodes, Spot wasn't shown or mentioned until "Data's Day", & because we were shown Data's quarters several times throughout Seasons 1-3 without any indications of a cat living with him, we can assume that he got Spot somewhere either in the end of Season 3 or the beginning of Season 4 (I know the argument could be made that he could have still had Spot, it just wasn't very clearly established or shown, but for the sake of my theory, let's assume that not showing Spot or evidence of Data having her indicates that he didn't have her yet).

The events of "Brothers" occurs just several episodes before "Data's Day". We saw in "Brothers" that after Dr. Soong died, Data took some of his father's things with him (i.e. the toy dinosaurs that he gave to the two brothers who were also in the episode). I think it's highly unlikely that Data would have only taken those two dinosaurs from his father's place, & I think he almost certainly took a lot more of his father's things with him (i.e. he probably took some of his books, artwork, etc.).

I think it can also be assumed that Dr. Soong didn't like being alone, & always preferred the company of another being (his sons & Juliana, for example). After the Crystalline Entity attacked, Juliana left, Data joined Starfleet, & Dr. Soong was left all by himself on that whole planet, I think he got really lonely, but didn't know or have any other person in his life that he could seek companionship with. Not wanting to go through the intense emotional & physical tolls of creating another android son again, & being unable to find another partner or spouse, I think he would have probably gotten himself a pet as a last-ditch effort to curb his loneliness.

But what would his pet be? Perhaps a cat...?

Long story short, I propose this theory: Spot was originally Dr. Soong's cat, & after he died & Data was looking through his place to determine all the things he wanted to keep, he found Spot, & knew he had to take her with him.

I'd have to rewatch "Brothers" to look for any evidence of Dr. Soong having a cat, as well review the episodes after "Brothers" & before "Data's Day" to see if they showed Data's quarters clearly catless again, to support this theory, but I genuinely think this could be how Data got Spot

#hopefully this isn't a totally ridiculous theory & that it makes sense to you guys #I was just thinking about I wish they'd shown us all the things he decided to take from dr. soong's place #& whether data had a little memorial service for him #or if data maybe visited or took care of or maybe even stayed at his father's old place from time to time #to keep his memory alive & prevenr his things from being destroyed or thrown out #& data clearly understands & even experiences the sentimentality & emotional attachment to objects #so I think he would have felt an obligation to keep as much as of his father's posessions as he could #anyways #just some food for thought #data soong #data star trek #data tng #noonien soong #dr. noonien soong #dr. soong #spot soong #spot the cat #data and spot #star trek #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #star trek theory #noll's narratives #noll's nonsense

[fantroll-purgatory]

@silenteko

So up top it looks like you’re doing this for an AU in which:

there are trolls that have not yet fully matured who live on a sister planet called Tronia

sister planets have “princesses” who presumably retain local authority to govern, though the Heiress’s and the Condesce’s authority would presumably supercede it

the canon trolls still exist and interact with your trolls (indicating interplanetary communication) but presumably haven’t played SBURB yet

mutantbloods are automatically assigned the Cancer sign

That’s all I can glean so far? So apart from those rules, I’m going to review your character as though she’s Alternian, since it takes place in the same universe.

Name: Sallva Spiral

You don’t really mention why you gave her this name, but since she’s a self-insert I am going to assume that the first name is at least somewhat related to your first name. The last name could do with some obfuscation though; ow about Xilleh, which is just “helix” backwards and with an extra ‘l.’ It’ll also help hammer home the “mutated DNA” theme I’m hoping to include. I also like it because now both her first and last name have two l’s side by side, which kind of looks like a strand of DNA that has unwound before replication!

Strife Specibus: woo! I am unsure if it’s an actual weapon or not, but before the game she doesn’t have one. Her Strife Specibus consist of two mini scythes (she got the code from a friend of hers), connected to chains that cuff to her wrist. That way, if one gets knocked out of her hand, she doesn’t have to jump all over the place to retrieve it in battle

I think that’s still a specibus; it’s just scythekind. In the meantime, I’ve had a look at you and your co-author’s profiles on deviantArt, and I think y’all may be interested in the mechanics of the Spiral Knights MMO since it links your names together! In light of that, maybe you wanna try swordkind, given that it’s the iconic Spiral Knight weapon? You can still keep the concept of a weapon that’s cuffed to her wrists.

Fetch Modus: I am unsure of what to give her. As if I’m going to be honest, she’s more likely to use a bag than a Fetch Modus

How about we split the difference with a BACKPACK MODUS, with 4 compartments that have limited space?

Blood Color: Gold! Haha

So here is where I’m trying to hammer home the mutantblood concept bc you’ve made a goldblood with very very obvious seadweller ears, and those two generally don’t…mesh…

I may lose the ears, but I’m gonna take a page out of CD’s book for an “aquablood” mutant we got a while ago and make her a polyblood to preserve some of the interesting aspects of this character. I’m thinking cerulean, since there’s overlap there both in the symbol visual and in eye-weirdness. Also lets me keep one of the colors in her initial color scheme with easy design justification.

She could be a polyblood who was basically assumed to be a “pure” goldblood because of her eyes, but whose true abilities lie in being a latent ceruleanblood.

As for why she wasn’t culled as a baby: this yellowblood doesn’t really look like a mutant, and even if her weird cerulean eye is an indication that she is, look at the other one. She’s got partial voidrot! She’ll be dead soon anyway. So the reason Sallva is still kickin’ is because, as a gold/ceruleanblood, her cerulean side generates enough energy to temper her voidrot, while her gold side dampens her psychic abilities by feeding off the energy. No telekinesis.

Symbol and Meaning: Her Symbol is actually from the Extended Zodiac, so I am unsure of it’s meaning.

It’s Gemsces, sign of the Prudent! A quick rundown: overbearingly smart, restless and skeptical, and always looking to take care of others. Also, prudence means showing careful thought and planning for the future.

Troll Tag: spiralLights! It’s a reference to her original last name that I had given her before I found out about the 6 letter thing.

Quirk: she replaces her ‘s’ with ‘5’, her ‘a’ with ‘@’, and her ‘o’ with ‘0’

While this dovetails with canon, we’ve also found with Hiveswap Friendsim that quirks needn’t necessarily be all that complex! We’ve been operating off the quirks of a bunch of real dramatic trolls for a while now. But maybe that’s who your troll is! If we go specifically with the polyblood redesign, the “too many quirks” could also just be a reflection of her inner self, which is a soup of contradictions.

I think I can make up sufficient reason to keep these quirks; Sallva can swap her s’s out for 5′s because of the 5 nucelotides we commonly see in DNA and RNA. She can swap a for @ because it’s a spiral. As for swapping o with 0, I have I think a sufficiently interesting backstory for her that’ll make that work.

Actually let me just add another one, for fun, if you’re keeping the new last name: Sallllva doublles allll her ‘l’s. The quick br0wn f0x jump5 0ver the ll@zy d0g. Give5 her @ nice llittlle dr@wll, and overdramatic to boot.

Special Abilities: She’s a Gold blood, so it’s obvious she has some sort Psychic ability. Hers is Strong Empathic abilities. Sometimes they can be so strong she gets confused as to which emotions are hers, she can also guess a person’s thoughts sometimes.

Goldblood abilities are typically telekinetic in nature, not psychic! But I really really like this concept, so I think this gets folded into the polyblood mythos; she’s heavily empathetic because of the psychic abilities that ceruleanbloods sometimes get!

To make things interesting, let’s make it so she has stuttering resistance to psychic attacks; sometimes active resistance, and sometimes an even lower resistance than usual depending on her mental state.

Lusus: Her Lusus is a mix between a Snake and an Eevee. Why? Because I like Snakes and am a Proud Slytherin and my favorite Stuffed animal is an Eevee. Her Lusus is Deceased

Also works for the polyblood theory, since polyjuice potion uses snakeskin and Eevee is like, the Pokemon for taking a generic base and turning it into whatever you want.

Personality: She’s paranoid. It doesn’t really affect her often, but she was one of the few in her session who was Skeptical about SGRUB. She’s loyal though, as well as possessive. She’s actually killed trolls who picked on her friend, who’s a mutant blood. She gets most of her traits from me. She’s my ‘True Sign Troll.’

Interest: She loves Art, her cat Frisk, Writing, Snakes, Plants

Iiiiiii don’t know that trolls can have cats as like…pets? But let me sell you on a different idea: when Sallva’s yellowblood lusus was killed, she despaired. Her mental health went downhill. She was unusually prone to psychic manipulation. Until…she was found by a ceruleanblooded lusus who had lost its charge. It is highly unusual for a lusus to bond with an adult troll, but it had just lost its troll at a very young age, and was mostly acting on instinct to find the nearest unbonded ceruleanblood. Most ceruleanblood lusii seem to be bug-like, but we could argue for something like the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro:

Picture that version of Frisk in a kernelsprite!

Title: Mage of Life - She actually uses her ability over Life to control plants to help her fight, or to talk to animals to get help. I am unsure all of what a Mage of Life can do, but I do know they make brilliant doctors, especially if they reach God Tier, which Sallva does. After ascending to God Tier, she refused to kill another Soul, mostly because she can feel their pain. The only exception being her Ex-Matesprite, Adrium.

Hmmm. Once again, since this is a self-insert I’m loath to change stuff like names or signs or titles since people usually come to it after a great deal of introspection. Makes more sense to retrofit the character abilities so…

Let’s consult my co-mod’s write-up on what a Mage of Life is!

I don’t know that she’d be able to control plants or ask animals to get help, but it makes a lot of sense to me that she’d be able to encourage nearby creatures to help just by broadcasting her distress. Also I really like the touch that she’s essentially railroaded into the Hippocratic oath after god-tiering because of overblown empathy. I would be most interested in seeing how Adrium’s death would affect her, since her anger wouldn’t supercede his pain.

D/Ancestor: I am unsure, I haven’t actually come up with them quite yet.

How about the Inklling? Unlike her descendant, this troll was mistakenly assigned as a ceruleanblood. She was most famous for having devastatingly accurate hunches when solving mysteries, much to the chagrin of the tealbloods below her. In reality, this was her empathetic abilities manifesting themselves, though they were deeply tempered by her partial voidrot, and therefore not detected by her fellow caste.

Land: Land of Jungles and Deserts - *Snickers* I most put her here because I wanted to be able to make her complain about being a Sea-Dweller in a Desert and stuff.

So since we’ve made it so she’s no longer a seadweller, how about we subvert this here by submerging her in water? Maybe Land of Corals and Chorals to really hammer home an almost mermaidy theme?

Dream Planet: Derse - My baby’s a proud Derse Dreamer. Anyway this is relevant in the way the Derse Dreamers are Blue Team, and Prospit Dreamers are Red Team.

History: Sallva actually blames herself for her Lusus’ death, why? Because her Ex-Matesprite killed her. Adrium (Ex-Matesprite) is a violent troll, but Sallva overlooked his faults until it was too late. She gets revenge during the game and kills Adrium, though she looses her eyes and a piece of her horn to the fight, she reataches her horn with a vine though. She currently only has a Moirail (which I might upload later.) Her Sprite is Frisksprite, who jumped in the orb thingy (I forgot what it’s called.) They live on a sister planet to Alternia called Tronia, and have in fact met the Cannon Trolls a few times when Tronia’s Princess went to visit her fellow Princess, Feferi. They haven’t been there since Alnaya (Princess) got in a fight with Feferi. Though a few of them remain friends with the Cannon trolls, for example; Sallva and her Moirail Nellie still being friends with Nepeta and Equius(did I spell his name right?)

(And did I do this submitting thing right?)

Yep, you spelled his name right and submitted the character correctly! Let’s move to the redesign!

As always I try to keep self-inserts in particular as close to their original design as possible. Credit for the outfit goes to naphal.

Hair - just added stuff here and there to give it volume!

Horns - I gave her a second set to match with goldblood norms!

Visor - changed to match new eye colors

Mouth - added teeth since both ceruleans and yellows are a toothy bunch

Shirt - so USUALLY you’re not really allowed to display your symbol in anything other than your blood color, but I thought keeping it black was a nice nod both to the voidrot and to her polybloodedness.

And that’s it! Hope my feedback is useful.

#silenteko #sallva spiral #sallva #spiral #sallva xilleh #xilleh #goldblood #yellowblood #mustardblood #violetblood #seadweller #ceruleanblood #mutantblood #review #redesign #tr review #submission