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henrysglock · 1 year

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Stranger Things: The Upside Down and The Divine Comedy

Okay, as you all know I'm not a religious nut. However, I did enjoy Dante's Divine Comedy when I read it for school.

That is to say...I don't call the UD "The Hell Dimension/Super-Hell" for nothing.

I think I can prove which crimes Henry actually committed, and what was a setup, using Dante's Inferno as a framework. I can also feasibly explain the existence, aesthetics, and chronological order of appearance of the different versions of the Upside Down that we see in the show.

To kick this off, I want to talk a little bit about the areas involved:

Paradise: A place of goodness, light, and truth. Many who reside here are concerned with worldly injustices.

Purgatory: A place of change, a crossroads, a holding space to decide whether one goes to heaven or hell.

The 7th Circle of Hell: Violence. The 7th circle has 3 rings: Outer is violence against people/property (murder/pillaging/rape), and filled with fire and blood. Middle is violence against the self (suicide), and those there are eaten by harpies. Inner is blasphemy, or violence against God and nature (including sodomy and usury), and those there are made to wander in burning sands.

The 9th Circle of Hell: Treachery. This circle is a frozen hell split into 4 sections, where sinners are frozen in an icy lake: Caina, Antenora, Ptolemaea, and Judecca. Caina is for betrayal of family. Antenora is for betrayal of one's nation. Ptolemaea is for betrayal of guests/those one has entered into a willing relationship with. Judecca is for betrayal of benefactors/masters.

The Pit of Hell: The very depths of Hell, where Satan, depicted as a three headed beast, feasts upon Judas, Brutus, and Cassius.

Cool. What does that have to do with anything?

It. Is. Everything.

Henry exists in five different settings at four different times chronologically:

First: He is physically and mentally in the Creel house, which is initially described as a fairytale. It's the place where Henry develops his abilities and begins to obsess over the injustices in the world.

Second: Hawkins National Lab, which is his turning point, the fork in the road between returning to Paradise or proceeding to Hell. He does not get a choice, here. By his nature, his hand is forced. It's a tragedy.

Third: He is in the Yellow UD both physically and mentally.

Fourth: He is physically in the Blue UD and mentally in the Red Mindscape in varying degrees. He never physically exists in the Red Mindscape.

(The five vs four will be important later when we talk about what Henry is by nature, and how that affects his location)

I think these different settings can be fit into the framework of the Divine Comedy

That is to say:

Paradise: The Creel House

Purgatory: Hawkins National Lab

The 7th Circle, Blasphemy Ring: Yellow UD

The 7th Circle, Murder Ring: Red Mindscape

The 9th Circle...multiple sections: Blue UD

The Pit of Hell: We have not seen this yet, but given the painting of the three-headed dragon and Nancy's beast with a gaping mouth...I think we will in ST5.

Based on this, I also think I can prove that a) Henry didn't kill his family, b) the 1979 Massacre was something Brenner planned out, and c) the 1979 Massacre was staged.

So...let's map this out from Henry's banishment to current day.

We're told during the 1979 massacre, which is painted as a betrayal of Brenner, that Henry killed his family. Point blank. That should land him square in the frozen 9th Circle, in Judecca or Caina. He...doesn't end up there, and we know there's a lot of shit about his backstory that doesn't line up.

Our first clue into this is where Henry initially ends up.

El pushes him, covered in blood, into the hell dimension. There, he's burnt and scarred before ending up in a rocky, yellow version of the UD which we have not seen until this point.

You would think he'd end up in the Blue UD, since that's the one we're most familiar with, but it seems that the Blue UD doesn't exist yet.

Either that, or Henry does not have access to it.

Why? Because Henry has not committed the deserving sins yet.

Henry arguable passes through the Outer 7th Ring, where he is briefly burned, likely for the murders in the lab regardless of their status as self-defense.

It's still murder in the eyes of the church, because it did not strictly require lethal force due to there being no deadly weapons present, as per St. Thomas:

"Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow: If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful...Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s."

Essentially: St. Thomas says: "Don't bring a gun to a knife fight, man. That's uncool."

Henry brought a nuclear bomb to a knife fight. He has to get zapped a little for it.

However, he does not stay burning. He is only spattered in blood. There is no sea of blood. Henry ends up in and stays in the rocky, yellow UD. Why wouldn't he stay in the Murder Ring...unless he hasn't actually killed anyone unnecessarily yet?

This ties into the Creel Massacre fuckery re: Virginia and Alice. Henry could not have killed Alice. Point Blank. Period. It's also highly unlikely that he actually killed Virginia. Even if he did, it was self defense. No betrayal of family. No Caina.

(Although: I'd argue that's where Virginia is ending up for that shit she pulled on Henry re: Brenner and the lab)

No Murder Ring...No murders. Self defense, plus a good bit of zapping for unnecessary roughness, but no sin worthy of the Murder Ring.

You'd think, though, that Henry would at least end up in Judecca, though, right? He'd end up there for betraying Brenner, his "master"...unless there was no betrayal. Unless it was Brenner's plan to incite the massacre, Henry was actually doing exactly as his "master" bid, killing the guards/orderlies was self-defense at its base, and he may or may not have murdered the numbers. It may very well have been staged.

This lack of Murder Ring and 9th Circle imagery majorly ties into the fuckery with the bloodstains, bodies, and perspective fuckery in NINA. It's possible Henry only killed guards/orderlies and 002. We don't even know why he was killing 002, or why 002 was in there in the first place. We don't know why bodies show up in places they shouldn't, or why bloodstains show up in completely different patterns, or even disappear entirely. We don't know why the actors playing the dead numbers switch between child and adult, and why they shift position so often. (All of this is Aemiron's baby, and he has way more to say about it, so I'm going to leave that there.)

Either way...Henry ends up in the Blasphemy Ring.

And what is one thing we know about Henry, based on his parallels to Will? He's gay.

Sodomy. Blasphemy.

("Fruit on pizza? That's blasphemy")

Anyway, the most heinous crime this man has actually committed at this point is homosexuality. Homosexuality is a sin of both body and mind...for the Original Henry (NOT something that happened due to the absorption or due to his hive-mind status. That will come into play later), thus Henry ends up in the Blasphemy Ring in both body and mind.

So...Yellow UD: Blasphemy Ring.

In conclusion: It's likely that Henry was set up...for all of it, pre-1983, and his worst sins were homosexuality and being excessive with his self defense actions. However, he ended up absorbing horrible people, which condemned him to deeper parts of Hell in the future.

Okay, neat. So...what about the Blue UD and Red Mindscape?

What's interesting about both of these settings is that we only see them after the events of 1983 (the Gate, the killings, Will). Up until 1983, Henry wasn't physically able to commit any other sins. It's likely that we only see those two realms after 1983 because Henry didn't have reason to exist there yet.

He hadn't done anything worthy of the 9th circle.

So...why 1983? Wasn't that murder, rape, sodomy, and property destruction? Shouldn't that keep him firmly in the 7th circle?

Not necessarily.

Let's think about the 9th circle, and about what Henry encounters in the Yellow UD.

Henry encounters the Shadow Monster and we see at least one demogorgon, which were relatively docile at that point...but which we know go on to be the vessels for Henry's major crimes of the series. We see him enter a willing symbiotic relationship with the creatures of the Yellow UD via the Shadow Monster, which changes/shapes it.

And then, in 1983, when El opens the gate, everything changes. A "demogorgon" (likely, if not definitely, Henry) takes Will.

The Blue UD was, presumably, created and frozen on that date.

So what does that have to do with the 9th Circle?

The demogorgon and Shadow Monster were non-aggressive pre-Henry. Henry, in a betrayal of a willing relationship, corrupts the creatures to continuously harm Will. Ptolemaea.

It is also a betrayal of a benefactor. Judecca.

It is also a betrayal of his nation, as he attacks the citizens and government officials of Hawkins. (This concept becomes even more relevant in ST3, when Henry uses the Russian gate to enter Hawkins.) Antenora.

All the creatures involved physically end up in the 9th circle/Blue UD with Henry because they are a symbiotic hive mind, regardless of whether the Yellow UD even exists anymore or not. The sins of one (Haha...001) become the sins of all.

That's great, but what about the Red Mindscape?

This is where absorption comes in...and where I bring back our five settings at four times.

Everything we've talked about so far has been physical and mental, or solely physical. We haven't touched on Original Henry vs Henry et. al vs Henry the Super-Organism.

Henry is not alone in his body. Henry's body is a super-organism. He's many people in one, many beings in one. What the body commits, the original mind may or may not. Due to the fact that he literally contains multitudes, being part of the hive mind, Henry the Mind is somewhat separate from Henry the Body.

That is what the Red Mindscape is for.

The Red Mindscape, where Henry mentally commits his murders from in his bids for freedom, is distinctly wet...and red...like blood. That is to say...like the Murder Ring of the 7th Circle.

Henry's mind, which contains multitudes of other people influencing his original self, is usually in the Outer/Blood-Sea Ring of the 7th circle, and not always in the 9th circle with his body. When he is in his body, when he is with the multitudes of creatures and people, he is in the 9th Circle because the post-absorption, post-hive-mind body committed 9th circle sins. When Henry leaves his body, when he commits the murders with his mental powers...he ends up in the Outer 7th...the Murder Ring...because that is the worst sin that Henry alone, as the composite human mind, has committed, regardless of the influence on him by others within his mind.

This is why we no longer see the Yellow UD for any form of Henry post-1983, regardless of whether we think the Red Mindscape/Blue UD replaced the Yellow UD or we think Henry was moved and split into the different realms. Whatever the case may be, he has progressed into a different level of hell. Homosexuality is no longer his worst sin as a whole super-organism or as a composite mind.

We don't know what Original Henry's setting is as a single person, or if he exists distinguishably. He may exist solely in the Red Mindscape. He may be along for the ride with the composite mind. We haven't seen Original Henry outside of pre-massacre NINA, and even that was debatable at best due to Brenner's influence.

I hate to make a Shrek reference...but by God the man is an ONION. He has so many layers, and we've only actually seen two of them...maximum.

A note just in case anyone asks: Dante traveled through all these different places without having committed any of the sins. Thus, he was only educated, not punished. Hence why everyone who comes and goes from the UD without having committed the deserving sin, can come and go without receiving punishment.

So what about Barb and Will? The ST4 victims? What did they do?

Well. That depends on your point of view and how extreme you take betrayals/sins.

It could very well go like this:

9th circle: Blue UD

Ptolemaea. Betrayal of a willingly entered relationship.

Barb betrays Nancy by not supporting her with Steve...but it's also implied that Barb is into Nancy. This could be perceived, by some, as a betrayal of Nancy's trust in a platonic relationship. Ptolemaea.

Will betrays Dustin immediately before he is taken. He cheats in the race home. He also, as we know now, is into Mike. Another betrayal of a platonic relationship. Ptolemaea.

Max mentally betrays Billy by wishing he was dead. Thus, her mindscape is the Blue UD graveyard. Caina.

7th Circle: Murder Ring

Red Mindscape

Chrissy betrays Jason by turning to Eddie for help/drugs, which is what spirals the situation into Jason's death. Murder.

Fred betrays the victim of the car accident by not getting help. Murder.

Max wishes death on Billy and stands by while he dies. Murder.

Patrick aids Jason in his attempt to murder Eddie, which spirals into Eddie's death later on. Murder.

Interesting to note here: Both Barb and Will get slugged by Henry...but not in the Blasphemy Ring/Yellow UD. It clearly has something to do with sodomy, homosexuality, and betrayal...but not on the level of setting/location. This is Henry-specific behavior, not realm behavior. They're in the Blue UD/9th circle on the basis of the betrayal, but the slugging? That's pure Henry. I want to visit this on a Creelarke basis re: my DALDOM thoughts from earlier. I think Henry is projecting himself onto others the same way he does when he chooses his victims in ST4. Local man punishes the new round of gays using sodomy-type behavior because he a) was not permitted to have a healthy relationship with homosexuality in his formative years, b) perceived his nature as a betrayal or was made to perceive it that way, and c) was then abused using his own sexuality against him for two decades afterward in the form of MKULTRA.

Or we can see them as the objects of Henry's sins.

Barb and Will are the objects of Henry's sins, his crimes in the pursuit of freedom, and they exist as the reason Henry is in the Blue UD, not necessarily that they did anything wrong. Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, and Max exist as the objects of Henry's sins, while not having actually done anything wrong.

I also have some supporting evidence for this framework outside of Henry's narrative re: the Upside Down:

Dante's Divine Comedy is his progression from doubt to faith via revelation of truths re: the afterlife. Henry's story almost exactly maps it in reverse: He starts out happy and normal in his fairytale home, but then begins to doubt and distrust the world. After experiencing untold abuses, he ends up in Hell.

Henry's story very much feels like a Lucifer tale: God's favorite angel, a creative, intelligent boy with incredible abilities, ending up cast into Hell by the inevitability of his circumstances and his own inevitable, inborn fatal flaw.

Henry comes from what is at least a somewhat religious family: Victor speaks of demons and angels readily, and even hired a priest/had an exorcism done.

Henry encounters all sorts of creatures in the Yellow UD. He encounters the Shadow Monster, the demogorgons, and arguably demodogs and demobats: Demobats, like harpies...which go on to eat Steve and Eddie, who are both self-sacrificial to a fault. It's also implied that the 1979 Massacre may have been a suicide-by-cop/"I'll take out as many as I can before they kill me, because there's no saving me anyway" type deal, given that Henry does not request El's assistance once he realizes he's absorbing the lead guard. He goes it alone, without knowing what effect years of Soteria had on his abilities. He had no way of knowing his limits. He would have been expecting them to use lethal force...but then there was no one left to kill him. On top of that, it's implied via Henry's monologue that he's at least passively suicidal regardless. Hence, demobats in the 9th circle hive-mind functioning as harpies from the Suicide Ring of the 7th circle.

Brenner "dies" in the burning sands of Nevada: This happens after decades of harming children, namely...three-legged Papa. Sodomy is defined as any non-reproductive sexual intercourse. Three. Legged. Papa.

In the Blasphemy Ring of the 7th circle, Dante meets his late teacher...and speaks to him kindly: Brenner "dies" in the burning sands of Nevada, much like the burning sands of the Blasphemy Ring...and El speaks to him kindly. She doesn't rant at him in anger while he "dies". She holds his hand, and says goodbye.

Will's S2 Visions: Will sees the Blue UD multiple times throughout early S2. He's seeing visions of the 9th circle without actually being in it...but why? Well. He then goes on to (while possessed) indirectly kill Bob, a father figure, and directly strangle his mother. Caina.

All the religious/spiritual imagery in ST4: The Russian church, the Binghams, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With GOD)", Victor's demons and angels, "[Spiders] are the gods of this world", Henry's Christ pose while El disintegrates him, Hellfire club, the article Eddie reads at lunch about D&D being linked to sodomy, suicide, and murder.

#I've never said ''sodomy'' so many times. I think I've said it enough for a lifetime. Makes me deeply uncomfortable to use that word but...#it's the only one I /can/ use y'know?#tw for what could be considered homophobic language #I am not homophobic but calling it sodomy sure feels homophobic to me #religious themes #tw csa #tw rape #tw suicide #henry creel #henry/vecna/001 #stranger things #henry creel analysis #stranger things analysis #stranger things theory

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luckspren · 2 years

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So I finished The Blade Itself. I heard a lot of good things about the Fist Law books and I am happy to report that I loved it. I was a little worried because even though I am a chracter driven reader, I heard that the first book has like no plot at all. And I can see how poeple come to that conclusion. I don't know if I agree with it a 100% though. After all there are multiple conflicts brewing on the national and international level, it's just that our pov-characters are not the driving forces behind these conflicts and range from being at least somewhat aware of how they connect to these conflicts to not being aware at all. And TBI has no self contained story, it's basically all set-up for the rest of the series. Nevertheless I shouldn't have worried (and probably should have known better, because I also enjoyed The Way of Kings all the way through and that one is also notorious for being slow as fuck)

So here are some thoughts:

First of all my edition (the one from orbit) doesn't have a map and instead you get treated to a giant picture of Joe Abercrombie himself with a look like he wants to debate me...which okay, i guess you can do that. But the missing map really bugs me :(

I was promised a character driven book that follows a bunch of bastards and I certainly got that. I think Abercrombie did a fantastic job differentiating between the different pov to the point that even without the names I would have been able to know who I was following almost immediately

even though this is a grimdark fantasy (and it is certainly bleak and violent) the tone of the book still feels "lighter" than I anticipated. Probably because of the snarky humor.

I don't really have a clear favourite character yet. I'm guessing Logen and Glokta are very popular, they get mentioned practically every time someone recommends the First Law and I really loved both their pov. The Dogman and Ferro were probably the pov that I liked the least (which doesn't mean I hate them... I was just more interested in the other characters and they didn't have that many chapters to begin with)

so this is probably a very unpopular opinion (given that I wasn't really aware of him at all before I started reading even though he's one of the main pov) but I actually quite liked Jezals chapters. Like he's a pompous rich asshole who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread and never really had to work for anything in his life. The reader is supposed to dislike him. But with this type of character the story often goes in one of two directions. Either they learn their lesson and you're in for some great character developement or they learn nothing and you can enjoy their downfall. Out of the main pov-characters I think Jezal certainly has the most potential for change right now.

So Bayaz seems to have collected Logen because he can see and speak with spirits and Ferro because of her weird healing abilities/colourblindness/whatever else-powers (like whats up with that, is every colourblind person in this world like her or what?)...but I have no idea why he had Jezal picked out. What's so special about him? Like I don't think it's because of his perfect jawline and i didn't notice any special abilities in his pov. My best guess is that maybe it has something to do with his family? His father seemed to know Bayaz. Maybe one of his ancestors is connected to the Juvens backstory? Like we know Kanedias had a daughter and apparently there were two other brothers if I remember correctly (something about the four sons of Euz (?))...at least one of them probably had offspring that survived and then had children of their own and so on.

I really enjoyed the little tidbits we got of the whole Juvens/Kanedias/Bayaz backstory...but I'm not sure yet if I trust the information we got so far. Like that family was apparently super important because they kinda invented (?) the magic in the world. The scenes in the house of the maker were super interesting, but I feel like we don't have enough information about the conflict between the brothers. Right now Kanedias seems to be the clear "bad guy" in the story, but that seems like something that could be switched up in later books.

I really love Bayaz as a character because he is super unreliable. His character can go into so many different directions and I kinda think he might end the series as a antagonist.

i don't really get the magic system yet and I'm probably not supposed to ... so if the first law is something along the lines of "not directly interacting with the other side", but all magic actually comes from the other side, how do you actually break the first law? Is the other side like another world you can enter or something? That at least seems more direct. Maybe this seed that Bayaz is searching for is something like a key? Also can anyone just become a Magus or do you have to have a certain mindset or abilities. Apparently Quai has "potential" whatever that means. I'm starting to wonder if he's alsways sickly because of his apprenticeship

The appearance of the Bloody Nine at the end of the book almost reads like possession, but I'm not sure if that was intended or if it's just pure bloodlust and adrenaline. Kinda reminds me a little bit of the Thrill from Stormlight

Everyone said that the entire cast is made up of grey characters that you kinda feel bad about rooting for and here I was thinking "What? West is right there"...and then that fucking scene with Ardee happens. I guess we really can't have nice things. I really liked the scene he has with Glokta after though

Speaking of Ardee I hope she gets pov-chapters... with everyone else now scattered across the world, she could be the eyes in Adua

Given that The Blad Itself seems to be regarded as the low point of Abercrombies books, I have really high hopes for the rest of the series and I'm very excited for Before They Are Hanged :)

#The Blade Itself #The First Law #I never know if I have to tag spoilers for books that aren't new releases #like i think you should know better #i also wont be going into the tag until im finished #so this is more for my own thoughts

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palmett-hoes · 3 years

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okay! aftg by locations pt.2

where are the foxes from?

i really wanted to do this one because i feel like people don't know a lot of these, especially dan and renee, because the references to where they're from are super super quick in the canon

(pt.1: places in canon)

again, some of these might seem a little silly for americans, but there a lot of non-american aftg fans and i don't want to make any assumptions about what they may or may not know about american geography

also sorry for the pictures being so small i had to splice them together to make image limit

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neil

somewhat easier and addressed in pt1. neil is from baltimore, maryland

i think it would be way too complicated to map, but a list of places neil mentions having been on the run: britain, germany, austria, switzerland, france, greece, lebanon, dubai (UAE), canada. this list may not be exhaustive, if you can find any other places neil mentions he ran through let me know

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andrew

andrew is from oakland, california, which is right next to the more well-known city of San Francisco, and part of the area known as the Bay Area

andrew lived in oakland until he was about 16, when he relocated to columbia, south carolina to live with tilda and aaron

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aaron

aaron also grew up in the bay area, the same as andrew, though he grew up in san jose, which is slightly south of oakland

aaron lived in san jose until he was 14, when his mom moved them to columbia

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nicky

now nicky was born and raised in columbia, south carolina. he then spent his senior year of high school in germany (so he was 17) , and then moved there for the next couple years after he graduated. if my math and memory check out, he came back to columbia at 19 or 20 to take over the guardianship of the twins

it's not ever specified where he lived when he lived with the klose family but he mentions that during canon erik was working in stuttgart. it's very possible the whole family is there too

EDIT: @enifmiimfine found a correction that the klose family was actually located in berlin when nicky stayed with them during his high school exchange year, so big thanks for that!!

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kevin

it's not specified where kevin lived with his mom, but once she died he moved into the nest. edgar allan university is in west virginia, and we can assume it's close to charleston because that's the airport they send neil through over winter break

we also know he traveled at least a decent amount for games and various teams and publicity events

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dan

dan is from north dakota and lived there until she left for college.

it's not specified what city she's from, though we know she lived in a trailer park so we can assume she lived in a suburban or rural area rather than an urban one

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renee

renee was born in detroit, michigan and lived there until her mid-teens, including time in juvie and time in foster care

after she was adopted by stephanie walker she moved to north dakota, to somewhere relatively close to dan's town. wymack recruited them from the same game, where their high school teams were facing off against each other

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matt

matt is from new york, and because he takes the foxes to nyc over their winter break we can assume he's from there rather than somewhere more upstate

he mostly lived with his father growing up because his mom was very mobile due to her job as a boxer, though she took time off to help him through rehab as a teenager, and it's not stated whether they left the city during this time

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seth

seth is from birmingham, alabama

now this one isn't actually mentioned in canon. i got it from the wiki, which isn't 100% reliable. i have to assume this is from the ec

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allison

allison has no mentioned locations to my knowledge. her parents are billionaire luxury resort owners so we can assume they have multiple houses all over the world. allison may have moved around a lot growing up

we know she chose a particular public school to attend to play exy, but to my knowledge we don't know where that school was located

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and that's where everyone is from!!! when i'm developing the foxes i focus a lot on their backstories and where each of them are from plays a big part in that. but then i often get the sense that people don't know a lot of these so here they are, use as you will

#txt #pic #dan wilds #kevin day #andrew minyard #matt boyd #aaron minyard #seth gordon #allison reynolds #nicky hemmick #renee walker #neil josten #my posts #im talkin #maps #locations in aftg #the foxes

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primrose-path-of-dalliance · 3 years

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on bren and feeblemind.

(cw: lots of caleb backstory. self-explanatory, i think?)

this isn’t something i’ve talked about on my blog yet, but since the campaign has begun drawing to a close, i want to make sure i say my piece on the popular theory that bren/caleb was institutionalized because trent ikithon feebleminded him to disable him.

my piece being that it’s exceptionally unlikely he did—at least as a premeditated plan. this kind of theory also falls prey to the exact beliefs ikithon has tried to exploit in caleb.

for our mutual reference, i’ll quote the spell description of feeblemind.

FEEBLEMIND (PHB) 8th level enchantment

Casting time: 1 action Range: 150 feet Components: VSM (a handful of clay, crystal, glass, or mineral spheres) Duration: Instantaneous

You blast the mind of a creature that you can see within range, attempting to shatter its intellect and personality. The target takes 4d6 psychic damage and must make an Intelligence saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature’s Intelligence and Charisma scores become 1. The creature can’t cast spells, activate magic items, understand language, or communicate in any intelligible way. The creature can, however, identify its friends, follow them, and even protect them.

At the end of every 30 days, the creature can repeat its saving throw against this spell. If it succeeds on its saving throw, the spell ends. The spell can also be ended by Greater Restoration, Heal, or Wish.

considering the characteristics described and implied by actors other than ikithon—caleb and astrid prominently—who are not motivated to deceive on ikithon’s behalf, feeblemind is not consistent with caleb’s mental break.

fact the first: when bren broke, he became violent and spellcasted.

when astrid describes the circumstances in which he was taken to the vergessen sanatorium (e89, 1:49:30), she refers to his lashing out as “creat[ing] a lot of sparks everywhere else” and rubs at burn scars across her neck. she says that they had to subdue him because he was too dangerous. all of these statements add up to a bren who was viciously spellcasting at his friends and mentor when he broke down.

this wouldn’t have been possible if he’d been feebleminded. feeblemind explicitly prevents the affected creature from casting spells or activating magic items. in that scenario, the only thing bren would’ve been capable of is throwing hands. from him? not very dangerous at all.

how do we know astrid wasn’t lying or intentionally deceptive? because she (and eadwulf) still cares so much for caleb that she risked her life multiple times to aid him. no one who would give caleb a map to a secret volstrucker vault with her own handwriting on it (e127, 29:29; and 30:57)—or intentionally fail to counterspell him when ikithon could’ve seen her do so—would lie to caleb about ikithon attempting to permanently feeblemind him if she knew.

to preempt the idea that astrid had set the m9 up: it’s very obvious she didn’t, since trent ikithon had clearly had no forewarning of a break-in. he would’ve at least been waiting in the vault, already prepared to subdue them quickly, if he’d known.

so it’s fair to determine that astrid would either be honest to the extent of her knowledge to caleb or make it clear that she couldn’t answer him. since she didn’t imply the latter, we can assume she was being honest. and because of astrid’s competence, it’s highly probable she would’ve noticed if his behavior was symptomatic of feeblemind over the years.

fact the second: bren’s mental condition repeatedly improved and regressed while he was institutionalized.

astrid states this in the same conversation about their subduing him after his breakdown (e89, 1:50:50). considering this with the context of their romantic relationship prior to his breakdown, her genuine care for him, and her rise to power that included accompanying ikithon frequently to the sanatorium (e127, 31:07)—astrid would’ve had the motivation and the opportunities to visit bren in person. she could’ve also kept well-abreast of his condition.

actual times of improvement and decline in the mental state that astrid first observed during his breakdown wouldn’t be consistent with feeblemind. although it reduces the victim’s intelligence score to 1, they still retain thought and their sense of identity without problems.

this is a maintenance of consistency and (relative) reason. feeblemind does not actually damage a person’s basic perception of reality. but the health of bren’s behavior throughout the years was instead very unstable.

fact the third: caleb doesn’t remember anything from the burning of his home up to his healing by the unknown cleric.

in the conversation with astrid in e89, he asks her what happened when he broke and explicitly says, “the last thing i remember is my home” (1:46:58). when he first tells beau and nott about his past, he explains that he doesn’t remember much of what happened to him there (e18, 2:51:54).

beyond the reduction to their intelligence, feeblemind doesn’t affect the victim’s ability to form memories. caleb’s keen mind feat and established narrative element of his eidetic memory would’ve still been present as well. therefore, feeblemind alone can’t explain such a significant, near-empty gap in his memory. he would still remember something.

even the possibility of trent ikithon altering them directly is precluded by the fact that the cleric’s healing removed the alterations to caleb’s memory. if all those years had been magically blocked away, they’d have returned when he was healed of everything else.

fact the fourth: sometimes, people really do just break.

nothing about caleb’s backstory is inconsistent with just... being a person living their life, even a terrible one. he was a young man that believed so zealously in his country and his purpose, abused by a powerful older man, that he did many horrible things and believed they were right. until finally he did something that he couldn’t process and broke down.

there’s two reoccurring, underlying assumptions i’ve noticed behind why this theory seems to be so compelling and popular:

caleb just seems so remorseful and traumatized by his double patricide. there’s no way he would’ve willingly murdered his parents. ikithon must have known and decided to preempt his inevitable betrayal.

everything we know about bren, especially from the horse’s own mouth, suggests that he had been willing (at least up until his mental break) to murder his parents. he was literally an extreme nationalist—a fascist, if you will. he was lawful evil (twitter source). he gratefully executed many “criminals” put in front of him, more than likely by burning them to death based on his ptsd. victims whom we now understand may not have been guilty of anything at all.

he was glad to do what he thought was best for the dwendalian empire, and he truly thought being volstrucker was the correct path. trent ikithon, his abuser, treated him as his favorite (e110, 3:30:58). because he believed.

that fervent faith, in fact, is the key to something like his breakdown in the first place. hearing the dying screams of his parents, bren was forced to confront a violent dissonance between his radical beliefs that condemned traitors (as he believed until the cleric’s healing) and the intuitive horror of murdering his parents that he couldn’t reconcile. this fathomless sense of betrayal is why caleb so deeply despised ikithon and himself.

a young evocation wizard who didn’t want his parents dead would’ve run into that burning house, feebleminded or not. someone magically compelled to set that fire would’ve understood what happened as soon as the charm left him and would definitely remember every detail once the cleric healed him.

caleb is remorseful and traumatized because he willingly murdered his parents. as well as many others.

it can’t be that simple. caleb was institutionalized for eleven years just because his abuser pushed him too far? there must be a more nefarious reason. ikithon even said he basically stored him for later.

putting aside the fact that bren having a breakdown in the way he did makes complete sense for his situation, ikithon’s “claim” that he orchestrated all of caleb’s subsequent years is not only something he never actually says (e110, 3:16:34)—it is a claim that’s patently absurd.

i’ve written meta that discusses this in the past (link here). essentially though, the number of moving pieces and assumptions that would be needed for such a series of events is ridiculously improbable. even assuming that ikithon feebleminded him—so that caleb’s mind would be intact when he ‘woke up’—even assuming that ikithon somehow procured the service of a cleric of the archeart—a banned deity in the empire that would oppose ikithon...

why in the world would he ever reasonably believe that caleb widogast, the man he viciously betrayed and lied to and abused, would do anything to benefit ikithon?

trent ikithon is a mortal man. he has power, yes; enchantment magic, authority, and a history of abuse and manipulation over caleb’s head, yes. but ikithon is a mortal man. not a puppeteer in the sky piloting people’s bodies.

he certainly wouldn’t have led caleb to a whole new family that would change everything about his life for the better. a family that would love him, truly—a family that would help him heal, bear the weight of his guilt, and find a real future waiting for him again instead of a self-destructive end. a family that would fight tooth and nail for caleb’s sake against ikithon.

abusers lie. their biggest lie, the one they always circle back to in the end, is that their victim is unique: that there is something which makes them deserving of abuse, and that their abuser is both right and inescapable.

ikithon is read as honest because he chooses his words carefully and has the self-confidence to believe it. everything he’s claimed about caleb and his past have either been implications that he encouraged others to reach for him or platitudes empty of everything except gaslighting intent.

caleb has escaped. and everything ikithon wants is to convince caleb and his friends that he continues to control caleb’s life, that caleb is special, so he can regain some influence over a man who’s come to command so much power.

the idea that caleb must’ve been feebleminded—that he couldn’t have just had a mental breakdown like so many other prospective volstrucker before miraculously, then strenuously, recovering to create a hopeful future for himself—falls into the trap of validating ikithon’s lies.

trent ikithon didn’t see and believe in caleb’s ‘full potential’ before anyone else did. he didn’t foresee a single ounce of the man’s struggle to put himself back together after what he suffered. caleb was not institutionalized to serve as a toy to one day pull back out of the closet. there was no feeblemind or other secretive plan that could only serve to obfuscate the brutal truth:

ikithon abused a boy until he shattered, and tried to hide the evidence. a crime that he’s committed against countless other children. plain and simple.

so that’s my piece.

caleb widogast—bren ermendrud—was not the victim of a premeditated feeblemind from ikithon, based on the mechanics of the spell. even more importantly, the narrative of his and ikithon’s stories would suffer if he was.

now,

A LOGICAL POSSIBILITY I WON’T DENY.

what if ikithon feebleminded him as a method to subdue him after the breakdown?

this is more or less an alternate theory that’s irrelevant to the points i actually wanted to make. but i want to talk about it anyway because it’s kind of fun.

fact the bonus: bren spent eleven years in the sanatorium.

eleven years is a long time. he would’ve been able to save every 30 days after the initial failed save. the exandrian calendar has about eleven 30-day periods every year. assuming a feeblemind spell cast on him just prior to his institutionalization, that’s somewhere around 121 possible save attempts, give or take a few.

what’s the likelihood of him actually saving? to go through the mechanics:

normally, feeblemind reduces a person’s intelligence score to 1, modifier -5. caleb, as a variant human, possessed the feat keen mind from the beginning both mechanically and story-wise. this would make his intelligence score 2, modifier -4, even after feeblemind.

as a level 1-2 wizard, he would’ve had proficiency in intelligence saves. this would be +2 to his save.

in total, the modifier to bren’s intelligence saves would be -2.

in order to cast feeblemind, trent ikithon would have to have been a minimum level 15 wizard. this leaves two possible proficiency bonuses to determine his spell save dc: +5 or +6.

it’s probably safe to assume that his intelligence score is at least 18–20, likely 20. this would be a modifier of +4 or +5. (his intelligence could be 22+ if matt wanted to be a real dick, but let’s assume otherwise.)

spell save dc = 8 + spellcasting score mod (for wizards, this is intelligence) + proficiency bonus.

this means trent ikithon’s possible spell save dc is somewhere from 17–19.

therefore:

at minimum—17 being ikithon as a level 15–16 wizard with an intelligence score of 18–19 at the time of casting—bren would have to roll a 19 or nat 20 to make the save with his -2 save modifier.

at a dc of 18—ikithon either being level 17–20 or having an intelligence score of 20, but not both—bren would have to roll a nat 20.

at a dc of 19(+), it would be impossible for bren to save without additional bonuses such as bless.

i don’t have the brainpower to calculate some real statistical probabilities, but depending on your opinion of trent ikithon’s probable capabilities at the time of bren’s mental break, he may have been able to save against feeblemind sometime during the eleven years he spent at the sanatorium.

naturally, this has the earlier-mentioned conundrum of remembering that return of clarity once he was healed by the cleric, should ikithon have been retrieved to recast the feeblemind and altered his memories. nevertheless, it may or may not be a fun thought to play around with.

#caleb widogast #trent ikithon #blumendrei #cr #cr meta #critical role #critical role meta #critrole #bren aldric ermendrud #bren ermendrud #abuse cw #mental institution cw #prim post #prim says some things #long post

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jadedxrealityw · 3 years

Text

-Rush- Draco Malfoy x Female Reader

♡~🐍~♡

Summary: After a failed relationship you and Draco lost contact only to be reconnected when you take a job at the Ministry Of Magic. Emotions begin to resurface as you both realize that even after all the time that has passed you still both are deeply in love with each other

Kody: The song this image is based off of. Lewis Capaldi - Rush ft. Jessie Reyez. I also changed the backstory for a couple of characters, mostly about what happened after the wizarding war.

Year: out of school

House: Gryffindor (out of school)

Possible Triggers/Warnings: fat angst, cursing, lowkey toxic Draco

♡~🐍~♡

high school sweethearts, that was what you were. What you used to be.

it was a normal day when Draco said he wanted to end things, going on a whole rant about how you weren’t safe with him and you deserved so much more than what a death eater could bring you. Despite all of your reassurances that you would take the risk his mind was made up.

his parents were pressuring him to give you up. His father repeating that no son of his would date some Gryffindor half blood, but you were much more than that to him. You shared his passions and interests, listened to him when he needed a ear to talk off about Alchemy or offered your shoulder to cry on.

it was the one thing he stood his ground for. You. One night while he was quietly, but with haste packing clothes into a small trunk because he was planning on apparating to your house and run away with you his aunt Bellatrix had caught him in the act.

she, in a very threatening tone told her nephew that the dark lord knew of his little Gryffindor girlfriend and if he wanted to see you unharmed he would be a good boy and listen to orders when he’s given them. His whole world came crashing down. He could take the chance and run with you anyway. He really wanted to.

but then you would never live a comfortable life. Being on the run constantly was not what he planned when he gave you a silver ring when you were both 15 with a promise he would replace it with a wedding band in the future. Now he would never get to see you walk down the aisle.

so he distanced himself from you as much as he could until the breakup, so it wouldn’t hurt as much. It still did.

‘The space between where our ends meet, Has grown too much for me to block it out’

you left his dorm that day in tears. His body almost leaped forward to chase after you, but his mind knew better. If losing you meant he could protect you from the dangers his life brought as a Malfoy, then by all means. He had to let you go. Doesn’t mean it was easy.

he never really saw you again after that. He chalked it up to his mind blocking you out if you ever were in his line of sight, like some sort of defense his brain put up to avoid any more hurt. Once the ‘final battle’ came around he decided that he wouldn’t let his father control his life anymore.

he aided the golden trio by tossing his wand to Harry once he fell out of Hagrid’s arms and with that it was over instantly. His mother and him were charged for war crimes, but Hermione and Harry ended up speaking on their behalves and all charges were dropped.

his father was sent to Azkaban for the rest of his days and for once Draco felt at peace with his father being so far away, no longer having the ability to control him. Harry almost immediately got a job at the ‘Ministry Of Magic’ as well as Hermione.

after a few months Harry had talked Draco up enough to his superiors to get him a position in the ‘Department of Magical Law Enforcement’ as a Auror. He felt strange working with Harry Potter after all the years of bullying, but they got along really well when they cooperated.

♡~🐍~♡

1 year later

“Hey, can we talk to you for a bit?” Draco looks up from his papers that lied on his desk. Hermione Granger and Harry Potter stood at the entrance of his office, looking visibly uncomfortable. He had a feeling this wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation.

he set the pen down on the desk before gesturing to the seats in front of said desk. Hermione put on a sweet smile as she took a seat, Harry following. “So i’m sure you heard our department is hiring another Auror since were shoftstafed” Draco nods slowly. He actually heard about it yesterday before he left.

“Yeah so, we overheard a conversation this morning about who it was and we wanted o tell you in advance” Harry explained. Draco’s brow went up in slight confusion. Warn him? What in hell did that mean? “Warn me” he repeated and Hermione nods.

a sympathetic smile played on her soft complexion. “It’s Y/n. Y/n L/n” Draco’s body tensed up instantly. Of course the universe would punish him like this. Waving the love of his life in his face after he broke her heart. How spiteful. “Oh” he simply said, before leaning back into his chair.

all business professionalism drained from his body in an instant “Fuck” he cursed under his breath “You still care about her, don’t you?” Hermione questioned. He just nodded before letting out a deep sigh and standing up from his chair “I’m quitting”

both ex Gryffindors shot up from there seats “You can’t quit Draco, that’s a highly irrational reaction!” Hermione sputters as he collects his coat from the back of his black swivel chair. “You wouldn’t understand, Granger” he slipped his arms through both sleeves.

“Draco!-” Harry started, but didn’t get another word in as Draco opened his office door. As soon as the door swung open he felt a head collide with his chest. He could practically hear their heartbeat race in embarrassment “Oh Merlin, i apologize!” the voice. That voice laughed nervously.

‘I miss the tone of your heartbeat. It's such a warming and familiar sound’

the person backed away and he felt as if he could collapse right then and there. “Draco?” you said. ‘No, please don’t say my name’ he thought. A smile grew on your face “What a funny coincidence. seeing you here. How’ve you been?”

his eyes mapped your body, not in a sexual way. Just noting the small changes that occured over a year and a half. You kept your hair the same length, as well as your taste in clothing. Your face was a bit more matured, but still held it’s natural beauty.

the way you spoke to him made his heart twinge. It was so friendly. Of course it was friendly, but he still hated it. “I’ve been quite alright. You?” he questions. “I’m great, couldn’t be better really.” you shrug your shoulders. His heart tugged violently.

better. Couldn’t be better. In his mind when the word better came up he imagined being married to you already and living a comfortable, wealthy life. But no, he was here. He forced a half smile on his face “That’s good to hear. Now i must get going. I hope you're finding the power. To help you make it through the darker days”

he walked past her and as soon as he was out of sight, sped walked to the nearest bathrooms. He locked the door before leaning against it. He slowly slid down until he sat down on the tile floor. It was gross, but he didn’t care at the moment.

how was he going to work here with you around. It felt as if the air was being violently sucked from his lungs. Was this what Granger called a panic attack? or was his body finally giving up on him. He would be perfectly fine with whatever option at this stage.

as he stared up at the ceiling, a bitter laugh left his throat “For now, I wait by the hour. If you wanna take somebody's breath away”

♡~🐍~♡

It had been two weeks and Draco felt as if he was going to implode. You were so happy and cheerful and- and- joyful. he just couldn’t understand how you weren’t as broken up as he was or maybe he wanted someone to share his pain. How pathetic was that?

now here he was. At some boring gala the Ministry was holding. Something about celebrating a new generation or along those lines. Draco couldn’t be bothered to care about details. He took another sip of wine from his glass hoping to get buzzed enough to fly through this boring affair.

he looks up to see multiple pairs of eyes on him. Wait- not him. Behind him. He slowly turns around as it met with the most breathtaking sight he could ever see. You strolled through the entrance wearing a no strap long lace dress. He swore his heart skipped a couple beats.

you looked like a princess ready to be whisked away, but you weren’t his to whisk anymore were you? Draco’s jaw locked in place before he looked back down at the wine in his hand. He places it down on a nearby table. “Merlin, you look absolutely stunning Ms. L/n!”

Granger. “Are you alright?” a male voice asked. Potter. If Weasley showed up, he was going to have an aneurysm on the spot. Draco simply exhaled deeply “I suppose so. I don’t think my mind is processing the fact the she isn’t mine anymore though. So there’s that”

Harry looked at Draco, studying his facial expressions. It was strange to see him so emotional “If you don’t mind me asking, how long were you two together?” he was treading on thin ice, he knew that. “Long enough for it to hurt this bad”

♡~🐍~♡

and with that. Draco walked away from the chosen one and spent a good twenty minutes talking to random superiors and wealthy couples. It was only when he came from the bathroom he heard your voice for the first time that night.

“Oh thank you!” you spoke in a enthusiastic voice. Draco stopped mid step and leaned against the wall. Now he was eavesdropping? How pathetic of him. “So Y/n, we heard you used to date Draco Malfoy. Is that true?” a unfamiliar voice asked.

he inhaled sharply. “Um yes, yes i did” you spoke. You sounded uncomfortable with that question. How dare they pry on your love life? They had no right “So what was he like? Did he cheat on you? Was he a bad boyfriend? I bet he was” his fist clenched at his side.

Draco wasn’t the nicest person. He knew that, but he showed you as much love and affection his body could produce. He loved you! Hell, he still loved you. You seem to sputter “Uh-” he couldn’t listen to this. He walked out of the small hallway, surprising you and the unfamiliar coworker.

he needed some fresh air. Now. He pushes through a couple of people with a cold stare. He walks down a couple steps of stairs and hes out the front doors. The cold crisp air hits his face and he felt as if he could breathe again. He reaches up and slicks his platinum hair back.

a repeated clicking noise could be heard behind him, getting closer. Shoes. No. Heels actually. “Draco” you spoke. He turns around quickly and watches as you step off the concrete and into the grass, holding your dress up from the ground.

why did he feel so angry? Could it be because you didn’t deny his claims? or something else? “Go away L/n” he spoke harshly. He could see your face turn to one of confusion before a stern look took over “No, your clearly upset so i’m not leaving”

still so stubborn. “Are you upset because they asked me about us? If you don’t want anyone to know i promise i won’t tell anyone. I wouldn’t want to ruin your reputation” you said, which only angered him more. How could you be so stupid?

“I don’t give a damn if anyone knows about us! You didn’t deny it Y/n! They said such horrible things about me and you just stood there like they were right! Are you fucking serious?! I loved you with everything i had and you act like as if i was the monster!” Draco’s voice boomed, you look positively frightened.

until you didn’t Then you looked angry “You broke up with me you stupid git! You left me alone and scared while the whole war was going on! So yeah Draco i’m fucking bitter! Screw you! What happened, you were so accepting of me when we first saw each other. You hoped i was well!”

you were right, he knew that, but he wasn’t done yelling. All of this thought were just rolling off of him in the worst way. You looked disappointed in him. It reminded him of the last time he spoke to you at Hogwarts, but with less crying and more anger.

“I hoped?! You want to know what i hope!? I hope you're lonely, hope you're lost 'cause I've been. I'd hate to think you're better off without me I know we tried to hold on. But where do you go. When love, it just ain't enough?” he spoke, anger leaving him and being replaced with dread and sorrow.

but he wasn’t done. “Now does it kill you when you think about me? Were you as close to giving up as I've been? I know we kept losing touch. Got lost in the rush...” he sighed deeply, trailing off at the end of his sentence. All his worst thoughts had spilled out of him like a tidal wave.

you looked shocked and hurt? Maybe he was reading your expression wrong. He couldn’t bare to look at your face. Gulping, he adjusted his tie and turned away to walk off in shame “I pray you don't hurt too much” he chose as his parting words.

“I don't come close to an angel”

he stopped. A shuffling sound of fabric heard as you made your way in front of him, jabbing a finger at his chest “You ain't never been no kind of saint” you narrowed your E/c eyes at him. He looked down at you in shame. You removed your finger and stepped back once.

a bitter laugh forced its way out of you. “But when we both came together. Hell to heaven, you were my escape. But fires don't burn forever and all these ashes crumble when we touch. We danced to death in the fire. What can we do now that the music's done, my love?”

his grey eyes went wide. My love? A small feeling of hope bloomed within his chest. You did still care about him. He was your only love and would always be, but you had both been forced apart. Draco was foolish for thinking you had ever lost feelings for the Malfoy.

now to give him a taste of his own medicine. “I hope you're lonely, hope you're lost 'cause I've been. I'd hate to think you're better off without me. I know we tried to hold on. But where do you go, When love, it just ain't enough? Now, does it kill you when you think about me?”

you threw your hands up in the air. He could spot tears in your eyes, making him start to choke up as well. That was always his weakness, you crying. “Were you as close to giving up as I've been? I know we kept losing touch. Got lost in the rush. I pray you don't hurt too much” you look down.

‘Well, we had it all and we let it fall, But I hope you find whatever you were looking for’

Draco stepped into you and reaches down to grab your hand “Y/n. During the war i packed a bag in the middle of the night. I was ready to leave my family and run away with you. I wanted nothing more then to pend the rest of my life with you” his thumb caressed the skin of your hand.

you look up from your heels and met his gaze with teary eyes “Why didn’t you?” you spoke. He smiled sadly, using his other hand to cup your cheek. “My aunt. Bellatrix caught me. The dark lord had found out about you somehow and if i wanted to keep you safe i had to let you go.”

“The day i broke up with you haunts me in my nightmares. I wanted so badly to reach out and grab you, but love- Y/n you weren’t safe with me.” tears finally escaped his eyes, running down his pale face. You used your hand to hit his chest “I told you i didn’t care Draco”

he nods, sniffling “I know darling, i should have stuck by your side no matter what, but even the thought of any harm coming to you was to much for me to bare” he let go of your hand. Now he was cradling your face. “I feel as though i am too late”

you reach into the top part of your dress and pull out the hidden part of a silver necklace you wore. The silver ring he gave you was at the end of the chain. He felt his heart explode. “You kept it? after all this time. Why?” he asked. You roll your eyes “because i still love you, you foolish boy!”

Draco was at a loss of words. Unable to speak, he grabbed your face and your lips collided with his in a passionate kiss. It was very sloppy, but showed how much you both missed each other. It made up the amount of time that had passed since you felt each other.

your the first to pull away from the heated exchange “You better not leave me again Draco” you spoke in a stern tone which made him smile “I wouldn’t dream of it my love. Now, let’s get out of here. There is so much more i want to do with you” his tone became playful as a smirk played on his face.

your face flushes slightly, but you nod slowly. He holds onto you as you both apparate away to merlin knows where. High school sweethearts, that was what you were. What you used to be. What you got to be again.

♡~🐍~♡

Kody: i- i cried writing this. What a pussy am i right. By the way my inbox is like being a wack ass hoe and not telling me when i get messages so like sorry if you’ve requested something and it hasn’t been posted. (I was also in a depressed state for a bit but whatevs) Anyways, peace!

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cinnella · 3 years

Text

Name: Eris Zaramoza (chosen name); Yin Abo (birth name)

Age: 26 years old

Sex: Female

Sexuality: Pansexual

Zodiac sign: Scorpio

Birthday: November 5th

Patron Arcana:

Death (Major); Queen of Cups (Minor)

Occupation: Magician and Shopkeeper; Former Necromancer

Height: 5'7" (1.71 m)

Weight: 64 kg (141 lbs)

Relatives:

Sethos Abo - older brother

Nuwa Abo - mother (deceased)

Kek Abo - father (deceased)

Xié Dongmei - aunt (deceased)

Origin: Born in Venterre, but grew up in Vesuvia

Race: Half chinese, half egyptian

Powers: Blue (astrology) and purple (divination) magic. Also has an affinity for controlling and summoning water

Intelligence Level: On a scale from 1 to 10, she's a 7

Backstory:

She was born in a small home in Venterre. Her father was already dead at the time of her birth, her brother only 5 years old and her mother deadly sick.

Only two days after her birth, her mom passed away, from the lack of proper medication. Sethos knew that she was way too young for him to take care of, so he tried to seek out their aunt, who lived on the other side of the city.

That night, he sat under a makeshift shelter with his baby sister, but he was so hungry that he had no other choice but to leave her there and try to find some food. Eventually, Yin started crying, which a passerby heard and when they found her, they took her with them.

Sethos was utterly crushed when he came back and she was gone... He tried to look for her, but he was so exhausted that he passed out in the middle of the street. Luckily, he was found by a woman with children and brought to her place.

When he had woken up, he explained his situation to her. The next morning, the woman helped him travel to his aunt's home. But by the time he got there and told her what happened to his sister and mother, Yin was already on a ship heading towards Vesuvia.

There, she was brought to an orphanage, in the South End, where multiple kids and babies from different places had been found, to be taken care of by people whom founded the building. She grew up a rather lonesome troublemaker. The caretakers were kind people, but the kids were mean. So she had no friends.

Soon enough, the adults had realized that most of the kids had no names, couldn't remember them or never knew them. So they took to liberty to name them, but because there were about 30 children and 15 adults, there was a lot of confusion and mis-naming.

They decided to teach the kids to read and write when they were old enough to understand the concepts, and on their 7th birthday, they'd choose their definitive name, something that they felt represented them.

And so, Yin Abo became Eris Zaramoza.

On that day, she met two kids that both looked younger than her. One was small and frail. Porcelain skin, black hair, mismatched eyes. Her name had been Saiya. The other was slightly taller than her. Umber skin, magenta eyes, jet black hair. The caretakers often called him Sykes. They were both known troublemakers and apparently, best friends.

They offered her to become friends and although she'd been sketchy about it, she agreed. They were her first friends, after all.

Years later, the three of them became inseparable and two new children joined their group, both of them noticeably younger. One had skin the color of limestone, ashy blond hair and silverish eyes. The other had dark espresso skin, curly chestnut hair and jade green eyes.

They were often referred to as "accidental troublemakers" because they did naughty things without even realizing it. These four kids became her kin, her family. For years upon years, the five of them brought migraines to the entirety of Vesuvia with their shenanigans. They were known as "the southenders".

The orphanage had a set rule. Despite the caretakers doing their best and raising the kids as their own, by the time Eris reached her adolescence, the amount of kids had doubled.

The set rule was that, once the kids would turn 17, they'd have to seek a home of their own. Eris is the eldest between her and her friends, so she had to leave first.

Heartbreaking as it was, they'd anticipated this for months. They'd made plans to try to find their roots. Upon talking with the adults, the one who'd found her so many years ago told her she'd been born in Venterre, near the west-coast.

After a couple of tear-filled fair-wells, she promised to visit from time to time, and then left to find her bloodrelatives. A couple of days later, looking through her instructions and map, she stood in front of an old, small house.

On the porch, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, was seated there. She called to him, asking if he could help her out. When he looked up, shock was written on both of their faces.

He had grey-ish short hair and sapphire blue eyes. His skin was just a little bit lighter than hers, scars on his nose and lips. Same round nose, same almond eyes, same strong eyebrows. The resemblance was groundbreaking, almost like looking into a mirror.

Though she never met him, she knew, deep down, that they were related. He was utterly convinced he was dreaming but she reassured him he wasn't. They didn't hug, for they barely knew each other, but they both cried. She was invited in his home, where their aunt had been preparing dinner. Eris' presence brought her to tears.

In the next few hours, while they dined, she learned that their names were Sethos and Dongmei, and that they were her older brother and aunt, respectively. She learned of her parents and their unfortunate fate, of the night Sethos lost her.

It was a relief to learn all this, and although she wanted to head back to Vesuvia, to her friends and find a home, she spent a couple of days with them. Dongmei mentioned that she had an abandoned magic shop in Vesuvia from her youth, close to the center of the city. Giving Eris the key, she told her to make her home there.

Once back home, it was time for Count Lucio's yearly Masquerade. There, she met Asra, whom she soon became close with. When she learned that he was an orphan, and had no place to stay, she offered him to live with her in the shop. It needed some repairs and a lot of cleaning but it was a start.

Years passed and they became closer. Unspoken feelings hanging in the air, but something stopped them from confessing. The Red Plague had arrived and it was taking anyone it could grasp. Eris and Asra, while discussing the situation one night, had an argument.

In the years he'd taught her magic, she'd also taught herself necromancy and wanted to help the plague doctors with the dead, possibly reverse their fate. But Asra didn't agree, "magic isn't supposed to work that way" he said.

So she ran away, found Julian and became his apprentice.

Soon died from the plague...

And the rest is history.

Personality: curious, caring, bold, kind, polite, calm, patient, self-less, motherly, gentle, open-minded, truthful, loyal, trustworthy, out-spoken, honest, stubborn, too forgiving and can never hold grudges for long

Interesting facts:

The small scars on the right side of her jaw, left collarbone and left shoulder are all from fainting while trying to get back her memories. Every time, she had the unfortunate luck of hitting something and scarring her skin.

She has a huge scar on her left thigh but she doesn't remember how she got it.

She also has an "apple of discord" tattoo on her right shoulder.

God forbid you ever make her wear gold, she cannot stand it. She only wears silver.

Although she's an ambivert, she leans towards introvert.

Hates lying and liars in general.

HAAAATES Lavender. Do not put her near those flowers.

Appearance: Sienna skin tone, wavy waist-length silver-white hair, bright ice blue eyes, pear-shaped fit body, B cup breasts.

Familiar: Kage, a sarcastic silver fox that can actually talk.

Voice claim: Margot Robbie

Full sprite:

Lmao sorry for the backstory being so long but.. My inner writer kinda jumped out. 😅

ANYWAYS I FINALLY DID IT, I MADE ERIS' BIO AND SPRITE!!

By the way, HUGE PROPS to my lovely beyotch @sahana-anand for giving me her bio template, it helped me SO MUCH. Thank you, love, couldn't have done it without you!

Hope you'll show some love to my girl Eris!

#the arcana #the arcana mc #the arcana apprentice #eris zaramoza #the arcana apprentice bio

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gothamcityneedsme · 3 years

Photo

I saw this bouncing around my dash and decided to fill it out myself for fun :) I decided to not double-list any games, and I tried to mix up the companies I used too so that the list would be more unique.

Long post, so I’m doing a readmore for my longwinded part lol.

(read more)

Favorite Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - I could talk about this game forever. How it tears apart the Star Wars universe from within, how it creates a compelling story while challenging the usual themes, etc. I could talk for ages about the characters and how their motivations slot in place, and how this game lends itself to interpretation and analysis alongside roleplay. It’s just a wonderful game, one I deeply love and will always love. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to have you talk to other characters for twenty or thirty minutes at a time and honestly I’m always riveted at every line. This game deserves the cult fanbase it has, but I think there’s a lot the fanbase misses in appreciating this game. (Note...gameplay is a little janky and a community made mod restores a lot content that was cut before shipping-the game wasn’t properly finished).

Best Story: Fallout New Vegas - It’s the setting that makes the story here, and all the moving pieces and factions alongside the main conflict really make this game stand out. There’s so many little pieces to find along the way in the world and the way the main quest splits based on who you want in power feels important--and you are choosing a future for this whole region.

Favorite Art Style: The Witness - This game is peacefully wonderful with its visuals. There are wonderful nature scenes and nests of wires and panels spreading in various parts of the island that are fascinating to look at. The environment is half of the gameplay in most areas, so it’s important to look around even though exploration is not really the gameplay. You find puzzles in the world, even in nature, and it’s fascinating. The colors are bright and beautiful. There is even a map in the middle of the island inside of a lake that helps you track your progress if you notice it (it isn’t like a normal ‘map’).

Favorite Soundtrack: Shin Megami Tensei IV - I love video game soundtracks, but SMTIV is something special. The music booms in ways that make you really understand the atmosphere of the world, and there’s a great mix of different kinds of tracks for different places. I love the tracks for the other worlds you enter, and the themes of the different routes are done so well. Some of the music draws from past SMT games, but the remixes done for this game really are stunning to me, and there’s so many fantastic original tracks.

Hardest Game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - I love this game but I literally never touch it without a walkthrough, which is why it gets to be the hardest game on the list, despite being a point and click adventure game lol. Also just emotionally this game is challenging too, but I definitely mean this more in terms of getting a ‘perfect run’.

Funniest Game: The Stanley Parable - Trying to make this list has taught me that I don’t really play many ‘funny games’. I don’t know if a game where multiple endings demand that you kill yourself should count as a ‘funniest game’, but it is also a game where the narrator tells you to stare at a fern and memorize its features, so....it counts.

Game I Like that is Hated: RWBY Grimm Eclipse - I’ve been playing this game since it was in early access and have loved it the whole time. I find the gameplay soothing and fun, and I like playing the different characters. It’s a game I play to chill out and just enjoy some fun battle mechanics. It’s a fun game and I’ve spent over 100 hours in it, so I hope I like it, lol.

Game I Hate that is Liked: Nier Automata - Neither this game’s gameplay or story impress me, and the fact that you have to replay basically the same stuff from a more boring-to-play-character’s pov in order to SEE all of the plot is a huge damper on the experience. The story, to me, someone who engages with a lot of robot-focused fiction, is far from impressive or new, and it hardly engages with genre specifics at all, let alone in a new or interesting way. I view this game as ‘a story with robots in it’ rather than ‘a story about robots’, which, to me, is a detriment.

Underrated: Nevermind - This game is amazing and very unheard of--and when it is heard of, it has been marketed incorrectly. Nevermind seems like a horror game, and does market itself as one a bit, but it’s much more than that. It’s more about trauma, recovery, therapy, etc. This is a game that is so mindful about the topics it engages in that I am impressed by it every time. It’s heavy with symbolism and character, despite lacking conversations or other similar game mechanics. This is a lovely game that I really wish more people knew about-`p5-all of the patients are so interesting, and the focus on recovery and mental health is impressive.

Overrated: Fire Emblem - I sort of mean this as the series as a whole really. I have enjoyed the entries I have played somewhat, but I overall consider the series much less impressive than I was led to believe by others. The gameplay especially is not impressive to me in any regard, even though I sometimes do find myself enjoying it. The stories are alright, but many of them are weighed down by the gameplay and as a writer and person who likes to analyze writing, it’s very hard to do so when it isn’t able to fully exist under the chains the gameplay forces on it. There are ways to mix gameplay and story well, Fire Emblem has not really done that in any of the entries I’ve played. That being said, I don’t regret playing them, and I will occasionally replay, but I consider them mediocre games at best.

Best Voice Acting: Devil Survivor 2 - I love the voice acting in this game. I feel like all the characters are really suited to their voices, and it’s really easy for me to visualize their voices. They really bring the game to life and make both the dramatic and the funny scenes more enjoyable.

Worst Voice Acting: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy - I love this game, I really do, but some of the voice acting is janky. Some of it is okay too--I think Kyle Katarn’s voice actor does fine, and some of the others I like NOW but hated when I was a kid, but the male protagonist voice in this game is just awful. Which is bad when Jennifer Hale is the female voice actress lol. His performance is passable though unless you’re playing darksided--the darksided ending to the game lacks all punch when you’re playing the male protagonist.

Favorite Male: Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - He’s the protagonist for most of the visual novels and I adore him utterly, especially once you move past episode 2. He’s a wonderful character who I care about deeply. I love his drive and how he fights--he’s someone who is easy to cheer for. He matures well throughout the series and his character development is just wonderful.

Favorite Female: Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4 - I really like how Naoto fits so well in the game, especially for being a final recruit--oftentimes the final recruit of Persona games (post 3) have a bit of a more difficult time feeling right with the group. Naoto works really well though, and I love her struggles and story as well. I think the difficulties she has concerning living as a woman in her field hit very deep to a problem that has existed for a very long time.

Favorite Protagonist: Connor of Daventry from King’s Quest 8 Mask of Eternity - I’m like, one of four fans of this character in the world, lol. KQ8 is not a very well liked game and it does have a lot of issues, both with age and with how much of a departure it is from the series prior to it. It’s strange to take a puzzle adventure game and make it a hybrid with what basically is a shooter, and it doesn’t really work. Add to that the fact that you spend most of your time in the game without anyone around to talk to and it leads to this really polarizing and weird experience. For me, Conner goes through what I would consider to be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare Scenario”. Everyone in the world is turned to stone except him (and he survived out of mere chance) and so now it’s up to him, practically alone, to save the entire world. There is no game lonelier than this. I adore him for his bravery in the face of it, and how he just picks up to do what must be done because someone should do it, and if no one else can, then he will. I also really love how he apologizes to people who are encased in stone while he takes money from their houses to help him on his journey. I really do think he went back after the game was over and gave everyone heaps of gold to pay them back with interest lol.

Favorite Village: Oakvale from Fable - The first Fable is the only one I really like, and it was one of the games I played when I was little, so the hometown in the game always meant a lot to me. I like how you grow up there and how your tragic backstory is there--and then how you get to return to the town years later after you’ve come into your own, and you can see it completely rebuilt. I like to spend a lot of my time in this town, just wandering around it and playing the minigames. Even though I have a house in every town, Oakvale is where my hero calls home.

Most Hated Character: Merril from Dragon Age 2 - I don’t really want to lay into how I feel about Merril, but what I will say is that it was suggested to me that I totally ignore her when playing, and I did so. I only met her for her quest, dropped her off in town, and literally never spoke to her or interacted for the rest of the game. I had a much better experience for it, honestly. She appeared after I made my choice in the end of the game, which felt weird since I hadn’t spoken to her in several ingame years, but other than that, the game was totally fine without her. I sort of just wish you could kill characters in DA2 the way you can in DAO, then I’d just do that, tbh. It doesn’t suit very many (or any) of the characters I rp in DA2 to keep her around or support her in any way.

First Game I Played: Mixed up Mother Goose Deluxe - I’m not actually sure if this is the FIRST game I’ve ever played or not, but it’s one of the first I played alone as a kid. I really loved it--this is probably what created my love for point and click adventures, and the game was very silly and fun.

Favorite Company: Bioware - I’ve always been a sucker for Bioware games, ever since Knights of the Old Republic 1 was my favorite childhood game. I love how they do stories and party members, and while I’m not a fan of all of their games, I really love what they’ve made and their style of storytelling and character driven plot. Even though sometimes their stories get cliche, I think the suit video games well and most of my early gaming was within their games.

Hated Company: EA - Bioware truly only started to go to shit after the EA acquisition, so I fucking hate EA. I know Bioware had issues before EA too, but I definitely don’t think EA has helped the situation whatsoever.

Depressing Game: The Beginner’s Guide - I relate to this game as a creator and a writer, and it affects me deeply because of the story it tells and the questions it raises. It makes me reflect on how I think of myself as a creator, and it reminds me of friendships I used to have.

Creepy Game: The Path - God, I love this game. It’s just aimlessly wandering around and finding symbolic scenery and watching your current character comment on it. Then, you go off to find your girl’s wolf, and each one is different and unique to her, and you watch it ‘kill’ her--and facing her wolf is the only way each girl can truly mature. Whenever you get to grandmother’s house, the camera switches to first person, and your eyes keep closing, so you can only see while clicking to move. It forces you to keep moving so that you can see, but since you are moving, you only get to see things somewhat vaguely. It’s got a great atmosphere, and I love the symbolic storytelling.

Happy Game: Eastshade - This game is so sweet. There’s some drama around to with many of the quests, but I like this as an rpg without combat, and I think this would be a really good kids game. There’s a lot to see and explore, and the game was made to be really pretty so that you want to paint several aspects of it. It’s really lovely to just wander around in this game and bike around the area, painting anything that suits your fancy. As long as you don’t finish the main quest, you’re free to wander, and materials do respawn, so you essentially can infinitely paint once you get far enough.

Favorite Ending: Virtue’s Last Reward - I love the questions this game asks and where the ending goes. It thematically ties together--the whole reason the game itself exists is to get the attention of a ‘higher being’--the player, essentially. I love how it plays with that concept, and even though the final game in the series doesn’t entirely pick this idea up where this game left it, standalone this game is stunning in how it comes together.

#shitpost #long post #this was fun to do #i made it so every answer was a different video game and i tried to mix up my companies as well #got 3 atlus games on here but mer #2 obsidon #llol #2 sierra too haha but still #beginner's guide and tsp were made by the same guy too but #STILL I LIMITED MYSELF OK #these answers aren't absolute because i was trying to have a good diverse list lol

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youremyonlyhope · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on the Six of Crows Duology

Maybe it’s because this took place over a much shorter timespan than Shadow and Bone, but I feel like I could pinpoint all the plot points and the timelines of Shadow and Bone better than I can for Six of Crows. When I made my post about SaB, it was easier to remember the order that everything happened. I think that because SoC has multiple chapters covering the same period time from different characters’ perspectives along with lots of flashbacks thrown in, that it’s causing the order of events to be a jumble in my mind.

But anyway, Six of Crows was a dramatic and fun (well... not fun..) heist novel, while Crooked Kingdom made it its personal mission to destroy me emotionally. I loved every second of it but I don’t know when I’ll properly recover.

Obvious spoilers for Six of Crows trilogy, but also the Grishaverse in general. (Most of this was written at the end of June but not posted until now)

So I guess I’ll start with Six of Crows. Maybe I’ll do a paragraph for each part... I’ll probably give up on that pretty quickly but we’ll see.

I love that the series has Inej’s POV be the first of the Crows that we get and then she also gets to be the last POV of the Crows too. If I hadn’t seen season 1 of Shadow and Bone first, I’m not sure how I’d have reacted to Kaz’s ruthlessness or the world of Ketterdam in general. I also knew that the Kanej relationship would be insane amounts of pining and the pain of requited-but-thought-to-be-unrequited love, so I was sort of shocked that in one of the first chapters Kaz changes clothes with Inej in the room and she ponders “Am I the only one he lets get this close?” And he says in that same chapter “my darling Inej, treasure of my heart...” I was like, I know he’s probably teasing but oh my god... we’re just going right into it. Leigh’s teasing us already. I knew then it would be torture. Moving on. Matthais killing a wolf hurt my soul and I wasn’t even aware that the wolves were THAT sacred to Fjerdans. And I guess maybe I shouldn’t have watched the show first since Matthais trying to choke Nina did not shock me.

I give up on this one paragraph per part thing already.

Something I did not expect was Jesper sort of having a crush on Kaz too. Did I just not notice that in the show or did they decide to leave that out? I guess I shouldn’t be shocked but still, reading about Jesper’s little tiny thoughts of jealousy was interesting. Inez’s thoughts of how much she hated that her heart’s arrow seemed to aim for Kaz when nothing can ever come of it hurt me. AHHH and idiot Kaz saying “I always come back for my investments” to Inej when he’s carrying her just.. this idiot. Did he ever even say “I’m sorry” at some point in the books? I can’t remember, it’s a blur of emotions. Kaz, sweetheart, you’re CARRYING Inej, you can barely stand having someone touch your sleeve and you’re CARRYING her. How could Inej even question that he cared about her more than just being another investment if he carried her to safety? How could you question it if he feels comfortable enough to undress around you? The boy’s dumb, listen to his actions not the stupid words he says.

It’s funny, while double checking how many more Grisha books remained as I walked to my bookstore a few days ago to pick up Nikolai’s books, I saw on Leigh’s website that she has another book called The Ninth House. And it said “While the books of the Grishaverse can be safely explored by readers of any age, Ninth House is darker, more graphic, and intended for adults.”

...

Ok Leigh. Tell me in what world would the scene where Kaz stabs and pulls out the eye of Oomen then throws him overboard be considered a scene that can be “safely explored by readers of any age”?? That was a lot. I wasn’t expecting that level of personal violence this early. I was just as horrified as Wylan and Matthais were when they witnessed it.

Anyway. Nina wishing for one more day of Healer training back in the Little Palace hurt. Looking back through the book just now I laughed at Nina saying to Jesper, of all people, “Do you know how to find a Grisha who doesn’t want to be found?” I have so many thoughts about Jesper that I will have to save for later. And Matthais’ “I might have loved you too.” felt like a stab to my heart. Honestly I know I said earlier that Crooked Kingdom ruined me, but I guess SoC did too and I just forgot about it all until just now because Crooked Kingdom turned it up to another level.

The friendships they all have. I almost wish they never needed to leave that boat. Nina and Inej were adorable when Nina sang for her. Jasper and Inej bonding over questioning why they still follow (and love) Kaz while also knowing neither of them ever want to stop was amazing. Throw in Kaz thinking “Because I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk to you for two days” about Inej and it’s just a recipe for making Hope emotional.

People had told me the Nina and Matthais scenes of SaB season 1 were pulled straight from Six of Crow’s flashbacks, and they were not lying. A few differences here and there but it’s pretty accurate. I think the show’s pacing for those scenes was off though, sometimes it felt rushed and other times it felt too drawn out (especially since I had no clue how these two would fit into everything because I hadn’t read the books yet). Reading the scenes made me appreciate what they’d been through much more. And I do like how the show adapted the reason that Nina turned Matthais in as a slaver.

Slowly having Kaz and Jordie’s backstory unfold was traumatizing. I had wondered what made him so touch averse, and now I get it. What Kaz went through was terrible. I could barely read the words because it was so painful. Inej being so understanding while not knowing everything that happened, just knowing that Kaz needs her to not judge him for fainting or recoiling from touch, was beautiful.

The reveal that Jesper was a Grisha was sort of spoiled for me because 1) in the show one of the Heartrenders said “What are you? You’re a-” to him so that was a big hint. And 2) a YouTube comment I saw confirmed that that line referenced that he was Grisha. This is a trend, YouTube comments have spoiled me multiple times over the last 2 months. You’d think I’d learn, but nope, I just got spoiled for Rule of Wolves not even an hour ago because of a YouTube comment. I thought I was finally safe to watch SoC videos since I wouldn’t be spoiled. I forgot that people can discuss the other books too. Anyway, Jesper being a Fabrikator is a dream come true since that’d be my ideal Grisha power. Even though I knew it was coming, I still was sort of surprised by the way it was revealed, so I’m sure that it came as a shock to readers who avoid spoilers, unlike me.

The entire heist in the Ice Court caused me constant anxiety. How in the world could everything go so wrong in so many different ways and still work out? I felt like every single page there was some new blindside and yet the Crows (but mostly Kaz) managed to figure out a way out of it. I really didn’t think that it’d start to go wrong as early as it did with literally the first very first steps of the plan failing. Nina and Kaz searching the cells and getting caught, Inej finding out that the chimney was hot and ended up melting her shoes (I was so especially mad about the shoes being ruined). I was very surprised that Kaz was as reckless as he was to detour and find Rollins. It felt out of character, but proved how deep his hatred is if he nearly risked the entire reward just to make sure that he still has the chance to get revenge on Rollins later.

Nina and Inej pretending to be with the Menagerie was insane. Inej’s internal freak out when Heleen recognized her made me feel so scared for her, but I was 20 times more scared for Nina with Brum. Those few moments where I thought Matthais really had betrayed the Crows and sold them out to Brum made me so mad. I knew deep down it had to be a bluff to get Brum out of the way, but I was still scared it was real. God, I felt so much relief when Matthais let her out, they found Kuwei, and Kaz got them all out through the Sacred Ash.

The stealing and driving of the tank was borderline ridiculous, but I was just happy to be along for the ride. Nina using the parem though... and the pain she went through afterwards while in withdrawal. God that hurt me. I couldn’t even be remotely happy at Kaz admitting he wants Inej because I was so worried about Nina. I literally was like “Kaz shut up about your feelings, Nina’s body is literally falling apart in the other room.”

I should have seen it coming that the Van Eck deal was too good to be true, and yet I was still blindsided by the attack and the kidnapping of Inej. And then going straight into a chapter narrated by Pekka Rollins was like whiplash, but I just went with it. I didn’t really realize how strange it was to get Pekka’s POV, but I didn’t care because I saw all the remaining pages and wanted to see how they’d save Inej. Then that chapter ended and on the next page I read the words “I have a degenerative condition...” I was confused by the sudden use of first person, and realized I was at the Acknowledgements, which meant the book was done.

I looked from the last page, back to the acknowledgements, and back to the last page, then I literally said “WHAT” out loud as it hit me that the book had ended with the worst cliffhanger I think I’ve ever experienced. I legitimately tossed the book to the floor after I came to terms with the fact that book was done. I was so mad.

Onto Crooked Kingdom! Boy did I not know what I was in for. I thought I did. I knew Chapter 40 was coming but instead I got an entire book of emotional destruction.

First of all, I love maps. So I was very glad to get a detailed map of Ketterdam with streets! And actual places! I probably stared at it and studied it for 5 minutes straight before even reading the book. The more detailed a map is, the happier I am. This map made me very happy.

The biggest takeaway of the first section of Crooked Kingdom is that Inej still believes that Kaz only cares for her as an investment. Breaks my heart. But also, Kaz traumatizing a little girl in the first few chapters makes you wonder if he even deserves Inej (he does, but wow is he ruthless. He didn’t kill the kid at least I guess).

Colm. I have thoughts about Colm. He’s such a loving father. I will say more later when it’s more relevant. I loved that the rest of the Crows came to Jesper’s defense to create a lie for his dad, and that Colm adopted all of the kids. I can’t even read the word Colm without wanting to sob so I’ll stop with him for now.

I don’t know how I feel about us, as the readers, being left out of pieces of the plan. I’m not sure if this is something I love or hate about the way that Leigh writes the Crows novels. It’s fun for plot twists and usually does make sense when it’s from the POV of a character that Kaz purposefully leaves out of part of a plan, but that doesn’t always end up being the case. The Alys kidnapping was a complete blindside to me. Matthais sharing the chocolates he bought for Nina with Alys was sweet though, that he wants Nina to eat again so much that he’s ok with it just being sweets. I feel so bad that Nina can’t even eat that.

The Goedmedbridge plan with all the fake Mister Crimsons was an actual stroke of genius, if only the Shu didn’t come out of nowhere. Once again, everything going wrong yet the Crows finding their way out of it somehow. While Six of Crows felt like everything was going to plan until it wasn’t and then they were able to get back on track in a different way, Crooked Kingdom felt like constant blockages and blindsides and conflicts that came out of nowhere. The story and the plan and the plot changed so many times that it felt like I was on a roller coaster getting whiplash.

I’m scanning Part 3 and honestly, this feels like it all happened 5 minutes ago not like it was in the first half of the book. But oh my god, the line after Kaz and Inej stakeout the Van Eck house. “I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together – knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.” Inej, my girl, how in the world do you think this boy doesn’t care about you? Oh my god... oh my god... I’d die if someone said something like that to me. Kaz, sweetheart, love, sometimes you say the stupidest things, but then other times you say the most violently romantic things I’ve ever heard.

And then Matthais saying Nina looked “Enchanting” in the Fjerdan clothing? This was just chapter after chapter of me squealing. And honestly, once again, meeting Zoya in the tavern feels like it happened in Part 5 not Part 3. I read this book so quickly that I really can’t remember the order of events until now that I’m scanning it.

I’m really glad that we got more of Wylan’s backstory and got to meet his mom. I wish he could have been better prepared for that, but there was no way. Hearing about Matthais’ wolf Trassel was the perfect thing to start breaking my heart. I said this last time with Hershaw and Oncat, I’m more sad when a pet is left behind by their dead/missing owner than when the pet themselves die. I nearly sobbed when Matthais thought about how Trassel must have been abandoned by the other Druseklle when he disappeared.

Matthais, Jesper, and Kuwei half-theorizing an antidote for parem was amazing. Also I love that Matthais is the one who kind of guesses that Jesper’s restlessness is the effect from him not using his power regularly. Matthais, you really had a knack for understanding the Grisha.

Ok. Here we go. Jesper’s backstory. When I found out that Jesper was half Kaelish and half Zemeni, I was beyond overjoyed. I am half Black half Irish, with the same parentage as Jesper, so that representation made me happy. I didn’t expect to shed tears though when we finally got his backstory and to get to know his parents a little. The love that his mom and dad had for each other was absolutely beautiful. The fact that Aditi died while trying to save a little girl hurt me so much. Jesper wondered if he had been older and more trained would he have saved her, but honestly, he probably would have just put the poison in himself and died instead. Colm saying “She was a queen, Jes. She was our queen” tore out my heart. The way that Jesper and Colm had to look after each other after that. Jesper trying to cook and burning the food but Colm still eating every bit. Them just having to try to be ok after losing her, and Jesper knowing he wasn’t meant for this life on the farm. All of it continued to tear my heart straight out of my chest and stomp on it.

Guys I’m legitimately tearing up all over again. I had to fight to not be a mess reading it the first time and I still shed some tears over it. This is why I can’t even type Colm’s name without letting out a sob. He loves his son and his wife so much. He always wanted what was best and was constantly worried for them because they’re Grisha. They’re Zowa. I couldn’t handle Jesper’s backstory. And every single interaction Colm and Jesper had after I read what they went through, I’d let out a sob or even shed a tear. I loved their relationship and the love they have for each other so much.

Everything going wrong in a billion different ways at once honestly made me go “Come on not AGAIN.” Dunyasha coming out of nowhere, Pekka Rollins sabotaging Kaz, the other Lions ambushing the Black Veil. It was honestly a miracle that they all got out of it. I was especially, ESPECIALLY, proud of Matthais coaching Kuwei and Jesper on how to use their powers to get them out of the situation. This boy went from killing Grisha, to helping lead them. This character development is amazing. And he’s still internally fighting the part of him that says “Unnatural” and is making the choice to ignore the hate that was trained into him. I love him.

Nina’s zombies though. At first I was like “Oh haha she can control bones, that’s fun” when she blew up the tavern windows, but that turned morbid, literally morbid, very quickly. Animating corpses. I mean. It’s a great power to have honestly. Disgusting and horrifying, but very useful.

“What do you think my forgiveness looks like, Jordie?” “Who the hell is Jordie?” When I say I gasped and my jaw dropped at that part... Literally, I couldn’t move past that line for at least 30 seconds. I just stared at the page and reread those two lines over and over again because I could not believe Kaz really slipped up like that. But also, oh my god, the implications of how much Kaz cares about Jesper if he’s mixing him up subconsciously with his brother, the brother who literally is the reason he has fought to become the feared gang leader he is and to bring down Rollins. He called Jesper Jordie. I still cannot believe it. And the way Kaz’s face looked frightened... I’m so excited to see this scene in the TV show.

Ok, home stretch.

Jesper and Colm finally clearing the air was yet another scene that made me shed tears over these two. The way that we found out that Colm didn’t want Jesper to go to be trained but gave him the choice anyway, and that Jesper didn’t go because he didn’t want to leave his father behind. God, my heart would have just broken if he’d left Colm behind. Oh no I’m going to start crying again. “His heart hurt. His head hurt. Guilt and love and resentment were all tangled up inside him, and every time he tried to unravel the knot in his gut, it got worse.” I felt that. I hate that after all of that, the conversation didn’t even get to get to end on good terms. Colm still doesn’t want him to use his power because of what happened to his mother, and Jasper says “I’m dying anyway, Da. I’m just doing it slow.” and it absolutely destroyed me. It’s like they put my heart back in my chest, only to rip it out again and shred it this time.

And then of course that led to Jesper kissing Kuwei instead of Wylan, which brings up some messy dubious consent stuff. I thought it was a little out of nowhere, but then I remembered the Kuwei did complain earlier “Why do you keep looking at him? I look just like him. You can look at me.” At that time, that complaint seemed strange, but it made sense when this kiss happened that Kuwei liked Jesper too.

But who even cares about Jesper and Wylan and Kuwei having some sort of love triangle, when the bathroom scene is coming up for Inej and Kaz. I don’t mean to push Jesper and Wylan’s relationship woes to the side, but oh my god. I swear, I was holding my breath while reading this bathroom scene. I felt like I was personally interrupting their moment every second that I was reading it, but also I needed to keep reading to see what would happen. Every touch was as nerve-wracking for me as it was for Kaz (ok maybe not, but still). And after all of that, after Kaz tells her the horrible things he did to the people who were in on Rollins’ plot that killed Jordie, she still sees the good in him. I cannot handle these two. Oh my god. These two are on a completely different level of pining. “If you ever cared about me at all, don’t follow.” Poor Inej, having to go from that intimate moment to watching Kaz be beaten and somehow win a fight with 20 people.

Sturmhond showing up made my life. The moment I read the words “fox-faced man” my whole body perked up. I was like “Hope. Don’t get too excited. Yes it’s probably him, but don’t get excited.” but when Kaz recognized him I actually squealed at the confirmation. Nikolai owns my heart. And so does Jesper now. So the little bit of dialogue those two shared made me actually kick my feet with joy. “Take me with you.” Honestly, these two together for a period of time longer than 1 minute would probably make the world explode. But oh, what I’d give for a Jesper and Nikolai buddy comedy...

When Leigh let us believe that everything was going wrong in the plan (Wylan telling Van Eck everything, the fake Council of Tides crashing the auction, Inez saying Kuwei has to die) only for us to find out that it was all really a part of the plan was just plain cruel. I was so upset. I guess it’s fitting, after all the things that really went wrong for them, they had to take a little bit more. But this is one of the few times that we the reader are completely left out of the plan, and it’s not just because we’re following the POV of someone who was left out of whatever specific part of the plan didn’t involve them. This time all the characters knew, but Leigh didn’t tell the reader.

The way that Van Eck’s story and lies all just fell apart bit by bit was beautiful, though. Masterful. Kaz pretending to take Rollins’ son was almost cruel, but he was lying, so it’s ok. I was going to be horrified if he really did it though, but I was also thinking “When would he have had time to do all that anyway?”

Chapter 38. I had been spoiled before even starting the books that Matthais would die. And I had seen a YouTube comment that said “I can’t wait to see Nina and Matthais’ actors do Chapter 40.” I assumed his death happens in Chapter 40. So when I started Chapter 38, I assumed this would be the last time I’d read a chapter in Matthais’ POV. I was wrong of course.

But Matthais’ death gave me nearly the same feelings that Owen Harper’s first death in Torchwood did. It came out of nowhere, right when you think everything is solved and all that’s left to do is go home. Our beloved character talks calmly to the person with the gun, relates to them, tells them they’re more reasonable than to shoot, and then gets shot point blank anyway out of nowhere. “You don’t want to hurt me. I know. I was like you once.” is what Matthais said. “We’re both rational men, scientists. I know you don’t want to shoot her.” is what Owen said as he protected Martha. The main difference is that I wasn’t spoiled for Owen’s death, so it really blindsided me, but he also got revived shortly after. I was spoiled for Matthais’ death right down to the chapter it happens in, but his death was finite.

And then I think we’re about to lose Kuwei, but Zoya’s able to save him. Matthais shows up, gives us a little hope that he might be ok (but I knew he wouldn’t), and dies in Nina’s arms. Nina attempting to resurrect him ALSO gave me Owen vibes, right down to the black eyes, but that resurrection didn’t stick. God. If I had known Matthais’ death would be so similar to Owen’s... no, I don��t know what I’d do. I can’t tell if I’d have been better off knowing how much it would remind me of Owen ahead of time. Maybe it’s better I didn’t know of the similarities since that made the death worse, despite me knowing it was coming.

Chapter 40 still being in Matthais’ POV, right when I had come to terms ahead of time that Chapter 38 would be the last time I read his narration, came as a real shock. He’s with the wolves in heaven. Ahhhhh. Help. The friends not even knowing how he died makes it even worse.

“We were all supposed to make it.” That’s when I started to let tears fall. I’d really been fighting it. I was like “Hope. You knew this was coming when you started this series. You are fine. You’re fine.” and then Wylan says that and I’m like “I’m not remotely fine.” And Colm telling them to say their goodbyes, and Colm being himself and making me cry with every other line he said anyway, just made more tears fall as they walked up and said goodbye.

I’m glad Nina got Matthais’ share of the money. It breaks my heart that she now has to go and bury him. I’m excited to see what she does in King of Scars or Rule of Wolves (or both, I know she’s in at least one of them) since she’ll hopefully keep up Matthais’ dream of helping the Fjerdans accept Grisha. I was beyond proud of Jesper to be like “I shouldn’t hold that much money right now” and Kaz saying “That’s the right move, Jes” in approval. And of course, Colm and Jesper saying goodbye did nothing but make me cry MORE.

And here we go. The chapter that made me actually cry. Before this, it was just shedding tears and choking a sob or two. Inej’s final chapter made me actually sob and cry so hard that I could barely read the pages through the tears. Kaz really bought her a boat and named it after her. “I don’t know what to say.” “Say you’ll return.” just tear my heart out please.

But what really got the waterworks going was Kaz having Nikolai find Inej’s parents for her. God. The last time a book made me happy cry was The Color Purple, and it was a similar situation. Celie’s sister Nettie returns to her, and I had to fight not to cry when I finished that book while on the train. When I saw the musical version on broadway a few months later, I sobbed so hard with happiness that I cried through the finale, through the curtain call, and kept crying as I walked up the aisle and out the theater. I couldn’t handle how happy I was.

Inej being reuinited with her parents was Celie and Nettie all over again. Now that is some HIGH praise. The Color Purple is one of my favorite books. I cannot give any higher praise to Crooked Kingdom than to compare Inej’s reunion to Celie’s.

And Kaz being a little concerned that he’d overstepped by doing it, then Inej insisting he come to meet them too was adorable. “Is my tie straight?” And her mom’s shock at finally seeing her daughter again, oh my god. I read this in bed last night at 3am. When that chapter finished, I put the book on my chest and just lied there and sobbed for a full minute. I couldn’t stop right away like I managed to do for the other cries. This cry had to come out and it had to take at least a little bit of time to run its course.

Of course, I’m glad that Inej got to ensure that Rollins never returns to Ketterdam, and I get that having Pekka have the last chapter is a parallel to Six of Crows, but I almost wish the book had just ended when Inej found her family.

I am at 4600 words and still not done, but it’s 2am so I’ll add more thoughts tomorrow evening.

...

That was all from late June. Fast forward almost a month, I’m finally adding to this post.

Something I was worried about when I first started reading Six of Crows was that there was colorism when casting Jesper. Reading that he was described as dark skinned and then looking at Kit Young, I felt a little bit... iffy about it. Because I know, as a mixed person, we get a lot of privilege in Hollywood and are often the only Black people in tv-shows and movies. We benefit from colorism, especially when it comes to mixed women, since light to medium skinned Black actors are often cast instead of dark skinned actors. I spent most of Six of Crows worried that they’d taken the Zemeni character of Jesper, who also happens to be the only Black character, and casted him with a mixed actor. I could tell while reading the book that Kit had played Jesper perfectly, which made me feel a little better, but I still had a bit of discomfort. I was worried it was Rue in the Hunger Games all over again.

However, once it’s hinted that Jesper’s father has some Kaelish heritage, and then we later meet Colm and he’s fully Kaelish with light skin and red hair, I felt much better. I actually felt overjoyed because Jesper was mixed exactly like me. I was relieved that casting Jesper with a mixed actor was not colorism, but a requirement for his character in order to be accurate. I was so relieved and also now I fiercely clung to Jesper as another example of representation for me. On that note, maybe they could have casted him with a darker skinned mixed actor, someone like Alfred Enoch for example, just to give dark skinned mixed people some more representation since Jesper is described as dark and Kit’s skintone is medium. But then again, Kit was definitely the perfect choice since he completely captured Jesper’s character and he said he really identified with Jesper’s mixed heritage being like his own. Basically, I’m very happy that Jesper is a mixed character played by a mixed race actor, and not another example of pure colorism in Hollywood (though that’s still a major issue). I really can’t even complain. I love Jesper and I love Kit’s portrayal.

Honestly, the casting in general for the show was really perfect. I might be biased since I saw the show first, but reading the book I was shocked at how perfectly cast they all were.

I am concerned though about Wylan. He is going to be very hard to cast. Or more accurately, Kuwei’s actor will be tough to cast and will have a very difficult job portraying 2 characters at once. And then I guess whoever gets cast as normal Wylan will have to just deal with barely appearing in Crooked Kingdom. Also, as for Wylan changing race to be disguised as Kuwei... I had some mixed feelings about it at first. I really was like “Leigh... what are you doing with this... be careful...” But then Wylan’s narrative showed him being unsure how to navigate the world looking like he’s Shu, having people come up to him speaking a language he doesn’t speak, and being treated differently because he looks foreign to them, especially since the Shu who were in Ketterdam didn’t have the best intentions. I appreciated that. I like that it opened Wylan’s eyes a bit more because he’d been so sheltered his whole life. Even after living in the Barrel and joining the Crows, there were still things he needed to be exposed to, like racism. So I’m glad the story went in that direction with his tailored face. I’m honestly more excited to see who is cast as Kuwei than who is cast as Wylan because Kuwei’s actor is going to have the more interesting performance.

I REALLY enjoyed the Six of Crows duology. I sped through the two books in about 3 weeks (I think I read Crooked Kingdom in probably only a week). Honestly, I’m not speeding through King of Scars that same way. It’s a combination of my work life being very chaotic for the last few weeks, and me being so devastated that Nikolai’s back to having the shadow monster that I almost don’t want to read on. I was beyond devastated when that happened in Ruin and Rising, I thought he’d never be ok again, then I was relieved when it went away. Now that it’s back... I’m just incredibly sad every second that I read this book. I’m nearly halfway through the book though, after the same amount of time it took me to read both Crows books, so we’ll see where it goes.

But I could not put the Crows books down while I read them if you paid me. Literally. I read during every single lunch break at work and was probably a few minutes late coming back because I’d want to finish the page. I stayed up late reading and reading and reading the books. I read on the ferry, I read in the car, I read during times that I’d usually spend watching TV shows or movies. These books were amazing. They destroyed me emotionally, in both happy and sad ways. I can’t get over them. I can’t wait to see them brought to life in the show.

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #grishaverse #shadow and bone #help this post is literally 5800 words i couldn't stop writing #posting now before it sits in my drafts for another 3 weeks

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hiraphane · 4 years

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Things in Fire Emblem: Three Houses that after 200+ hours still never fail to get to me (word vomit incoming):

When you’re sprinting around the monastery at the speed of light, the number of NPCs that exclaim “what the-?!” as you nyoom past them

“Please do not eat the weeds”

Sylvain’s pick-up formula that becomes incredibly apparent when you’re catching up on his support scenes with the girls - “Hey [name], you look really cute when you’re [activity/mood].”

Felix’s disdain for his father. Idk if I’m projecting but something about him unabashedly tearing his father a new one every time they see each other is incredibly therapeutic for me. Honestly, just listening to Felix verbally eviscerate people in general is incredibly satisfying. Go OFF on them, Fe!

The dramatic irony and humor that can be had/found on subsequent playthroughs when you know Seteth and Flayn’s full backstories. So many little things that I didn’t think twice about my first run are suddenly hilarious. (”Which [Saint] is your favorite, Professor?” I know your game, fish girl)

Upside down Claude memes

Hilda absolutely DESTROYING the entire enemy force and then complaining that she’s a delicate flower and the battlefield is no place for her like HONEY YOU’RE A TANK, EMBRACE IT

Placing Dedue in a choke point and activating his trait skill, then watching and laughing as people try and fail to barrel through this impassable mountain of a man, usually killing themselves in the process.

“Stay away!” Bernadetta screams in terror before absolutely erasing a man/woman/otherwise from existence.

“Burn until we meet again.”

“It’s all becoming clearer.”

Literally any and all of Sylvain’s kill/level quotes. He’s carried my dumb ass through so many battles I could probably recite them all in my sleep

How I never fail to - out loud - say “Thot” every time Sylvain’s “Be gone” kill line plays

The much more obscure reference of me - out loud - asking “For combat?” every time Ashe announces “I must steel myself!”

Feral Dimitri

“You lost to ME?” / “*sigh* and I didn’t even enjoy it.” / “You overestimated yourself.” - These are just some of the ones that come immediately to mind, but imagine, if you will, being absolutely destroyed by a pink haired loli or a sleepy wizard or an otherwise very delicate looking high school aged child and then hearing - as you pull in your last dying breath - them say that to you, as they stand over your mangled body. Seriously, these children are fucking savages.

How Sylvain, despite bitching and moaning about crest babies his entire support chain, will inevitably have boatloads of children if you get him a paired ending with a female character. I know his hypothetical family is a product of love not careful breeding, but it’s just hilarious to me. This man went from being pathologically terrified of / disgusted by the idea of continuing his family tree to adding entire branches to it. What an absolute Lad.

Sylvain and Felix’s paired endings. I love my boys so much.

Dedue and Mercedes’ paired ending / Dedue and Byleth’s paired ending. They’re the only Dedue endings I’ve seen so I can’t speak for any of his other endings, but they’re so damn wholesome they make me wanna die.

How much I relate to Bernadetta

How Edelgard goes from “stone cold bitch” to “useless lesbian” depending on whether you go Black Eagles or not

Hubert’s sense of humor. The number of times this man has startled me into a fit of laughter with his dry wit is insane.

Manuela and Hanneman’s bickering

Just how fucking broken Mercedes is as a healer. She heals herself 100% of the health she heals other people AND she can use Physic (meaning she can heal from a distance, which end-game essentially allows her to heal from across the map) WHO ALLOWED THIS ABSOLUTE LASS TO EXIST AND CAN I MARRY THEM????

Dancer Felix / Hubert. What can I say? I like my Dancers feral or otherwise vapid as fuck.

Trickster Dorothea, AKA the embodiment of my gay thirst. Get Dancer Thea outta here, Trickster Thea is where its at.

Hapi. Just Hapi.

LET ME MARRY HAPI AS A FEMC IM BEGGING YOU PLEASE

Mercedes being a gigantic troll and nobody being able to tell if it's intentional or she's just oblivious

Petra and Cyril’s supports and their paired ending. The way they promise “forever and ever” and Cyril doesn’t even stop to think about where Rhea will be during that “forever” is just *chef’s kiss* (literally any support where Cyril doesn’t mention Rhea is *chef’s kiss*)

“IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE?!”

Just how fucking offended Ferdinand gets when you try to give a lost item to him but it isn’t his. Like chill out man it wasn’t a concentrated attack on your noble honor, I was literally just asking to be nice and cover my bases.

Lorenz and Leoni’s meal dialogue - “Ugh, you sound like my mother...”

“I lost my brother to bandits... is something I’m sure somebody’s said at some point.” On my first playthrough that was such a YIKES joke from Sylvain, but now when I play I just feel bad because that was him trying to open up and be serious and then he immediately chickened out and backpedaled and came off as a total ass because of it. (I know Miklan didn’t die to bandits, but he ran off to be a bandit and to Sylvain I feel like that might as well be the same thing. Also can we talk about how Sylvain still obviously cares about his brother even though he literally TRIED TO KILL HIM MULTIPLE TIMES THROUGHOUT THEIR CHILDHOOD AND WAS RAMPANTLY ABUSIVE TO HIM, PLEASE SOMEBODY HUG MY BOY!!!!)

Dimitri being the literal hulk and struggling not to break everything he touches

Dorothea and Marianne having themselves listed under their dislikes like BABIES PLEASE LOVE YOURSELVES

The percentage of students who have “ghosts” somewhere on their likes or dislikes. Why are they so relevant?

How you can infer Edelgard’s entire backstory from her dislikes

“GREETINGS, PROFESSOR!”

Yuri and Hubert literally threatening to kill Byleth and me looking around like John Travolta every time like “DID ANYBODY HEAR THAT?!?!?!?!”

Me holding Dedue, Felix, and post TS Dimitri back by the scruffs of their necks as they desperately try to solo every map I deploy them on. Like BOYS, please, contain your murder. I know they attacked you first, but the second line needs EXP too.

Forming a protective circle around Dedue during the attack on Enbarr in Verdant Wind, like if ANYTHING happens to my boy I WILL divine pulse don’t fucking test me (PS Dedue, if you could stop charging ahead and pay attention to my carefully constructed plan of attack, that’d be great)

Edelgard’s little ax twirl on her victory screen

“I AM FERDINAND VON AEGIR!”

#if you can't tell i've been playing three houses again #i ordered the rest of the FE lineup because three houses was my first FE game #but they won't come for a few weeks #so i've been hyperfixating on three houses real hard #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fe: three houses #fire emblem spoilers #three houses spoilers #expect some art soon maybe idk

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fantasyinvader · 4 years

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Now, there has been a lot of discussion about what Edelgard says in the game. In the beginning, I saw some folks try to claim things such as “Edelgard is the only one who tells Byleth the truth” or “the backstory stuff we learn in other routes is not canon to Crimson Flower.” It really seems like there was a willingness to discredit things the game said when it came into conflict the lady in red. I’ve even seen the argument that it doesn’t matter that what Edelgard says is wrong, because she’s doing the right thing. This mindset has always bugged me, since to make the best decisions one must be knowledgeable about the issue at hand.

Now, as time has passed, a lot of people want to simply say that Edelgard is misinformed but doesn’t treat it like it discredits her actions. Granted, there were still folks claiming that Rhea is lying and shouldn’t be trusted. But now we have the Nintendo Dream interview, which revealed that the worldbuilding was done in support of Silver Snow’s story. The idea that Edelgard has been misinformed is tossed around a lot more now, that while she’s wrong it’s because she herself wasn’t told the truth. That other people are to blame, and ignoring the fact that Edelgard is the only lord in the game not investigating what is going on during White Clouds.

But what if Edelgard was not misinformed? What if Edelgard was simply lying? That is what I want to discuss here, since there’s evidence that this is the real truth of the matter.

Let’s start off with the game outright admitting that Edelgard is lying to Byleth during Part 1. Now, you might be asking yourself where does that happen and I’ll admit it’s not in any scene of the game. It instead is inserted into the lyrics of Edge of Dawn, the full version you only hear at the end of the game outside of completing Crimson Flower. The second verse, not the same as the first, that you don’t hear in the opening contains the following lines.

“Then you turn to me and I stop before I know. And the lie upon my lips I let it go. Cross my heart, making vows I know will be betrayed (Know will be betrayed).A sad girl’s pleas live only for a breath and then they fade.”

The Japanese name of the song, Girl of Hresvelg, points to this song being sung from Edelgard’s point of view towards Byleth. Not only that, but the progression of the lyrics paint a picture of the path of the story. First Edelgard wants Byleth to join her, then we get the second verse where she asks (flips a coin for pronouns in this post) her to not take away their hand. This points to Byleth joining the Black Eagle House, working alongside how the game’s loading messages all come from BE-White Clouds and how it is the default choice. But the last verse shows Edelgard and Byleth as enemies, the progression of the song depicting the Silver Snow path. But during that second part, with Byleth leading the Eagles, Edelgard is stated to lie to Byleth and make promises she knows she won’t keep.

This song also has it’s musical cues spread all throughout the game, most prominently in Apex of the World which is Edelgard’s final boss theme in Azure Moon and also plays during the last map of Edelgard’s route. It’s a detail you’re not going to get simply playing Crimson Flower, you need to play (or be aware of) three of the game’s routes for this to be noticed.

Another issue is how Crimson Flower keeps playing at Edelgard is Nemesis 2.0. This is presented as a good thing, as that route presents Nemesis as the hero who fought for humanity so therefore Edelgard must also be the hero who fights for mankind. Right? But if you play Verdant Wind, you end up fighting Nemesis and his unit description goes like this.

“Under the pretense of liberating Fódlan from a reign of deception, this king rallied his people to arms in the War of Heroes.”

Now, false pretense is a redundant phrase since pretense means the same thing. Nemesis claimed he was fighting to liberate people during his war with the Empire and was seen as a hero for it. This is backed up by the memoir in the shadow library, stating that they were fighting zealots, aka the early followers of Seiros. But this is ultimately a false claim, and the real motive was hidden from the people. The Nintendo Dream interview states he killed the dragon-folk for power, not to free the people.

If we correlate this with Edelgard, then her own claims she is fighting for the liberation of Fodlan also becomes questionable. As already established, her own theme song outs her as a liar. So is she really telling the truth about what she is after, or is it all a pretense? Considering the fact she pushes for a war of conquest after capturing Rhea in three out of four routes (including Azure Moon, where she tells Dimitri she never lost her heart at the end of their parley. Not that she never lost heart, i.e. be discouraged), or how she invades the neutral Alliance in Crimson Flower (after spending five years trying to get Alliance lords to defect), the idea that she was after the unification of Fodlan under her is likely to be her real goal.

It also should be noted that Edelgard is depicted as spreading misinformation during Crimson Flower. The first is when she says it will be told she’s the one giving the orders, not Byleth because the emperor can’t be seen taking orders (thus subverting meritocracy). The second is after Arianrhod, which she blames on the Church. Taking matters a step further is Bernadetta and Petra’s paralogue. In Crimson Flower, the BESF heads out after we are told that the Church is pressuring Brigid to send them troops. But when we get there, Catherine says the Church is only asking that they don’t support the Empire. Someone is lying here, and when you consider how Petra is a political hostage in the Empire’s care AND‌ how when she’s not Brigid wants to support the Church because fuck you empire, it appears that it is Petra who has been lied to. Making matters worse is Ferdinand’s paralogue‌, which isn’t available in Crimson Flower and not only discredits the idea that Insurrection of the Seven happened simply because of greedy nobles but also has it’s own bit of misinformation within the empire. Duke Aegir, after being stripped of his lands and titles five years prior, is blamed for the brutal rule of Edelgard’s uncle Arundel. His power and authority was taken from him…yet for some reason he is being blamed.

There’s three NPCs in Crimson Flower that really stood out to me. The first was in the temporary camp after siding with Edelgard, who said he believes he shouldn’t believe everything she says. Red flag. The second was a scholar, who talked about going over this histories multiple times in order to find the inconsistencies. Red flag. The third was a soldier after Arianrhod, who was uneasy Edelgard kept her forces in the dark and worried about what else she was keeping from them. Red Flag, especially considering one of her (Flame Emperor) quotes in Heroes.

“You see what I choose to show you.“

Not to mention, she only revealed the truth about Cornelia being a Slither to Byleth AFTER it blew up in her face (and because Hubert let it slip). So let’s review. We get a hint not to believe everything she says, another urging us to find the inconsistencies through multiple playthroughs, and a warning that Edelgard isn’t telling us everything. She’s just telling us what she wants us to hear.

Because it’s better for her case to blame Duke Aegir for the experiments she and her siblings went through. That he and the others wanted to create a strong emperor to rule over Fodlan…after they fought the previous one to limit his power. Or how in her Goddess Tower event (which requires a B support to unlock, meaning one playthrough of Crimson Flower), she says her father was the leader of the Black Eagles and how he met her mother. The problem is that NPC dialogue at the beginning of the game states that an imperial heir hasn’t attended for generations so Edelgard being there is treated as a big deal. And considering how the devs said that the worldbuilding supports Silver Snow and fighting against Edelgard, it looks like during this tender moment Edelgard is the one not telling the truth.

An interesting thing is her supports. They only open up after Byleth obtains the Sword of the Creator, a blade with immense power. Edelgard begins telling Byleth her tragic backstory immediately, compared to other characters who only reveal their towards the end of the support chains. Making matters worse is her telling Hubert in the monastery that she may have found what she needs to make her goals a reality. The second support opens up after Remire village, where you will lose points with her if you don’t say things along the lines of “the Flame Emperor (aka Edelgard) isn’t responsible for this even though she was working with the people who did it.”

And if you really want to go there, her Crest of Flames she uses to try and form a bond with Byleth over is a fake. Her relic is a fake, using a fake Creststone bearing the Crest of the Beast. Said Crest is associated with the devil arcana, where a man and a woman become more devil-like of their own will by being in the presence of a ram-horned devil. And Edelgard wears ram-horns post-timeskip. So, some definite antichrist/corruption symbolism going on here, along with the idea that there is a falseness to Edelgard.

Lastly, in the Holy tomb Edelgard is flat out accused of manipulating the Black Eagles by the Black Eagles before they fight her there. Or if you choose to go Silver Snow, it’s revealed she had Hubert in the shadows ready to get her the fuck out of there rather than accepting Byleth’s judgement.

So, taking this all together what do we have? Edelgard is trying to manipulate Byleth into joining her, doing so though presenting herself as a victim while also telling her lies, She spreads misinformation for her own benefit even though she damns the Church for it’s false history or when she subverts the ideal she says she’s fighting for. The game keeps pushing that she’s just like an ancient threat that also lied in order to go to war. The devs have said that the worldbuilding was done in support of the route where the player sides against Edelgard, and a lot of things in Edelgard’s narrative are in conflict with what we see/hear/read while exploring the monastery. This likely isn’t a case of alternative character interpretation, but rather the core of Edelgard’s character as she tries to lead you to the route with the theme of taking out those who oppose her.

It’s not simply a case of her being misinformed.

Edit: Also, when you kill Kostas as the Red Canyon

“I should have never listened to that idiot...What a mistake...|

Considering that idiot is the Flame Emperor, and the Flame Emperor is Edelgard, it’s possible foreshadowing not to listen to her.

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ambered-glazed-sheep · 4 years

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Please do go on about Doomslayer and his morals. I'm legit fascinated by him since starting the let's play I'm watching and I'd love to hear your take on him (I know literally nothing about the Doom franchise other than lots of blood and violence against demons and also badass music)

You know, a year ago when my friends asked me 'hey do you wanna play minecraft' and i said 'yeah sure' i would have never thought i would one day have a minecraft sideblog where i get questions about the personality of the main character of a shooter fps game (of all things!) that is known for its incredible violence.

But here you go:

(prepare yourself this has gotten way longer than i thought oh god, and also it has nothing to do with hermits whatsoever. warnings for language and descriptions of violence? and i assume the readmore won’t be working the way i want it to)

Ok so, Doom!

First of all, i know nothing about the old games, and i’ve only seen a minimal amount of Doom Eternal Letsplays. Most of this is based on Doom (2016).

Ok so we all start out thinking Doomguy! It’s the guy you play in Doom. The hand that hold the gun YOU are shooting demons with. And sure, you can go trough the whole game with that mindset, but that’s boring and we are overthinking fictional characters in this house.

ID software actually managed to give Doomguy/Doomslayer a TON of personality despite him never saying a word, barely any cutscenes to show what he does when you don’t control him (at least in Doom 2016), and not a lot of other characters to interact with despite enemy monsters.

The game just leaves you little hints and snippets and that’s what makes Doomslayer so exciting to think about. Just the right levels between ‘cryptid half-god who never shows emotion and is a player-insert’ and ‘this dude’s got an AGENDA. he has PLACES TO BE’. You are him as you play, but sometimes he makes decisions on his own. But personally, i could never find myself to disagree.

First, you got the intro sequence.

You got a unknown voice telling you:

“They are rage. Brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and Tear, until it is done.”

First of all, YO. WOW. HOLY SHIT.

The scene immediately shifts to Doomslayer waking up. He’s naked, he’s chained down somewhere, theresa SHIT TON of scars littering his arms and hands. First thing HE does, on his own behalf, is ripping off the chains by flexing a little (literal iron chains!!!), smashing a zombies head against the sarcophagus he lays in and completely obliterating said head into a bit of blood (mind you, three seconds after he woke up from a thousands of years long coma!! but we only learn that later), and then promptly gets up, picks up a pistol, and now it’s your, the players turn. This takes like 8 seconds in total. This man means BUSINESS. That’s the first thing we learn.

Second thing that strikes me is the interactions with Samuel Hayden.

Doomslayer is patient when a computer voice tells him the status of the base. He is patient as he looks at the screens to see what is going on. (a demonic invasion, thats what). But then dear Dr. Samuel Hayden calls.

Dr. Hayden says “Hi, i’m the boss here, i’m sure we can work together in a way that benefits us both uwu”. Doomslayer immediately grabs the PC screen and pushes it aside. His gesture says, i’m done with this. im sick of this dude. this guy is full of shit. And he’s right! And that after barely hearing two sentences from Hayden!

So the second thing we learn is that he has no time for people trying to exploit him. He hears Hayden, he has a gut feeling that this dude is a little fishy, maybe he just plain doesnt like higher ups and heads of facilities. But we learn that he IS. NOT. going to listen to this man, and his body language makes that very clear without being actually violent against the person (he doesnt destroy the Screen either! just pushes it aside very annoyed. He isn’t mindlessly destroying property here.)

This continues.

Hayden goes ‘hey maybe don’t destroy that energy source!’ in the few seconds you dont control him, Doomslayer listens. He hesitates. He considers. Then he destroys the thing anyways. Hayden keeps telling him to stop, but Doomslayer doesnt listen. He’s got his own mind!

This was mostly about Haydens Company, the UAC, harvesting hell energy, and hurting people in the process.

There’s a scene where Doomslayer rides an elevator. Hayden, over the comms, tells him that everyone that has died in the demon attack was a nacessary sacrifice that will bring a new future or some shit like that. the camera pans down to show some poor sods corpse at those very words. Doomslayer cracks his knuckles. he is NOT HAPPY about that, so we know he doesnt like it when human lifes are sacrificed. He destroys the communicator, so he doesnt have to listen to Haydens voice telling him lies and trying to sway him anymore.

(then he takes out his shotgun, the doors open, metal starts playing and the doom logo is shown, but that’s more about making the player feel epic than showing doomslayers personality,,)

Now i would like to talk about VEGA, the AI that controls the mars facility.

VEGA occasionally talks to us/the Slayer. He is very straightforward, tells us what to do and why to do it, and is generally very polite. In the story, Doomslayer listens to Vega.

Now why does he listen to VEGA but not Hayden?

I think it’s because Hayden tries to get him to do things that just benefit him, and Hayden is very manipulative in his words (or tries to be lol), while Vega just says (if you destroy this thing, that door will open. I think Doomslayer appreciates it when people are honest to him.

And in the end, Doomslayer on his own decides to save a backup of VEGA. VEGA didn’t ask him to, Doomslayer did that on his own. It’s not relevant to his mission, he doesnt need VEGA to go to hell to close portals and whatnot. But he does save him. Why? I think it’s because he cares. Because he’s come to like VEGA. Because Vega didn’t try to manipulate him and screw him over.

Next up is the Slayers Testament.

These are a bunch of writings/recordings that you find scattered in the hell levels. (i highly recommend listening to them/reading them, they are metal as fuck and give me such an immense feeling of power bc they are talking about me, the doomslayer)

These testaments were written by demons. They were genuinely afraid of the slayer.

Quote:

Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding, the Doom Slayer sought to end the dominion of the dark realm.

As said, i don’t think these are purely talking about his physical strength. They are talking about his... well, mentality. His Codex. They see him as an unstoppable force. He is incorruptible. Let that sink in. Man walks trough hordes of demons and at no point ever thinks ‘yeah maybe this is a bit much’ or ‘they just keep coming this is pointless’. No. He’s unyielding. (Can you tell how much i love the words in these testaments? It’s just got such a nice ring to it.)

In battle, the Doomslayer is BRUTAL. He tears apart demons, rips their eyes out, all that. He stomps on heads like they’re water balloons and isn’t fazed at all. Nothing stops this man. (except players like me who fall off the map 5 consecutive times, but lets just imagine the doomslayer is actually like he would be if someone played the game perfectly. player skill shouldn’t be considered in my headcanons jahdjhgd) One could even argue he has fun at this, because there are some animations like ripping off a zombies arm and beating the Zombie with it, or feeding a demon it’s own heart.

I feel like that says a lot about his personality as well!

He doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t doubt himself. He doesn’t question his cause! He fights to get rid of the demons, not just the ones in his way, but every. demon. He will go out of his way to kill more demons. You could either take this as him having fun, or him following his own moral codex to get rid of every demon, or him being a not-quite-human war machine, or wanting to protect humanity from them.

I would say it’s a healthy mix of all that :D

In older games, there was this whole backstory snippet of him returning to earth, finding that the demons had invaded his planet but also killed his pet rabbit (Daisy), and he then goes onto a 2-game long revenge trip.Take that as you will.

The last thing i would like to mention is this post.

Please watch the video. Doomguy walks trough the rows of random human guards. This is the walk of a man who doesn’t owe them SHIT. Yes, he wants to save humanity. Yes, he cares. But he also knows who he is. He knows what he did, and what he will do. He doesn’t have to justify himself in front of these shady scientists and jerky guards.THEY owe HIM, in fact. This video emits the sheer CONFIDENCE of someone who has walked trough hell multiple times and knows none of these people could even touch him. Yes, he would never kill them. He would not harm humans. But he doesn’t care about making them uncomfortable with his presence, either. He doesnt ask for permission.

(i think by now i am using the exact same words they did in that post. really, its worth the read. i think there’s a lot of repeated things between this post and that post by now but i encourage you to watch that video. its worth it.)

Also, the impact he has on the people in this room! they trip. they walk backwards. they go quiet, stutter. they are intimidated. They know he’s technically here to help and save them, but now, standing in front of them.... just wow. it really puts things into perspective. it tells the player that all the demons that he’s killed, all that the doomslayer has done... its noted. it has an impact.

I’m not really sure where i’m going with this anymore, but watching those NPCs react to the slayers presence just adds so much more to his character. it tells us how people see him, and boy.... do they see him.

i think it also ties a lot into how the player is made feel, controlling doomguy. all these head stomping and limp tearing animations, the guns, people being scared, watching doomslayer destroy important equipment from first pirson or pushing open doors or whatever... it just gives me such an immense feeling of power! i can’t even describe it. (...it also has nothing to do anymore with the original question but holy shit did i love playing doom for the sheer atmosphere of it. despite me being horrible at playing.)

(at the end of this i’m realizing that all of this never addressed if doomslayer is happy and content murdering demons, or if he just wants his peace and quiet but can’t help himself every time he sees a demon. i would propose to leave that up to headcanons. mine is a mix of both but in a way that makes it not angsty. like he loves to have his calm moments, but is just as happy to rip some demon’s spine out. probably gets a little itchy and impatient if he hasn’t fought in a while.)

also if you’re interested in game design and way more professional people talking about why doom 2016 is great i reccomend this documentary

...anyways it’s past 1am and this has gotten way out of hand but

tl;dr: the doomslayer is metal as fuck, he has a lot of agenda he is following, and i love him so much

#amber talks #doom #where do i even begin with this?#i wanted to answer this in the morning but that was over an hour ago now #jdakjsdhasdjh i can't help myself theres so much to say about doom!!!!#you asked for this anon #it's just so... *clenches fist*#i forgot of course that the music is pretty much the best thing ever and i've been listening to it SO MUCH while writing litve #everything about this game is designed to make you feel powerful and HOLY SHIT is it working #id software did a great job #i watched a whole documentary on this it was great #...yeah i study 3d stuff this is pretty much in m #my field haha #i've just had all these feelings in me for months and now that someone showed the slightest hint of interest it's all coming out #sorry its so unorganized i tried to at least take one point after the other #now to write another essay on why the slayer and the mandalorian are very alike in some parts but mando is so much softer #(its because slayer has been trough hell and back while mando still has hope in the world)#(i mean mando is a jaded and tough bounty hunter but all that he is doomslayer is cranked up to eleven)#(shush now i said in another essay! go to bed)#(....its not gonna be an essay its gonna be a fanfic and its gonna be great)#(mando is such a softie......)#*pushes my mando/slayer agenda on my side blog as well* ah i see #long post #...very long post #hey i've hit 2k words with this!#....i've written litve chapters that are shorter #EDIT: WAIT FUCK I THINK I MIXED UP THE SECURITY GUARDS LINES WITH A FIC I READ ONCE #or did i gave EX that line in the last ask i answered????#i'm??? im gonna go to sleep lol

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gascon-en-exil · 4 years

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Hm, if you could, how would you rank the final maps across the series?

I can’t really rank them, but I can give my opinions on most of them. I don’t know how much value it’ll have though since I freely admit to not playing on the higher difficulties where gameplay conversations are seen as having genuine merit. Anyway:

FE1/11 and 3/12 - only reached the end of the DS remakes, and as is the case with most of Archanea I don’t remember them very well except that Medeus is a pain in both. Shadow Dragon’s last map is also incredibly long as I recall...assuming you don’t just warpskip to the boss of course.

FE2/15 - never got to the end of Gaiden, but Echoes’s last map is an interesting mix of entertaining and frustrating. The layout is certainly distinctive, as is the novelty of using Alm and Celica’s armies together for the first time. Jedah’s gimmick is a nuisance though and I don’t care for Duma and his AoE attack and invulnerability to most attacks.

FE4 - the longest map in a game infamous for long maps, but unlike Chapters 2 and 7 Endgame offers a decent challenge to help cover up the tedious distances and backtracking. There’s also a good increasing scale of difficulty from one castle to the next, with the only real letdown being Manfroy whom is technically optional although I’ve never skipped him. Hate fighting Ishtar and the falcon knight sisters and most of the Deadlords, and it does suck a bit that the sudden rush of enemies with skills and holy weapons makes a fair number of your units dangerous to field on the front lines.

FE5 - also don’t remember it too well. The map itself is a nightmare like most of Thracia’s maps tend to be, but Veld is a joke in more ways than one. Also more Deadlords...whee.

FE6 - all of the GBA games follow a pattern of a two-part final map with the first being a gauntlet ending in a major story villain and the second being your army rushing the final boss. Binding Blade’s is the worst in both regards. First you’re trudging your units from altar to altar fighting dragons and getting an awkward backstory dump after each one, then you finally kill Jahn at the end, and then you get to Idunn who’s a joke and isn’t even that hard to kill with Roy for the secret best ending. Three Houses gets flak for clumsy lore dumps in its lategame, but I think I honestly prefer them to what we get here. At least Rhea manages to be sympathetic.

FE7 - the best of this trilogy, mostly on account of it kicking off with a boss rush of Blazing Sword’s greatest hits reincarnated as OP morphs. Nergal is pretty standard, but the second part deserves comedy points for pitting you against a generic and calling it a final boss.

FE8 - the monsters of Sacred Stones aren’t the most engaging of enemies, especially if you play the postgame Creature Campaign at all since there it’s nothing but monsters. This drags down the last map in my opinion, since it’s just a monster map with some mildly creative architecture and Lyon waiting for you at the end. Fomortiis is nothing special either apart from the originality of his not being a dragon.

FE9 - may be my favorite final map aesthetically, in large part due to the ironic contrast between the still tidy and peaceful Crimean palace gardens and the massive Daien army awaiting you. Similarly it may be the most mundane final map in the series with nothing much supernatural going on unless you’re playing on Hard (or Japanese Maniac) mode where Ashnard goes berserk and you have to kill him twice. I never do though, and Ashnard moving with his colossal range in higher difficulties means you don’t get to experience a good half or so of the map. I’d rather not deal with that, especially since he’s got the same nigh-invulnerability issue as Duma going on.

FE10 - depends on if we’re talking only 4-E-5 or the entirety of the Goddess Tower. The true last map is kind of bland and is more about having a good setup and positioning than dynamic tactics, because Ashera and her auras and AoEs are nothing if not predictable. The maps ascending the tower on the other hand offer a nice mixture of quick challenges that let this game’s massive cast come together for the first time (so like Gaiden/Echoes only with a roster over twice the size) and show off what they can do at their best...on Easy anyway. In Normal and Hard it’s Ike and the laguz royals and maybe about a dozen other viable units all the way up.

FE13 and 14 - I barely remember any of these to be quite honest. Awakening’s is as mediocre as every other map in that game and ends with the horrible non-choice for Robin that underscores how FE13 is terrified to have any genuine stakes. Fates’s three final maps each approximate the general tone of their respective routes: Birthright’s is the most series-typical, Conquest’s is the most creative, and Revelation’s is the most gimmicky and tedious.

FE16 - probably what most people reading this came for, so I’ll go ahead and break it down further by route.

SS - horrible by every parameter but the music, which is nothing special since all three final map tracks are excellent. There’s no setup worth mentioning to explain why Rhea is suddenly attacking you, and you’re stuck fighting enemies on all sides including a ton of flying monsters that hit extremely hard and also have to be taken out to do any serious damage to the Immaculate One. The map architecture is more of a hindrance than a help, and Rhea’s long-range attacks are if I recall the most deadly of any of the final bosses. The NG Maddening LTC crowd can have this one.

AM - feels more dangerous than it is, until you realize that you can skip large chunks of the map including Myson trolling you with his HP-to-1 spell on the right. Funneling your units through the smaller chambers on the left skips the worst of it and lets you right off into the throne room, where the Hegemon is overall less threatening than the horde of magic users surrounding her. I dislike the non-final version of this map in VW/SS more, if only because you have to move faster there if you want to stop Dedue from committing suicide by gremory/mortal savant.

VW - deserves a nod as the only wholly unique final map in Three Houses, even if conceptually it’s just Deadlords in a swamp (that you can get rid of, a nice touch). Nemesis is without question the weakest final boss as the only one without multiple health bars, and it’s not like you wouldn’t have taken out all of the zombie Elites on the way to him anyway. At least he puts up a pretty good fight when he’s by himself, although it’s still not hard to swarm him.

CF - comparable to AM’s in that you can skip large chunks of the map to make it easier, in this case by concentrating all your forces right up the middle to kill the Immaculate One before the enemies on the side can get to you. The faster you do it the fewer enemies you have to fight and the less fire you have to wade through, which is all a plus in my book. It helps that the Immaculate One here is weaker than she is in SS, and instead of being surrounded by monsters and constructs the other enemies in her immediate vicinity are ones like Cyril and Catherine who are still a pain to deal with but nowhere near as durable.

So for FE16 specifically I’d probably go AM > VW > CF > SS.

#Fire Emblem

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randomkposts · 4 years

Text

Favorite FFIV WMG’s (from TV tropes)

Ffvi WMG Celes and Maria are really the same person. Celes apparently looks exactly like Maria, sounds exactly like Maria, and is able to sing opera well enough to pose as Maria. Further, the real Maria never shows up, and nobody claims to have even heard from her while Celes is with your party. Celes agrees to the impersonation plan rather quickly, after seeming to resist for all of a few seconds. Opera isn't something a beginner can just take up and instantly master. Also, it's unheard-of for one opera singer to sound exactly like another, even when they have the same range and type of voice. To be able to perform that well during the opera scene, Celes must really be a professional opera singer with years of training. Due to her genetic augmentation and magitek infusions, Celes may not have needed much combat training to perform her military duties, which may have allowed her enough free time during her off-duty hours to pursue a secondary career as an opera singer. Perhaps she has a teleport spell that lets her get to and from the opera house quickly. But she may be embarrassed about her passion for opera, fearing it may clash with the "tough chick" image she tries to project among her military comrades, so she hides this side of herself by taking on a different name and pretending to be someone else. Out of my head, boy! Strangely enough, she does have a secret teleport spell she doesn't tell people about: When Kefka catches up with the party under the magitek factory, she teleports away with him. Needless to say, she doesn't have this power when she's under your control, so she must be keeping it secret for some reason. WMG Banon and Duncan were the same person. Think about it, we get no backstory for Banon, none at all. And he and Duncan share the same sprite, Duncan just has a different color palette. Sure, you could chalk it up to being lazy, but remember that when Edgar was using the alias Gerad, he used the same sprite as normal with a different color palette. So why not pull the same trick with Duncan and Banon, use the same sprite but different palettes to hint they're the same guy? Think about it, if they were the same person, then Duncan would easily be found by the Empire as a famous martial arts master. So he makes up an alias, and whenever the Returners refer to their leader, they use his alias "Banon" to keep his identity secret. When Vargas "killed" Duncan, he took the chance to drop out of sight and devote his full energy to the Returners - remember that the timeframe when Vargas killed Duncan more or less lines up with Locke rescuing Terra, so if we assume he sent word to Banon of this young woman who could use magic, it makes sense Duncan would use the "death" excuse to vanish and take on the Banon persona full-time. This is why Banon vanishes in Vector when the Floating Continent rises, he's going back to hide under the Duncan persona again. This is also why, despite the fact he's supposedly alive the whole time, we never see Duncan in the World of Balance - because we do see him, as Banon. This would also explain Banon's Pray/Health ability which seems to be magic, Duncan would naturally have the ability to harness the same type of energy that powers Sabin's Blitzes. But then why doesn't Sabin say anything? Simple - he knew, he was in on it. Being that Terra never knew who Duncan was it would make no sense to point it out to her. The people who ought to have been told Duncan was Banon knew, and the people who didn't need to know weren't told. Even Duncan's wife mentioning he's dead fits in with the idea, she either didn't know about his double life or did know and lied to people to keep up the charade. That's actually not a bad theory. When you meet Duncan in the World of Ruin, he doesn't say a word about Vargas, even though that was a far more obvious reason for him to be dead than the End of the World as We Know It. That also explains something that has always bugged me a bit, why Sabin was immediately accepted as part of the returners. Locke and Edgar had already been shown to be members, Terra being recruited is part of the story but Sabin just seems to be along for the ride for no real reason. If he was already secretly a member already then there would be no reason to try and recruit him. Sabin is probably along for the ride because he's a capable fighter, and Edgar's brother. That, or the fact that Sabin was the most distraught when his father died, poisoned by the Empire, so he'd probably be part of the Returners anyway if he knew about them. Assuming Duncan is Banon, if Sabin ever told Duncan why he ran away, then Duncan might recruit him into the Returners and make sure he knew about the Banon alias. This theory has a tangential yet interesting implication: Was Vargas really Duncan's son? An argument against this would be that Banon betrays no hint that his son just died; shouldn't he be in grief? Yes, but neither do his parents. You can speak to both his mother throughout the game and his father later in it, and neither of them have a single word to say about the death (or even the existence) of their child. The only way I can see to explain that are that Vargus, being an uncontrollably antagonistic psychopath who kills (or claims to kill) his own father over a snub, without any display of remorse or guilt, was so awful a person that even his own parents wouldn't acknowledge him (perhaps politely expressed by his father in the form of shunning Vargas in favor of Sabin). Which *whew* would explain why Banon expresses no reaction about the death of 'Duncan's' son. Maybe he even feels relief inside. Or, 2: There's some stupidly convoluted scenario involving Duncan lying to Vargas about being his father. I prefer the first idea. The World of Balance has continental drift margins. At the western edge of the western-most continent, and at the eastern edge of the eastern-most continent, the shapes of the lands are such that they just about fit together, like South America with Africa. Chalk that one up to the original War of the Magi. The world before that might well have been one prosperous continent that was subsequently split apart and reduced to a barren wasteland. (Fridge Brilliance moment...) I hadn't actually thought of the drift being that recent, but it makes perfect sense. That opens awesome possibilities for the layout of the pre-Magi world map. Kefka is Baram. Kefka grew up in a crappy orphanage, where he learned to steal and fight to survive. As he grows up, he is noticed by someone in the Empire, and is taken in to become a soldier. He grows up more and becomes a general, etc etc. When the Espers were discovered, he was prepared to become the first Magitek knight. However, it seems unlikely that Cid and the Emperor Geshtal hadn't experimented at all before trying it on one of the best soldiers, so they probably tried weaker Espers on weak animals or criminals, and Kefka got to see the results, which were likely filled with Body Horror and insanity. The esper he was to be infused with was also probably out of control. It freaked him out badly and he ran away, hoping to escape the experiment. Government propaganda covered his escape as him going on a mission or something. Kefka drew upon his past experience of thieving and fighting, and became a robber with the name of Baram. He met Clyde, etc etc., until he gets injured. He begs to be killed, because he remembers what the Esper infusions did to the subjects, and wants to escape that fate. Clyde leaves him behind, and he gets brought to the Empire, where he is forced to become a Magitek knight. His anger and feelings of betrayal are amplified by the Esper's anger, causing him to snap and become permanently hate filled and angry, as well as insane. Also, both Baram and Kefka lose self-control when they see their blood: Baram breaks down when he's injured, and Kefka goes berserk when Celes stabs him. note I know this reads like bad fanfiction, and I got the idea from a Youtube comment, but I don't think this has too much fridge logic. So Shadow tried to make amends by finishing Kefka/Baram off on the floating continent? Interesting theory. That... is disturbingly plausible. I have to admit, I don't favor this theory and even I have to say it's surprisingly plausible. Good job. Madeline is the most badass character in the game She made it through the Cave to the Sealed Gate, apparently alone and without weapons, certainly without magic, and somehow opened the gate to the Esper realm and got inside, something that on the two other occasions it is down needs the magic force of multiple Espers to be done. Even the Espers don't know how she managed to get into their realm, so clearly her ability surpasses even them. It's fortunate for the Empire Madeline isn't a playable character or she'd probably be able to take out the Guardian and storm the palace on her own. CID : Designated Good Adopted Grandparent: Cid. After his esper infusion process turned Kefka into what he is, he tweaks the process and then runs it on the child he has been entrusted to raise, which is to say Celes. Maybe he tested it on some more folks before he did it to her, maybe he didn't, but she was certainly too young to give any kind of meaningful consent to the procedure. After that he let her be raised as a Child Soldier. But nobody ever calls him out for this particular ethical shiner. There's also the fact that he researched the detained espers (a process that left Ifrit and Shiva near death) in the first place. The only regret he seems to feel is that his discoveries were misused; he's perfectly content with what he had to do to make them. It might be that the only reason that he was entrusted with Celes' care was because Emperor Gestahl told him run the process on her. In that case the fact that Cid treated her as a child instead of a test subject is to his credit, not that it excuses him being involved in the research in the first place. Nobody may call Cid out for it, but he does express regret himself, saying that there's no excuse for what he's done to the Espers, or for what he's made out of Celes's life.

Ffvi Wmgs

What if all the rentals had a cover outside of their job, and Celes is Maria

#ffiv #love the celes as opera singer #such a cool thought

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supergenial · 4 years

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Cindered Shadows was pretty decent

I recently finished the Cindered Shadows DLC and decided to once again write about my impressions, don't worry though, this one isn't as long as the previous ones. Spoilers: I think this is as good as fire emblem is gonna get for a while.

1) No Agarthans, thank GOD

A story as old as fire emblem: There's an interesting human villain with down to earth motivations or obsessions, but in the large scale of the story they're overshadowed by a supernatural being who wants to destroy the world for no reason other than "they're just evil". This is Edelgard and the Agarthans, Arvis and Manfroy/Loptous, Rudolph and Duma, Ashnard and Ashera, Walhart and Grima... you get it. This shit sucks to put it bluntly. Having these stereotypically evil bad guys who are clearly evil is one of the main things that brings down the plot of any fire emblem game. I'm of the belief that they should kick out these supernatural villains and just leave us against the human villains, the one's with actual ideals and beliefs other than "hurr durr, destroy the world".

And then there’s our villain for this DLC. Now yes, it feels like they recycled a certain professor from the Harry Potter series, but I like that he is "The" bad guy for the DLC, he's not being controlled by anyone. He's obsessed with Byleth's mom and in-game this makes a lot of sense. If Byleth, who is incapable of communication, can drive people crazy for them just by existing then just imagine a Byleth who can actually talk. Her "waifu" charms must be off the charts, so I can't blame this guy for being obsessed. More importantly he's not being controlled by the Agarthans, he's not being played by anyone. He's a man who's lived a righteous life, he took care of a lot of people who all love him but ultimately decided to use them for his own gain and his own obsessions. As far as FE villains go... He's good, honestly, great job Intelligent Systems, I expected a lot less.

2) Reduced avatar wanking

Shots fucking fired

Sure, Byleth's mom is a main focus of the plot, and Byleth is the one who sets the plot in motion, but rarely does it feel like the game is going "gee Player, you're so great, you're our god, we all love you and want to marry you". Byleth still plays a large role sure (unfortunately) but it still feels like this is the story of Yuri and his gang with Byleth being their strategist which is, idk, way better than the idea behind the main game? The one where Byleth turns into a literal god, gets every achievement of the army attributed to them only, has every other conversation remind us how glorious Byleth is, etc.

In fact the dlc goes as far as having Hapi constantly belittle Byleth and even make fun of their communication skills by calling him Chatterbox (good job to the localizers, she doesn’t say this in the japanese audio). Get that teacher’s ass girl, destroy them. (Obviously I would hate this behavior if it was directed to someone else, but in this case I'm willing to make a concession).

3) Yuri's backstory

Ashe: I admire and love this man who is my only parental figure but Rhea said he's kind of bad so I killed him Yuri: Church ordered me to kill a bunch of thieves and delinquents and I refused

You have no idea who much I love the fact that Yuri is someone who protested his orders and got kicked out of the church for refusing to kill civillians. This instantly sends him very high in my rankings. Playing through the first half of the game all I wanted was to stop and say "No, Lady Rhea, fuck you. I don't think it's very cash money for the most powerful military force in the continent to eradicate a lightly armed militia of farmers (with popular support in their locality!)" this is what true imperialism is all about! But there is sadly no option for that.

Just by telling us that Yuri is someone who was punished for saying "No, these orders are inhumane, I refuse to carry them out" that is enough for me, the game is saying "yes, we know, have your compensation price". In the end Yuri is extremely loyal to Rhea which is unfortunate but hey, at least they lampshaded one of the most glaring issues I have with the main game, so that's at least something.

4) "You've obtained all information. Proceed with the story, NOW"

Rather than wasting time forever thinking up which activity I should carry out, abyss is simply a place where you talk to the abyssal denizens to get some plot information or speculation, and boom, you're done. No running around forever, no quests, no doors that take ages to load. You can perfectly skip the abyss parts and at most you'll miss out on Edelgard's conversation with Dimiri (which is fucking hilarious) and a few rusted weapons that can be forged but that's it. Upon talking to every resident of the abyss the game will actually say you’ve acquired all information and will prompt you to go into combat rather than assume you want to dilly dally for a while.

I actually rather like this and would not be opposed to it being the philosophy behind future in-between segments between chapters. I can understand IntSys wanting to load in a ton of features like a sauna and fishing to rack up excitement for the game, I know I was excited for fishing, but when these activities have rewards tied to them, replaying becomes kind of a chore, "aw geez, I have to fish 69 fish to reach professor rank A+ AGAIN" (I actually had to when trying to get the piss screen from clearing maddening). Getting only some conversations and a bit of context for the story, that's... pretty good honestly, I liked this better than the monastery and better than My Castle. Throw in some skits with multiple characters at once and I’m gold

(seriously how come there’s no scenes with the three of the bros, Dimitri, Sylvain and Felix all hanging out together, the fact that a third character never shows up in support conversations is fucking bad)

5) Sometimes less is more

I've extensively complained about three houses already but bear with me. Yet another thing that infuriates me about the game is the extensive amount of work it required. I truly do think that if they had released only the blue lions route and left everything else in the plot as mysterious and unexplained loose ends left entirely up to speculation, that'd be a great game on it's own. Instead I have to see all the hard work that went into making the other routes only so that, in the end, they just had me going "well it was ok I guess". Every scene in the game requires work, many hours of coding, writing, voice acting, sound editing, making sure the models don't look too messed up, bug testing, etc. The amount of work that went into three houses was brutal regardless of what you think of the final product, yet a lot of people didn't even bother playing through all of that. So yes, I honestly wanted less, give me a more concise game rather than spreading too wide and ending up thin.

Cindered Shadows on the other hand is concise to a fault to make up for that. The story is pretty straightforward and leaves no loose ends to itself, there's no anime cutscenes, no supports (within abyss, you can support them all in the main game). There's even that very awkward sacrifice scene where some characters are having their life and blood drained from them yet the visual representation we see is just them standing around like normal, with Yuri even doing that hand pose he does all the time instead of squirming in pain or something. It's very awkward looking, objectively not good, but it gets the point across and doesn't make me go "wow you put in all this effort for nothing" because the whole thing is also fairly short (5 to 10 hours in hard mode).

I know, it sounds like I'm shitting on the dlc, but the point is I'd much rather get something short that leaves me satisfied than something like the main game that makes me go "this could've been so hecking gooood if they changed X" for the rest of my life.

6) The gameplay

Chapter 4 is my favorite mission in the whole game

They made Hard Mode good. I previously said maddening was the one difficulty where this game made sense, but this one achieves perfection with just hard mode. This is because the team actually knows what you have. In the main game there's all sorts of variables to account for due to the large amount of player expression that is possible, you can reclass anyone into anything and throughout many lucky or unlucky level ups, maps can be entirely different based on that rng and choices. Here though, your characters already have solid bases starting at lvl 20, and you can't reclass too much so the devs know exactly what you're working with and can plan accordingly. Beating the maps feels incredibly satisfying not just because the objectives have more variety now, but also because you feel like you found the right way to use the tools you were given. This is why the first few chapters of any fire emblem game often feel so good, because the devs know exactly what you have.

Not that I think player expression is bad! It's very satisfying to warp skip chapters and to use broken units like battalion vantage+wrath Dimitri as these things make you feel like you've truly subjugated the game, but it takes some time for those things to really take off. There's a time to reap and a time to sow, and the sowing time can get pretty dull sometimes but that's what makes the payoff feel worth it. Still, for a short experience like cindered shadows is, this style just fits perfectly, plus chapter 4 has quickly become one of my favorite chapters in the whole game, along with chapter 6.

7) In The End

Idk folks, I just like it. If you just want more adventures with the three lords, this is it.

If you’re looking for any excuses to avoid this I'd say the better ones are: maps are reused from the main game (they work much better here though), it's 10 hours at most so it's price-to-cash ratio isn't very good with the expansion pass being $30, and also the Abysskeeper feels a bit TOO winkwink nudgenudge to me, especially since Gatekeeper was popular enough to make it into Super Smash Brothers. Like yeah bro, we get it, we all love Gatekeeper, you didn't have to do this.

I also like that they finally gave Dimitri a semi-problematic quote where he says he kinda likes the idea of poor people living underground out of sight, I think it’s a very rich-white-boy flaw to have and not entirely awful given his life experience up to that point. And yes I do think he has no flaws and is entirely unproblematic in the main game, “feral” as he may look it doesn’t seem like he goes around killing civilians or doing anything other than busting up imperial troops which is kind of justified since they started the invasion, on top that he’s the strongest unit in the game and the most chill and honest ruler once he calms down, so little dent in his record that’s irrelevant in the large picture is indeed welcome.

Overall though, after being so massively disappointed by the Fates DLC, so much I didn't even bother with the ones for Echoes, I certainly like what I'm seeing here and that's a good sign, bravo Intsys.

#fire emblem #cindered shadows #spoilers #review #deep analysis

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