now that tumblr user exocynraku mentions it, the PO3 rarely dealt or explored their powers.
DOVEWING in the OOTS has more inner conflict and morality regarding her power. Her POVs are alwas tinged with a hint of loneliness and sadness, because of her powers and her alienation from her family and clanmates. But...the PO3 and holly and lion and jay don't really focus on that aspect. instead, the PO3 spends more time on petty clans going ons, Sol and even just the three hating their mom instead of exploring the nuanced responsibilities and new actual alienation they may feel with their powers and the looming knowledge that they are literally more powerful than god.
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There are a lot of conversations on my dash today about why Astarion might have been chosen as such a cornerstone to the Ritual, why he got so much "special attention" (because he used to be a magistrate/noble-adjacent and Cazador liked to degrade him because of it, because he resisted the hardest and was hardest to break, because Cazador saw himself in him, etc.), and it had me thinking, so without littering all over someone else's post, I'd like to add my personal little theory:
I don't think there was a real reason to it at all.
Like, for starters... I don't think Cazador really thought of his spawn as people. Maybe in the beginning, when he turned his first, there was something almost special to it, a connection, but after already having turned thousands, someone having been at one point a magistrate, or a doctor like Dalyria, or something would, imo, be of little importance to him. The person is already his spawn, his slave, and to care at all about their past life as a person would imply that he is not fully thinking of them as just playthings at best (and cattle at worst), as implements to be used, which I kinda... don't think he's about? He doesn't seem to care beyond who or what is useful and/or entertaining to him, not even for his own niece: even her, he seemed only to care about breaking, but afterwards... didn't really seem to pay much actual attention to her, or favor her much at all. Amanita could just stay in the attic for all he cared.
By thinking of them in terms of who they once were, he'd be temporarily giving them back their personhood, even just in his head, and that to me would imply that Cazador doesn't believe his control to be unshakable and absolute, which... the dialogue to me says that he probably does. Like there's dialogue if you go to him without Astarion in the party, when he says something like "[when you don't return from this place] he will come here, because he knows nothing else"- not a shred of doubt in his mind that Astarion is still under his control, even in absentia, and will come back if only there isn't another influence (the player) to keep him from it. Because Astarion's identity to Cazador is that of a spawn, and not a person. (Really uncomfortable to think about how Cazador probably sees more of himself in the player than he did in any of the spawn, just from the way he talks to you.)
This kind of plays into the whole "morality of immortal beings" thing I've already talked about before with Mystra, that Cazador, believing himself immortal (especially as vampire ascendant, I fully buy that he thinks himself a god then), also thinks himself and his will inevitable. He doesn't conceptualize his own mortality, he's content torturing the others and staying in veritable stasis for as long as it takes, and while it annoys him that Astarion is taking a long time and would prefer it if things sped up, he's certain that he will eventually get what he is "due". The suffering of others in the meantime be damned.
I think that there was honestly no real, thought-out reason for why Astarion specifically was "chosen" to be in such a precarious position of being the "favorite-but-not-favored" of Cazador. I don't think there was a true reason for why any of the seven were chosen over the other seven thousand to be the "family"- maybe they were the most, shall we say, aesthetically pleasing ones, or the ones with talents Cazador thought would make their "hunting" easier... or just the ones to whom he, for some reason, took a shine, like one would prefer one pair of socks over another. Maybe he just picked the nicest-looking pieces out of a pile of pebbles for no reason other than amusement.
I think many of us want to try to think of reasons why something so horrible could have happened to someone (especially someone that we care about, even if they're fictional), and try to find logic in abuse, if only so it can make some twisted sort of sense in our heads: He was prideful, he was hardest to break, he reminded the abuser of himself, etc., but... abuse is kinda inherently illogical. More often than not, it's less about conscious choices, and more about opportunity.
I genuinely think it was on a whim that Astarion was the focus. Forcing him to ask to be made into a spawn, a slave, and having him claw his way out of his own grave was probably enough of a "putting the magistrate in his place" thing, and maybe the true reasons were literally only as frivolous as he says, that his screams "sounded sweetest", and Cazador just... liked seeing a pretty face ground into the dirt.
Sometimes it... really is that simple.
Yeah.😕
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Some time ago I saw a post about Team niches and one example was about Warrior cats. After extensive research (cheking the AK and WC wiki for names), I present thee, the (my) Ultimate Arknights Warrior Cats Names Tierlist!!
Now, I don't know how many people actually know about WC but what you need to know for this tierlist is that in Warrior Cats, cats belong to Clans and have a name that changes from Kit to Aprentice to Warrior, and sometimes to Leader. Though, there are other kind of cats with different name conventions (I'll explain it when it appears).
The regular naming convention is [main name/relevant trait/desciptor] + [another part]. For example: Firekit, Firepaw, Fireheart and Firestar.
FLAMETAIL MY BELOVED: this is the Flametail rank, absolute perfection, follows the naming convention AND is an official Warriors name, what else could you ask for?
WARRIOR CAT CERTIFIED: Official Warriors name, it's just that the naming convention is not perfect... but it's official so what can I do...
A NAME IN WARRIOR CATS (BUT NOT A WARRIOR NAME): Midnight is a female (friendly) badger, Breeze is a Tribe name (other kind of cat group with different naming convention, her full name would be "Breeze that rustles the leaves"), Haze is a cat from the group.
WARRIOR CAT APPROVED: names that could be real Warriors names... some more than other... Cliffheart, Frostleaf, Mudrock and GreyThroat are good examples. Blue Poisen, Flamebringer, Rock rock are... not so good.
HALF A REAL WARRIORS NAME: they got hall right! If only they had a second part. I put Schwarz here because it's Black in german but I didn't put La Pluma before but... if cats can understand german, they can understand spanish.
COULD BE BUT NOT IN SPIRIT: names that could be but they either don't follow the naming conventions or the names wouldn't be real.
COULD BE A NAME, JUST NOT A WARRIORS NAME: names that wouldn't be so odd if a random (Non-clan cat) had it but it's NOT official (yet). Most as lone cats, but Mountain specially as a Tribe cat (it's really odd that it isn't already a Mountain in WC).
KITTYPET: pet/house cat names.
THAT'S JUST A NAME: honestly, here is most people. Some could be placed on other tiers, specially cases like Siege, Conviction or Penance that could go to "Does a cat even know what is this???" But I don't know, they aren't funny enough to be there and maybe cats do know how to Siege?
TWOLEGS NAME: human names. Imagine a fight like "You can't defeat me Fireclaw!" "Yes I can, Jessica!"
DOES A CAT EVEN KNOW WHAT IS THIS???: Lancet-2, the - included! 12F, that's not even a name! Beagle. A courier... for cats... because cats have mail... Meteor(ite), because they call cats "monsters" and of course would know that a falling rock from outer space is a Meteor(ite)! Dobbermann. Rope, because cats need them! Gummy, Croissant, Pudding and Tequila, because they know and it them regularly! Texas, because they know geography! Ptilopsis and Glaucus, honestly, I can expect cats to know german and spanish, but Latin??! W. Manticore, of course, mythology! FEater. Bison and Carnelian, at least they are not dogs but still, they are cats. Mr. Nothing, Gnosis, Erato, Minimalist, Cantabile, because they know human/science/art concepts! Specter, Phantom and Elyssium could be, they have a Heaven and hell concpet with literal ghost cats but, this erminology especifically... Yeah... and Asbestos and Cement........ Eyjafjalla. (Sorry Plat and Company but it started to get too long)
???: Lou Xiaohei and the Terra Research Commission... I mean... they are technically warriors... and cats... therefore Warrior Cats... technically... should I move them to the "Could be but not in spirit"?????
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