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hungeringheart · 7 months

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hi! i was wondering if u did session analysis(es?) and i just wanted to ask if u could do an analysis for muse of void (troll), heir of hope, thief of breath, prince of blood (troll) and maid of doom. if you dont wanna do my request its fine! also love ur classpect analysis :D

It's been a minute! I'm sorry it took so long, I just saw "muse of void" and knew I'd have to give this one a particular level of think because it's such an interesting and uncommon classpect.

I think it's so uncommon and interesting because most rp groups within the fandom would never in a hundred million years let you bring in a Muse -- oh power creep this oh narrative focus that, you know, that type of thing. The usual mechanics measuring you get stuck into with people you don't know well and trust. So usually people make muses for fanventures or small closed things with friends -- and on that account I want to say, thank you as always for letting me at your characters to turn them over and put them in situations!

I don't acknowledge this enough, but when I write these posts I do my best to strike a balance between analysis according to my tastes and respecting the creative intent of the asker. Sometimes I can't obviously see it, and some people like to be vague in their asks because they want to see my take on something they're doing differently anyway -- but the sentiment is there!

I also quite like that you've specified everybody's species. Mind you, I do tend to assume your trolls are Alternian if not given any other context, and I might suggest a few things pertaining to my fanworld if I think it could help you think some things through. But the species context helps enormously!

Now that we've got preliminaries out of the way, let's get cracking.

Dramatis Personae

Trolls

Muse of Void

Prince of Blood

Humans

Heir of Hope

Thief of Breath

Maid of Doom

Lay of the Land

As usual, we're starting off by establishing the general status of our classpects. There's a bit to get through, so I've helpfully made some subheadings.

Hope

In my session analysis I usually say that the presence of an Heir means that their aspect is in a position to nurture them, but also in decline such that it requires an heir, a person to whom it (the aspect, in the sense of a programmed environmental preset or in the sense of a semi sapient force) can legally transfer its power, pass its torch.

In our case, that aspect is Hope.

Now, Hope is often scanned as optimism and literal actual hope and faith, but I would argue it also represents perseverance; one of its consistent symbols in the narrative is this idea of an unstoppable force, like a shonen protagonist or your friend that is somehow capable of ignoring all indications of reality when pursuing a dream. It's associated with angels, heralds and messengers of What Must Be -- you can't go protagonistier than divine approval of your pursuits!

When a hero of Hope is fully realized they can look at the rules and the realistic limits of a situation, say "nah but for real tho" and skip merrily right on through on the strength of their ability to ignore the haters. Aranea at least is of the opinion that Jake's aspect is "unrivaled 8y any other", and it's easy to see why - it's got big damn hero written all over it!

Not to say that you can't weight your aspects anydamnhow you like, of course. That depends on the story you want to tell.

But it's pretty classic storytelling to say that hope and faith and belief and dreams and such is dying, and someone loyal, brave and true is there to help. On some level we could all have used a champion for our childhood gentleness.

Breath

In keeping with our previous discovery that there's very little Hope to go round, we also have an understanding that Breath -- agency, serendipity, room to breathe, narrative, limelight -- is so rare, so precious, that somebody in need might be tempted to steal or usurp it.

Now, it is possible that the lack of Breath is personal for the Thief themself -- but is that more interesting for you than nobody having much agency, and the Thief deciding "screw y'all, I got mine"?

Or let's consider for a moment that maybe they want to help their team, but they need more Breath to do that... in essence, they need to learn to claim the limelight and occupy space? Oh, now we are cooking with gas. Now we're cooking with gas.

Doom

It can mean a lot of things for Doom to have a maid. Obvious among them is that there's a need for maybe tidying up, maybe some introducing and making -- disarray, lawlessness, a general disrespect for the conventions of being. That's not surprising given this Maid's friend group! Good golly, two entire main character syndrome patients. Naturally someone has to rein them in and establish some rules.

Rules in general seem to be relaxed here, and death and decline are quite remote -- is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? I don't know -- time will tell.

One alternative reading of the Maid of specifically Doom that could be interesting is another digression into traditional narrative -- the figure of the doomed maid.

Let's take the mythohistorical person Berurya, for example, known mainly for being the wife (and therefore in some sense, in the period, also the servant) of the scholar Rabbi Meir. She's a fairly paradigmatic example of a narrative about someone who punches above their weight (she often argued theological opinions and people cited her in formal debate, she was famously very pious, and also she was, horror of horrors, a woman). In response to this her husband's students get jealous and conspire to put her in a position where to protect her dignity, she has to honour kill herself. They then expect him to go on like he's been having a normal one, or at least they never talk about it again except the guys who started a grassroots movement of naming after her.

You see these types of characters and imageries throughout a lot of different cultures, and mostly they boil down to this idea that there are people (reduced to archetypes) who are perfectly fine and even respectable as long as they serve the needs of the powers that be (in Berurya's case, the rabbinical establishment), but the moment that they fly too close to the sun, they have to be cut down. Doom is positively about justice and law and destiny (which is what doom meant to the Anglo-Saxons), but it can also be read as being about death, decay, judicial punishment, and yes, cutting down tall poppies...

Homestuck has an unfortunate (for your Maid) precedent for Maids -- underappreciated, servile, in some way sacrosanct figures -- as scapegoats and sufferers, and Doom is canonically also an aspect of suffering. I sure hope Doom doesn't turn on this poor individual right at the moment when they believe the rules that protect them would be most applicable! I sure hope they don't have their expectations and sense of effifacy built up only to have to resist their being torn down!

Blood

This is a lovely segue into a classpect that works really well thematically with Doom -- Blood represents connection, obligation, comradeship, change, revolution, mutation, connection, inheritance.

We do need to make a note of the fact that our Prince of Blood is a troll. For them, then, Blood is also fundamentally about caste and fitness and predestination in a way it probably isn't for your humans -- unless it is, but you'd know that better than me.

The duality of Princes -- do they destroy their aspect or destroy with its power? -- and their theming, which we can read as monarchic or as judicial (Nasi, the title of the president of the Sanhedrin, can be translated Prince or President), is similarly dualistic. Are they tyrants or mediators? Can you be both?

Regardless of their approach, a Prince in the game means the aspect is at a zenith of relevance -- Dirk's Heart aspect and his callousness with it was sort of a central thing of the alpha session -- and it's in their hands to some extent where their thing goes from there, up or down. They have dominion and they're free to use it as they like, define it, reform it -- like a Sylph, but more selfish, almost.

For the trolls this means a particularly harsh society, and for everyone it means that whatever the nature of their Blood, it's important. Maybe the troll species of your Prince inflects Blood for your human players too; maybe, if you like, your text is fundamentally focused on the implications of heritage in a way that Homestuck very deliberately avoids being.

Void

There is an argument to be made for the idea that Void is irrelevant to your game -- or nearly so, at first. Muses inspire and command (or command through) their Aspect, which is huge, but... it's a muse. It's the dinkiest most passive passive class, and in my particular balance oriented reading a Muse commands the aspect that's initially or eventually weakest and least relevant in the session. Calliope had zero room to learn or grow, and Caliborn blew up most of Space. That's a thing that he definitely actually did.

Put simply, your game is chockablock stuffed full of random pointless shit. No one has the time or desire to stop for a bit and do nothing; there's no mystery, they've all lost the plot of what they're doing and the reverence due to the thing in the background, the fear, the unknown. Minmaxing is expected.

If your troll religion is Horrorterror-oriented, this is a good time to say that's in decline too -- the level of abject don't give a fuck is so profound that the Muse may well believe they're the only person who really looks and sees anything at all in the world. That's a miserable way to be; they're probably not very effective, maybe even maladjusted.

But they don't have to be. After all, there are powers in the abyss, which are there and Ą̴̪̜̤̣̥͍̗̆̈́̏̇̾̅̈́͝ḻ̵̬̱̳̙͈̰̳͙͑́̎̐w̷̟̤͎͎͉͔͑̂̈́á̸̢̳̮̇̈́̽̒̍y̵̹̰̝͇̝̹̺̖̾̊̋̏ͅs̴̨͇͇̰͙͎̯̆̽͌̆͜ ̴̣͙̝͇͍͙̪͍͔́̉̽͗̃̚̕͝ẅ̴͙̼̭̹́̽̽͛̏̉͜i̸̛̖̘̮̤̱̳̖̎̀̔͑̂͘l̵̢̯͈̅͛̅̿̐́̾́̚l̴̜̝̙̪͕̔́̋ ̷̼̓͋͊̒͑́́̔̔b̷̳́̔͊̈̇̀̈́̊͊e̵͇̩͑̓͋̑͝.

Whoops! Got a little eldritch there for a second.

The big thing about Muses is that when realized, they can affect their aspect as much as it does them -- and in Void's case that means that our Muse here has the potential to seriously course correct the narrative, to restore Void to prominence and force everyone else to take time to reconsider things and reanalyze the space they occupy. For especially the Maid, that might be important...

From the top, now

First things first, no one's breeding any frogs, and no one has any do-overs. You'll also note I didn't do any ominous red text evoking Caliborn, and that's intentional too -- no Time aspect means that it's possible, as I've just realized, for this universe to be outside of the cancerous frog branch of SBURB.

So what does the game look like? How do they play?

I think the human kids start playing first, and they find their game a bit of a mess; hopeless, directionless, and kind of broken down systematically. The trolls play their own two-player game, which as far as they know is thematically about analyzing their society (through blood as caste and void as religion and both as what a person owes to society), and fail -- but the Muse leverages the Terrors and the Prince leverages their sense of decency, and off they go through the Ring and into an adjacent universe. I think they might begin as Exiles for two of the human players.

While the Maid runs around trying to facilitate the Hope player and keep the Breath player on course (their aspects are opposing along the axis of attitude to destiny, it's not easy), the Prince and Muse disagree (and maybe balkanize the human kids) as to what would be the most helpful form of intervention. That could be dangerous, but on the other hand, for now, their universe is coming to be still and quiet... there's a long window between when it becomes noticeable that an end is coming and when an end does come.

And oh, what sorts of things they could all get up to then!

Of course, in your own universe, mileage will vary...

Bonus rambling: a brief aside about an interesting point of mixed species sessions.

In a fundamental way, if there's no time travel and cultural anthropology involved, there's a very limited window of time in which one group of young people can communicate their worldview to another. Culture shock is real and sometimes strikes a long time after you think you've assimilated.

Children handle it better than adults on a lot of levels, but not on all of them. How much worse is a time limit if the people it's imposed on can't communicate about important issues?

Take Alternia: they have a caste system. In a group of human friends who don't have one, informal deference on the basis of social status just doesn't really usually happen. And in caste societies we do have, well, we have all kinds of social movements and changes ongoing.

Even insomuch as we have castes, for the most part, they don't affect our children in the way that trolls' castes do because they're partly morphological. We can infer from the existence of hemoanons that the phenomenon of caste is much like our phenomenon of sex-based gender for trolls -- the biological foundations are murky, but the sociological realia connected to them are attributed to innate traits and not really questioned.

This is a little like caste based politeness and a little like our binary gender in human societies so far, but stay with me -- I think there actually are certain aspects of the hemospectrum that are at some level instinctive. The castes correspond to castes in eusocial insects, and by that analogy we may assume that trolls in person a) can instantly tell what socially constructed caste a troll belongs to by their morph, and b) have some ant-brain level of very broad inborn behaviour about it.

It's always a good idea to consider your caste worldbuilding when you write little guys in opposition to each other and to humans -- how does your system respond to the species having internet? How does your humans' culture interface with it? Is it different by region, by planet?

Well, that's all for now, I think.

Thank you for sticking around this long!

#session analysis #homestuck

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tarexippus · 6 years

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@fahleren tagged me to list my favorite characters from ten fandoms and then tag ten people! Now as a token indecisive bitch these are in no particular order. ALSO SPOILER WARNING I'M WRITING MY OPINIONS FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF WHERE I AM IN THE SERIES. IN SOME CASES, THAT MEANS I'VE ALREADY FINISHED IT.

1) Freckle- The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: what's not to love? Genderfluid bicon with a lot to say.... As a genderfluid bicon with a lot to say I'm legally obligated to list freckle. If i had to give any more solid evidence, they're such an incredible actor, and i really aspire to match that level of talent. The scene where Len asks them if theyre ok and they deliver the iconic "I'm perfect." line? The "sometimes... Things that are expensive... Are worse." monologue? An idol through and through.

2) Torbjorn Lindholm- Overwatch: now i kinda thought of him as a joke but really he's a good character! He's an incredibly intelligent engineer and while he doesn't have much lore i do admire his sense of justice and his inherent good naturedness. Also he canonically fucks severely sawr......

3) Taako Taaco- The Adventure Zone: now i gotta disclaim this to say that I've only listened to about five episodes but as expected i LOVE taako. He's gay, he's feminine, he's got a strong sense of aesthetic and GLITZ.... Again i find him clinically relatable and also as a fellow longhair femme i gotta give respect to my man.

4) Naruto Uzumaki- Naruto: man i just think he's really fun. He's got a lot of really cool respectable abilities and he's got an inherent sense of kindness within him that shines through in almost all aspects. I love the way his character development goes and i especially love how he befriends the biju in the end. What a guy.

5) Rukia Kuchiki/Yumichika Ayasegawa- Bleach: this one is a tie so sue me. I love Rukia because she's got a really strong character and i just really love her consistent characterization, but also how she grows; starting out stubborn and headstrong but ultimately dependent on every other's validation, and ending strong and reliable and self sufficient. I also think her Zanpakuto and her bankai are some of the coolest and also some of the strongest, i really would have loved to see more of either or both. I really love Yumichika because he's got such an interesting obsession with his looks and aesthetic (much that i do- relatable) but it definitely belies an insecurity inside. I really like how he's technically as or more powerful than Ikkaku, but stunts himself for the sake of an arbitrary aesthetic" definitely a symbolic thing. Again, i really love his Zanpakuto, how it shares his inner sense of narcissism and even mentions how itd like to kill Yumichika for calling him a name it doesnt like. I also think how it "sulks" and doesn't reach full power because of an arbitrary aesthetic- a very tasty parallel that i love. I also really like the azure version of it's shikai.... Flowers.

6) John Egbert- Homestuck: I just really love how at the beginning he's kind if an "everyman" and doesnt have much characterization at all so that the reader feels invited to project on him. This leads itself nicely into slyly adding bits and pieces of characterization until he's a fully fleshed character without a majority of the fanbase having realized it, yet still maintaining a fondness towards him as if he's an old friend. Whether or not it was intentional i think it was an absolutely delightful tactic, and one i would love to see utilized more often. I also love the symbolic exploration he goes through in discovering his powers, starting out with the wind unconciously protecting him and ending with him literally beign able to rewrite the canon of the story; i think it parallels his character development nicely and ties back to the main themes of the story as a whole just delightfully. I also just think his retconning ability is fucking cool.

7) Deadpool- Marvel: i think he really is a bicon as we know it. He's funny, he's morally ambiguous, he's canadian, the whole monty! He really is the epitome of "i want to do something, i do it and i dont regret it." which i really strive to achieve. Also, deadpool kills marvel is my favorite comic of all time.

8) Bart Curlish- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: i think she's a really neat character. I love how she just straight up cannot be harmed unless dirk will be hurt and then her ability just... Nullifies. I think it's really interesting how lots of her dialogue parallels with dirk's dialogue and i just think she has so much depth and characterization to explore.

9) Pearl- Steven Universe: again, i just really love her depth and characterization. I love to see how she gets past all these mental blocks she puts on herself; how she substitutes garnet for rose in forming sardonyx, how she followed 'pink's' last order to a fault, how she thinks of everyone but herself.... I just think she's a neat, round character.

10) Pik- Coupon Kids: i think they're just an incredibly funny and interesting character... Why do they have such a relationship with their father? Why can they remove their mouth from the equation and how can they make more eyes spontaneously appear on their face? Why does creating more eyes make them nauseous? I just think that like any good character they leave the audience with a lot of questions but makes them laugh the whole time theyre asking the questions. I also love how they act like a rock to quat despite how chaotic they are. What an icon truly.

Ill tag @skingustus @snirti @trovairitz @partyinthecloudkingdom @dadpresident @dadspacito @grandgardenlover @peachpitdreams @gay-jesus-probably @spidermans-butt

(I was just tagging mutuals- if you wanna do this go ahead! Conversely, if you were tagged and don't wanna do it, don't feel obligated to, it's just for fun!)

#man i really do like gnc twinks hm...#god i really do lovr symbolism and parallels... inyetesting #long post #mumbles #about me

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tavtiers · 6 years

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Mage of Void Analysis

for @jaserowells

sollux + equius, what a spooky god tier! first off, here's my brief analysis

Mage of Void (39% activity) - understands knowing and perceiving: incorporeality, secrecy, mystery, misfortune, submission, ignorance, nothingness

opposite - Seer of Light (knows knowing and perceiving: perceptuality, knowledge, information, fortune, agency, sight; players - Rose Lalonde) inverse - Heir of Light (inherits knowing and perceiving: perceptuality, knowledge, information, fortune, agency, sight)

CANON EXAMPLES - n/a NON-CANON EXAMPLES - Credence Barebone (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Edgar Allan Poe

i will be using credence and edgar allan poe as my main examples (bc i dont have any canon ones) but i will provide information on them! if you'd like to know more about credence his wiki is here (also this post will have spoilers for fantastic beasts and where to find them!!) edgar allan poe's wikipedia page is here, i also highly recommend you read 'the raven' bc it's an excellent mage of void example and i'll be referencing it here and there throughout the post :0

alright mages are active with 69% activity active classpects are meaner, but more likely to stand up for themselves void is passive with 9% activity passive classpects are kinder, but less likely to stand up for themselves

this makes a mage of void relatively passive with 39% activity

since they are relatively passive, they are likely quiet and may give off an almost timid first impression. however, while i normally say most passive god tiers aren't prone to be too dangerous, a mage of void is an exception. bc they suffer from void, they are highly likely to go grimdark and will often harbor a volatile darkness of some kind in side of them.

on the subject of mages of void being dangerous, they won't appear to be on a regular basis and will often have agreeable, if mysterious, withdrawn, and kind of angsty personalities they become dangerous when they cant deal with and control the darkness they are struggling with anymore examples of this are poe's numerous poems about murder (cutting a man into pieces and hiding him under the floorboards etc) and credence unleashing his obscurus <--- credence is the best example and i'll get into this in more depth later on

in the raven, edgar allan poe gains a unique understanding of nothingness/lack by suffering from it he is suffering from lenore's passing, missing her, and being alone in general "nevermore" symbolizes nothingness, etc ravens & crows are void symbols the raven causes him distress, which allows him to better understand void mages of void will be prone to suffer from death, lacking something or someone, or alcoholism, among other things since mages of void suffer from emptiness they are very likely to have depression or become the avatar of some dark force they are one of the most likely classpects to go grimdark

a mage of void could gain a unique understanding of the sea from almost dying at sea. or perhaps they understand alcoholism after experiencing it themselves. because of this, they could have knowledge of every alcoholic beverage under the sun

they could suffer from secrets, allowing them to gain a unique understanding of them after having so many people lie to them and keep secrets from them, they can now see right through lies and deception

another idea: a mage of void could be tormented by horrorterrors so they understand them uniquely (their abilities, etc)

the difference between a mage and a seer a seer is someone who has TONS of facts about a topic, but no first hand experience a mage does not have facts or statistics about a topic, but TONS of first hand experience

for example: a mage of cows vs a seer of cows the seer has gone to college and learned all about cows the mage has never been to college but has lived with cows their whole life

mage of void vs seer of void a seer finds everything out about secrets, horrorterrors, death, etc that they can a mage doesnt have to look for info on void. they suffer from secrets, horrorterrors, and death so they already know all about it

a mage of void knows everything there is to know about really obscure topics that no one else has even thought to look into for a mage the obscure topic is constantly happening to them so of course they'd know all about it

the mage will know how to keep things secret after having people keep secrets from them

bc a mage of void suffers from powerful darkness inside of them, they can be volatile or dangerous if their 'darkness' is unleashed (grimdark, etc)

they suffer from bad luck so better understand it

interesting idea: they could suffer from death by being dead and therefore gain a better understanding of ghosts or they could suffer from a lack of awareness/sleep by going into a coma. when they wake up they know everything about comas and dreaming. all their dreaming while in a coma helped them better understand the horrorterrors.

canon examples of mages the disciple - mage of heart the disciple gained the deepest understanding of love by feeling the truest love in the universe, then having it ripped from her and being forced to watch her love die she wrote down all she understood about his scripture after being with the signless for so long she had a deeper understanding of him, and love in general she suffered for who she was, for believing in the signless's message she also suffered for who she was by not being killed by darkleer (he remembered his moirallegiance with her back when she was meulin)

meulin - mage of heart meulin gained a better understanding of love and being herself after her failed matespriteship with kurloz she uses her knowledge to pair up her friends romantically she suffers from who she loves with kurloz using his chucklevoodoos on her and being the one that caused her to go deaf

sollux - mage of doom suffers from voices of the dead, however the voices help him to better understand future doomed events basically self explanatory, suffers from doom so understands it

mages of void could be perfectly happy and suffer from nothing, but more likely, mages of void suffer from nothingNESS and could in fact be one of the saddest mages (though i do think time and doom beat them by a small margin) a mage of void would suffer from emptiness inside of them, emptiness all around them, etc they could suffer from extreme loneliness, having to spend months entirely by themselves but from this, they will learn all about loneliness (how to deal with it, etc) also! while in their extended period of isolation, they could put their loneliness to constructive use, using their time to learn everything they can about all the other aspects of void (secrets, death, horrorterrors, sleep, ravens, etc) an example from the raven: "Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—" edgar allan poe is trying to distract himself from lenore's absence with reading

another cool idea: a mage of void who has been excluded and ostracized their whole life, but uses their isolation to learn other's secrets

a mage of void could have experienced memory loss in the past, giving them a unique understanding of memory loss that they can use to help others suffering with it

or a mage could suffer from figurative (or even literal) invisibility! no one noticing or caring that they're there. through their invisibility, they end up understanding everyone else's deepest secrets. like a little kid no one pays attention to at an adult party, so the kid starts listening in on their conversations and finding out everything the adults dont want them to know

POWERS

there has never been a canon example of a mage in combat, so any powers i come up with are pure speculation hOWEVER i love the idea of a mage of void going into a voidy, destructive, berserker mode when they just can't handle their own suffering or the darkness inside of them anymore but before any possible outbursts, or for mages of void who dont have an outburst at all, im struggling to come up with ideas.

neat idea: a mage of void could have a pet raven that they have a deep mutual understanding with. they can call the bird to help them in combat

i don't think a mage of void would have any unique OFFENSIVE abilities, but during combat i feel they would have a deep understanding of what wasn't going to happen, and use that to get ahead. for instance, they know their opponent never strikes to the left first, meaning they will likely strike right instead. a mage can use this knowledge to avoid the blow.

a mage will use their knowledge of their aspect mainly for themselves and their own benefit. they may keep all of their knowledge of void a secret. they may even keep their suffering a secret (making going grimdark an even realer possibility)

bc of this, others might think the mage perfectly happy (suffers from nothing). or their teammates might even think of them as an idiot, while deep down the mage in fact fully understands things their friends could never begin to comprehend. (understands nothing)

a mage of void could even suffer from their own friends ignorant opinions of them. an example of this can be seen with credence. credence is manipulated by a friend looking for an obscurus, not realizing that credence is one himself. the friend eventually betrays him after deciding that he has outlived his usefulness. only when credence unleashes his obscurus does the friend truly understand the situation and the secret credence has been keeping. i'll get into this more later

some snippets of other excellent analyses: As far as the Mage goes, over the course of their session I believe they’d develop as a character. They’d go from someone potentially shy or self-doubting to someone of importance to the group. Exhibiting traits of a leader or guide later on in the session. Especially if the team has to navigate the Furthest Ring or hide from a great enemy they are unable to fight yet.

They know where people usually throw things away and forget them because they’ve been thrown away and forgotten themselves.

Be diligent in your loyalties and fight for your friends, or I suspect you’ll become the avatar of some dark force or other.

Mage of Void Quotes: "i just feel so empty sometimes and it's so exhausting to feel nothing and everything at the same time" "i like being alone but lately i've been lonely and it hurts"

nooow for the non-canon example. Credence Barebone from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an excellent example of a Mage of Void.

so a mage of void experiences void uniquely, often suffering because of it. this gives them a unique perspective on and understanding of void, more so than any other class. they can then use their knowledge to benefit themselves. to start off, credence exists in the harry potter universe. fantastic beasts takes place in new york, in the 1920s. he experiences void, and suffers because of it, in a number of ways.

when he was young, he was adopted by Mary Lou Barebone, a fanatical anti-witchcraft preacher. mary lou beat all her children, however she treated him the worst. this was because, unbeknownst to him, he was the son of a witch. credence does in fact have latent magical abilities, however because of how mary lou abused him, he was forced to suppress them. in this way, he suffers from secrets (mary lou keeping the secret from him, and he keeping his magic a secret). due to her frequent abuse, he often seems troubled, nervous, or embarrassed, and is shy and withdrawn.

by suppressing his magic, he becomes an obscurial, developing a dark, parasitic force inside of him known as an obscurus.

later on, he meets gellert grindlewald, a wizard who is looking for the obscurus that has been destroying parts of new york. credence is the oldest known obscurial in existence (all others have died before the age of 10) so grindlewald is unaware that credence is the very same obscurial he's looking for. grindlewald offers his help to credence, healing him when he's beaten by mary lou, and offering emotional support. he is doing this because he wants credence to help him find the obscurial. in exchange he promises to teach him magic, helping him become a part of the wizarding world.

credence suffers from void due to grindlewald's ignorance

grindlewald eventually comes to the conclusion that the obscurial is credence's little sister, and has him take him to her. once there, he rejects credence. he tells him that he's a 'squib' (a person without magic born to a magical parent) and that he has no use for him anymore. due to this betrayal and all the emotional pain he's been through, credence finally unleashes the full power of his obscurus on new york, revealing himself. in this way, credence gains a true understanding of secrets, ignorance, and the darkness inside of him.

grindlewald goes to confront credence, apologizing and saying they can work together. however, credence is now capable of fully understanding that he is lying, and knows that he only wants to use his obscurus for his own ends.

i'm going to include songs and whatnot in here too, because why the heck not :)

some planet suggestions: Land of Crows and Psyche Land of Memory and Emptiness Land of Dark Water and Marbles - the marbles would actually contain your consorts' consciences and you'd need to retrieve them from the water. buuUT there's monsters in the water!! :0c

Your most likely Denizen is Nyx. Some other viable denizens: Cetus, Poseidon, Artemis, Sige, Selene, Chaos, Erebus, Hymnos, Asteria, Hecate, Harpocrates, Charon, Circe, Morpheus, The Oneiroi, Thalassa, Epiales, Phobetor, Aporia Dahni came up with these! You can read her post with each denizen’s full description here

SONGS from god-tier-lovers unrealized: Pusher - Clear ft. Mothica (Shawn Wasabi Remix) struggle: Alterniabound 06 - Dreamers and The Dead realized: Lauren Aquilina - Ocean

extra Lost Boy - Ruth B The Chill - Bruce Hornsby

QUADRANTS god tiers a mage of void could be compatible with, sorted from most to least likely/healthy ♥ Matespriteship: Witch of Breath, Witch of Time, Seer of Breath, Seer of Time, Prince of Breath, Prince of Time, Maid of Breath, Maid of Time ♦ Moirallegiance: Page of Heart, Page of Space, Maid of Heart, Maid of Space ♠ Kismesissitude: Prince of Time ♣ Auspisticism: n/a

k i'm done :) thanks for the suggestion, mage of light will be coming soon!!

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amwritingmeta · 7 years

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Thanks for answer my question, Q Nr.1 makes sense to me now. On Nr 2, yes that was the way I meant the question and I still dont get it: "was not used malignantly, but innocently." you say, why are these to opposite to each other? Why cant Jack use his powers to manipulate/influence Cas but due to his established lack of understandig of free will do it while not being ill intentioned.

Hello again, my lovely!!

Ok, very pleased that my reply cleared up Q1. Let me tackle Q2 again and this time I’ll try to boil it down for you.

“was not used malignantly, but innocently.” you say, why are these to opposite to each other?

These two words are opposite to each other because they are, literally, opposite in meaning.

Why cant Jack use his powers to manipulate/influence Cas but due to his established lack of understandig of free will do it while not being ill intentioned.

This second part of your question confuses me slightly, I have to admit that, because it has nothing to do with the first part of your question, but I take it your stance is that the nephilim manipulated/influenced innocently, but all the while taking away Cas’ agency, his ability to actually choose for himself?

And your question is why I don’t believe this stance fits with the details that the narrative has given us?

Okay, so here’s the direct and simplified bullet point version of my opinion on this:

The narrative of 12x19 is built around Good vs Evil/Heaven vs Hell

This plot line is centred around Cas/Good and Dagon/Evil

Baby Nephi repeatedly and through this narrative rejects Evil and chooses Good

When a narrative is so clearly centred around an overarching theme - one that echoes the overarching theme for the entire series (choice/consequence) - there is no doubt in my mind that

a) it’s deliberateb) the textual statement of the narrative is congruent with the textual statement of the show itself:

being offered the chance to choose your own path, make your own destiny, is Good - this is what Cas represents to Baby Nephi

being forced into a role that has been assigned to you and having your future dictated to you is Evil - this is what Dagon represents to Baby Nephi

So the narrative of 12x19 is ALL about free will and choice being GOOD

while having your free will subverted and controlled is EVIL

The show’s clear view on this is then underlined by the narratives of 12x20 and 12x21:

The Burrow Witch not only steals people’s hearts and puts them in stick puppets, she’s actually directly linked to Hell (Dagon) as she’s sold her soul to gain her power – a mirror and underlining for the EVIL in subverting free will and agency

The BMoL have brainwashed Mary and goes so far as to say that once her mind is all gone she won’t even hesitate to hurt the people she loves – a mirror and underlining for the EVIL in subverting free will and agency

When the show’s narratives keep shouting out that mind control or brainwashing is EVIL, then you can’t possibly combine those clear statements with the just as clear statement in 12x19, where the narrative is doing everything to shout out that Baby Nephi chooses GOOD over EVIL.

Baby Nephi can’t be innocent and malignant at the same time. Baby Nephi can’t be Good and Evil at the same time. Why not? Because the narrative of 12x19 is centred around Good vs. Evil.

Not Good and Evil or Good, but maybe a little Evil.

It’s stated again and again in dialogue by Kelly that her baby is good and can be good for this world. This is on purpose. It’s not stated to be misleading or to showcase exactly how far gone she is in some soul-surge of manipulation created by Baby Nephi to protect himself. Why do I feel so strongly that it isn’t? Kelly felt his soul surge through her.

Do angels usually have souls?

That surge of power was felt in Heaven, it makes Cas pause, but he doesn’t contradict her on the soul thing. Again, this was deliberate. A plant that was never meant to be contradicted because Baby Nephi is Good, he has humanity within him, and this will be crucial as it comes into greater play in S13 with all the choice and consequence that season is bound to contain.

All of the narrative of 12x19 revolves around one clear cut and age old statement: choose a side to show who you really are.

To be perfectly clear - I don’t believe Baby Nephi is fully formed. I don’t believe he is sentient and makes educated CHOICES yet, but I do believe his instincts are entirely on the side of Good.

Baby Nephi gravitates towards Good and away from Evil.

Therefore whatever influence he exorcises over Cas, whatever hope he fills Cas’ heart with for the future, whatever faith this generates in Cas, none of this can be rooted in the Evil of manipulation, coercion, or subversion of Cas’ free will.

I hope this clarifies my standpoint on your Q2 and hit me up again if you disagree further or still feel confused or aggrieved!

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nerdandabook · 7 years

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Logan Review (spoilers)

I want to do something interesting with this blog, and while it will predominantly be book related I do want to spread out to other types of media as well. So with that in mind I am presenting my review of Logan, the last outing of Hugh Jackman as the (seemingly) immortal Wolverine.

The movie starts off in 2029 to there being no more mutants being born. Apparently that evolutionary branch has finally snapped and were left with the stragglers of a dying race. Enter Logan, also known as wolverine, our “hero” who is found in the company of an aging and mentally ill Professor X and a young, silent girl who seems to have the same abilities as Logan. They are being chased by a government agency that created the girl named Laura using Logan’s DNA and trained her to be just as vicious as he was in his prime. Together they search for someplace safe from their potential captors.

I was hit by a wave of sadness as all the characters started to make their appearances. You are hit very quickly with the knowledge that these are physically old characters, even Logan is pushing 400 years at this point in time and he definitely feels it. He has a limp, his claws dont extend as easily as they used to and he just is generally tired. He is shot a few times early on and while he can still shake off the hits, you see it taking the better part of an hour for him to fully heal from the trauma. Professor X isnt much better, at this point he is suffering from a degenerative brain disease which for a person like him means that without knowledge or even really trying he can kill everyone around him within a mile radius. As such they must keep him constantly drugged to dampen his abilities and keep him calm. Two of quite literally the most powerful beings on the planet are reduced to a state that most people wouldnt want to keep living in and it only gets worse from there. In fact we find out that Logan is carrying around an adamantium bullet so that if he wanted to, he could end his life. This can be considered a small spoiler but not really much of a surprise so Im comfortable saying it here, the reason Logan is so worn down and dying is because of the adamantium in his body. After so long it is poisoning his body and again causing it to deteriorate faster than he can heal himself. Another thing I was not ready for was the language in the film. When I popped the film in I forgot that it was an R rating. The first time he drops a serious F bomb I was very taken aback and for some reason i never really got used to it. Something about these characters that have been around since my childhood suddenly not holding back shocked me. That being said if Logan acting so catches you off guard, hearing Charles dropping F bombs will really send you reeling. Im not one to be sensitive to profanity but it felt a little like they were given free reign of it and because of that over used it a little bit. Just my opinions.

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!!! PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE PLOT OF THE FILM!!

So Logan, Charles and Laura are on the run from an agency that uses Mutant DNA to create soldiers similar to what the weapon X program did to Logan.... because it is the weapon X program helmed by Stryker’s son and doing the exact same thing (sans the horrible deadpool attempt like in “The Wolverine”, at least he learned from his fathers mistakes.) Turns out he has made X-23 who again is technically Logan’s daughter and X-24 who is an exact clone of Logan except subservient to Stryker’s wishes. After a fight that leaves wolverine injured, a family and Charles DEAD and Laura desperate to reach her friends (the other kids in the weapon X program) wolverine caves and agrees to bring her to them and they can head to Canada where they hope they can be safe. A lot of stuff happens but in the end of course they beat the bad guy, Laura uses Logan’s adamantium bullet to kill X-24 but the fight has left wolverine mortally wounded and as he finally begins to understand what it’s like to have someone who cares for him and he care for them in return, he passes away leaving Laura alone to grieve over his body.

All in all this was all this was a great movie and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great close to two very endearing characters while introducing a few new ones to carry on the legacy. As I said in the beginning, mutants are no longer being born so the result of the new weapon X program is a new generation of mutants to carry on into the future. I felt that Charles’s death was too sudden, it was something they could have given a little more time to seeing as how this is one of the most important characters in the entire series, but alas it served its purpose and gave him a proper send off. Logan’s death was not unexpected but nontheless upsetting as he finally finds a bit of happiness and a family that he never really allowed himself to have and just like that it’s taken away from him and even sadder, Laura. I’m excited to see where the franchise will go in the future, however it will never be the same without these two. I believe next up is the Dark Pheonix story which should be interesting.... I’ll see you all again forthwith!

I truly appreciate you if you’ve made it this far as this is the first movie review I’ve ever done. It will take me some time to get fully accustomed to it and I do want to do the best I can with these. So if you’ve made it this far I truly appreciate you and I hope you’ll check in again next time... Till then...

Nautilus,

Suravye ninto manshima taishite

#x-men #old man logan #logan #spoilers #hugh jackman #patrick stewart #movie review

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