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ihavedonenothingright · 11 months

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So thus far into TOTK (I haven't finished the game, but I got the instruction to go beat the final boss), it really does seem like TOTK and BOTW are completely separate lore-wise from most every other game in the series except for maybe Skyward Sword. Zelda travels all the way back to Hyrule's "founding," which she is fairly familiar with, and there's a comment one of the researchers makes about mentions of a "Zelda" in the ancient past confirming that perhaps the name doesn't originate from their princess. He's unaware it's the same Zelda, which means naming every princess of Hyrule "Zelda" is not a thing. This Zelda is, as far as she knows, the first (though that doesn't eliminate the chance others existed).

This (and some other stuff) leads me to believe that the founding of Hyrule in TOTK takes place after all the old games. I highly doubt that all historical records of the name Zelda would have completely disappeared between the ancient past of TOTK and TOTK's present if that space was occupied by all the other games. And that is ignoring the weird time stuff and the required presence of two Ganondorfs simultaneously. On top of that, Sonia, the only Hylian we see much of in the past, resembles Skyward Sword's Impa more than Zelda and Gaepora. We don't know for sure that that Zelda founded Hyrule, but the reincarnated spirit of Hylia is blood-related. So I'm solidly shunting aside the idea that this is the first founding of Hyrule.

Now because the name Zelda has apparently been forgotten, even by TOTK's ancient past (Rauru and Sonia don't exactly go "Oh! Zelda! That's a famous name"), and no one seems aware that Hyrule existed before, I'm going to say that pre (or post...) the arrival of the Zonai, Hyrule goes through something like a Dark Age. Their history is no longer preserved and retold like in older games, and so eventually, you end up in a place where there is no Hyrule, and no one knows about the Triforce and the cycle. But that's really odd, right? Like, scarily odd. How do you forget the Triforce exists? It's the big war-causer in Hyrule's history, this thing that grants you the power to completely remake the world. And no knowledge of Zelda or Link or Ganon? No knowledge of the epic cycle? Clearly Zelda is still inheriting the memories of her prior reincarnations since she recognizes the name "Ganondorf" in a flashback, so what gives?

It seems awfully convenient that no one knows about the Triforce, especially since there's evidence Zelda carries it. The symbol shows up when she uses her sealing powers, and it's definitely still associated with the royal family's crest. Now the second part is really weird since we're at a second founding of Hyrule and no one seems to know what it is. But just focusing on Zelda's powers: for the Triforce to be the source of them, that would have to mean it somehow ended up in Zelda's bloodline. How would it do that?

They mention that she seems to have inherited Rauru's light power and Sonia's time power (which implies they had kids, I know people are skeptical and I am too, but it seems like they did). So, does Rauru's power also derive from the Triforce? Did she get it from him?

Well if he did have it, founding a Hyrule where no one remembers the Triforce, the cycle, or old Hyrule would be much easier.

There's a lot of problems with this theory: namely, Rauru isn't technically dead (I think) until the beginning of TOTK, so wouldn't the Triforce have stayed with him that entire time if he had it? But there's also evidence in the games that the Triforce is a one-use kind of thing, so I can see him getting one shot with it and then passing it along via bloodline like a lot of Zeldas have done with the Triforce of Wisdom. Something about Rauru strikes me as very sinister, and some other people have done a really good job looking at that in more detail (check out @golvio and @betterbemeta's posts), but yeah the vibe of Rauru's inner circle and his Hyrule overall is strange. The representatives of all four races (though we never see the Sheikah in the past, so we can't verify what's going on with them at this point; they might not be Hylians yet) cover their faces with these large, clearly Zonai masks to signal their fealty to Rauru. Practically, they serve the same purpose as the champions' blue clothes, but it's so much more uncomfortable. They don't have faces! They aren't individuals! The only people in the past whose faces we see (who aren't Sonia, Rauru, Zelda, or Mineru because even the ancient Hylians in Rauru's employ wear masks) is Ganondorf and some of his Gerudo. Rauru, Sonia, and the royal line get to walk uncovered, but everyone else depicted as loyal and righteous is faceless.

So I would hazard that the reason BOTW and TOTK are so cut off from the other games lore-wise is not just distance, but because Rauru, when he came down to become king, used the Triforce to completely reforge Hyrule in his own image. It's possible he was told to do this by Hylia, and sent down by the gods as a representative of theirs, but I think it's also possible he was sent for another job (fixing the chaos that is the three way timeline split) and chose to stay and set himself up as a king. He doesn't seem to have been a particularly notable figure among the Zonai; Mineru notes how well he's done for himself on the surface which leads me to believe he had far less power where he came from. Whether or not his intentions were benevolent is a "who knows?" sort of question. Maybe they were! But I think Rauru is a good case for the idea that Ganondorf's reincarnation cycle isn't some cosmic punishment, but rather a natural reaction of balance. Rauru builds all his shrines of light, doesn't appoint a Sage of Shadow (no Sage of Shadow is weird, right? I'm not the only one), forces hegemony on Hyrule, and in the process of trying to make a completely clean society, births an opposite of chaos to his order. TOTK Ganondorf is a little obscure in terms of motive, but in his first few cutscenes in the past, he's fairly composed. He wants Hyrule to bow at his feet; he wants to humiliate Rauru. All the comments he makes towards him are pointed. This is a Ganondorf who resents the idea of becoming another faceless mask. Eventually he morphs into a being of pure chaos, perhaps in response to Rauru's more frantic attempts at control. But if the objective was balance, Hyrule does end up there: by the time of BOTW, the races that were faceless under Rauru seem to be mostly independent. Zelda doesn't exactly force the champions into their divine beasts, and their positions aren't predestined or divine in nature like the sages.

And this isn't even touching on the Sheikah (though their forced assimilation into Hylians might be completely separate from Rauru) and the idea that the Rito, Gorons, Zora, and Gerudo exist solely to aide Link and Zelda. There is a lot of stuff in this game that is absolutely fascinating (and a little frightening) from a world perspective. Most of it isn't new to Zelda either, just more explicit.

(Also I've seen some people say that the masks might've been because Nintendo was lazy with the modeling, but regardless, it's fair to analyze a work as it exists and leave the creators' intents out of the picture.)

#totk spoilers #totk #loz #tears of the kingdom #“It's not that deep” shhh. I am a tiger and this is my meat-stuffed enrichment toy #I have proofread very little of this so if it doesn't make sense... sorry (?)#it made sense in my head #I have Zelda brainrot again in so many directions #the whole “and the destiny of our people was made clear” stuff is giving me MAJOR Sheikah flashbacks #The Sheikah were the original divinely created servants of the goddess #Everyone else used to be sorta chilling (with terms and conditions)

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littlekiara96 · 1 month

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So, I've cooked on hoyolab.

Have the full content of the same post, ready to be reblogged, under the cut.

Hello and welcome to

Theorycrafting with Kiara :D

Today, I will be discussing what has been said about Gallagher in particular during the 2.1 livestream!

I won't talk about his gameplay, since there's no point in commenting it, but I will delve into whatever lore we have as of pre-2.1.

Spoilers ahead! You've been warned.

Soooo, most of you probably know me from this coincidence post about Firefly and Gallagher, but did you know I have analysed weird details about him, too? And those details and little contradictions made me wonder about whether or not the mixologist is hiding something...

I had been wondering about how Gallagher could both seem important and yet be unknown by NPCs around Penacony, and I'm glad that Shaoji did confirm that Gallagher is "like a hero with anonymity".

Yes, he sounds like Batman, right now. Which is extra funny, because he'll do detective work during 2.1.

Which reminds me; see this picture?

Remember seeing those hound statues during the 2.0 storyline? They've always made me think of Gallagher, because of the pink hues they have. So... Are they like surveillance cameras for him?

And while we're on the subject of security... Let me remind you of a specific part of the livestream:

Kirin: "Bloodhound Family, protecting guests’ safety. But in the Version 2.0 story, did he even protect anything at all?"

Shaoji: "Well, you don’t understand. In the upcoming 2.1 storyline, Gallagher will play an important detective role and travel with the Crew to uncover the mysteries of Penacony. How do you know that his actions prior weren’t based on his own considerations and intentions?"

Shaoji... Don't make me believe that Gallagher and Firefly did share a look when they first saw each other... (Yes, I drink Copium SoulGlad, how did you know?)

And the last part that makes me wonder about stuff is this one...

Shaoji: "Is there a possibility that.. when I said Gallagher doesn’t have much of a story, someone actually think that he has? However, he really doesn’t have much of a past in the end. What a twist, right?"

Shaoji, Sir... I thought you were sincere. But you literally just lied. Because Gallagher's presentation itself mentions that he has a complicated past.

And I don't know about you people reading this, but "having a complicated past" sounds to me like the exact opposite of "not having much of a past".

And with all of this, I shall come up with another "crack theory", that follows what started as a "funny coincidence".

Gallagher knew that Firefly was a stowaway. He made sure she wouldn't be stopped in her personal endeavours. He kept watch over us through the hound statues, but unfortunately, he was unable to follow us into the "true Dream" when Sparkle sent us there, and thus he could not protect Firefly. He will be accompanying the Crew because he knows the Trailblazer did their best to help Firefly, and Gallagher now trusts them, and will help the Nameless uncover the truth of what happened and why it happened. Maybe he'll help the Trailblazer uncover some dark truth behind Penacony... Who knows, perhaps Sparkle wasn't all that wrong about it...

But alas! I only analyse lore and come up with theories merely for fun, and to give food for thought, as a means to entertain people while we wait together for the upcoming content.

I hope you have enjoyed my musings, and I shall now bid you farewell, and sweet dreams~ <3

#honkai star rail #hsr gallagher #gallagher hsr #theory #theorycrafting

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ichika27 · 4 months

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OnS Chapter 130

Aaaaaaaah!!!! The lore thickens!

I am just dreading to make this since tumblr's post editor updated to being a pain the ass to use lol. I can't just not blog about reading OnS chapters cause it's the only way I can "re-read" them when they become unavailable. Why have the scanlators stopped working on this, I'd never know but I'm sad they don't seem to be around anymore for this manga (I mean I'd still read stuff on mangaplus but if I want to backread at least I'd have a way...).

While Yuu-chan and Mika are having a chat and probably some potential existensial crisis, Rigr seem to be checking out the 1st Progenitor's memories.

Would you look at that? He got there at the exact point in the memory world that Yuu-chan and Mika last watched! How convenient lol.

Rigr now knows about Shika Madu's past.

The reincarnated angels don't remember their past lives but it seems Shika Madu is okay with them living unaware of it. After all, tragic backstories and all.

Rigr now knowing the truth, it seems he now cares about the 1st Progenitor. Shika Madu might be an asshole but he still cares about his angel subjects even after all this time. He knows it would be difficult and he might not be able to succeed but he's not going to give up hope.

It makes me wonder more what his plan is in the present since he seems to be fucking over those he says he cares about.

Anyways, Rigr ends up crying even if he doesn't have his past life memories which made him wonder if those memories still lie within him somewhere.

I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea what to call him now that it's revealed he's the real Mika. Anyways, he was finally noticed by Shika Madu which is bad cause he has a plan.

Angel Mika is alive now and he needs to make his father think he's still dead so he asks homonculus!Yuu to take his place. He'd even forget his real identity to make things more convincing.

"No matter how many eons it takes... no matter how many generations we go through... in the end, we'll save everybody!" declared human Yuu whose actually the real angel Mika (this is gonna be confusing lol. I'm calling him Past!Yuu). It didn't matter how long it took and what the circumstances have become, Yuu-chan has always wanted to save everyone no matter when and it's always been his goal.

(I wish I could take the screenshot of when he said this but it's hard to crop with the length)

Homonculus!Yuu seems hesitant at first but he happily agreed with Past!Yuu's plan and he's now the new Mika.

New!Mika (yes, I'm not calling him that) is given his first task for his newest role. I'm guessing the "seven lights" are the black keys? Maybe? Anyways, he basically made it so that his father would do a bunch of detours before getting to his goal lol.

Past!Yuu erased (although more like locked away) his memories of being Angel Mika. He promises New!Mika that no matter what, he'd come back and collect him and New!Mika happily promises back.

Beams of light shoot out from New!Mika and Shika Madu catches one of them. On his hand he finds one of the black keys (I was right earlier! lol). He thinks homonculus!Yuu might've done something but basically thinks "Nah, I made him and he can't think for himself." so he turns his attention to Past!Yuu.

Past!Yuu acts like he knows nothing (either he's acting or the memory lock worked too well) and Shika Madu doesn't buy it and checks his memories which kills Past!Yuu in the process. Shika Madu confirms that Past!Yuu totally knows noting (lol if only you knew).

Shika Madu laments the fragility of the humans he created as he estimated that they might not even live to be a hundred.

Shika Madu doesn't realize that close by, Past!Yuu aka the real Angel Mika had been reborn again.

Aww!! A proper reunion between Mika and Yuu! Yuu-chan had fullfilled his promise! They still don't actually have their past life memories but they're okay with it as they think it'd have been bad if they actually did all this time. After all, it took this long to get this far in their plans and they went through so much that if they remembered everything, it'd have made them suffer more and give up.

They're reminded of the vampires who hated being immortal cause it caused them suffering.

These two are now having a discussion on the meaning of (their) life. They wonder why they should keep going and why Yuu-chan should make Mika human again. Mika answers that he wants to live and die with Yuu-chan (aww... that's so sweet!). Yuu-chan asks if that'd really make Mika happy and Mika says he thinks so.

Mika is slowly but surely turning into a full demon and Yuu-chan says he won't let it happen. Yuu-chan concludes that they don't clearly remember their past lives and they'd continue living this life and would try to reach their present lives goal: save everyone (especially the dead Hyakuya orphans and Guren and their friends) and turn Mika back to human.

Hope restored! Yuu-chan likens their current situation to a video game and thinks that they have a chance now that they know the lore. Mika agrees!

Their current goal? Get the seven keys!

Oh!! Flashback to eight years ago!

Ferid is wondering why the First Progenitor wants to make a "Mikaela" and what even is a "Mikaela" in the first place. He says he wasn't compatible to become this Mikaela and the First Progenitor himself cannot be whatever it was.

He also got his hands on little Yuu-chan and Mika (they were drugged and were sound asleep) to check their memories. Someone else is there with Ferid however...

Ferid asked Guren if Guren had checked the kids' memories and he hasn't yet.

Oh... what does this mean?!

That last panel though. Guren looked weird lol. Had their chins always been this round/big? I mean I knew the illustrator's artstyle had changed over the years as this manga had been running for a long time now but this is the first time I really notice. I don't like it lol. Makes them look weird and old. I might not like Guren that much but I have to admit he's handsome and this? Not at all lol.

Okay! We got the lore!! I'm happy and excited and this feels like the most hilarious development I've seen in this story in a while. Angel Mika is smart and immediately have some kind of starting plan for his goal. Sadly, it seems turning himself into Yuu-chan also lowered his braincells lol jk. It seems no one else in this metaphorical chess game realized that someone they wanted to take as pawn is also playing the game.

Guren and Shika Madu totally fucked up their plans all because they were targetting the wrong kid! Especially Guren who had been with Yuu-chan longer in this current life cause his actions in the last couple of chapters made Yuu-chan reject helping him. I think if Yuu-chan had gotten back his memories of being Angel Mika and if Guren knew about this fact, Guren probably would've had a better chance of convincing Yuu-chan to sacrifice himself since Yuu-chan's goal in life (both the past and present) was to save everyone including Mika.

Oh, ther irony! XD

This isn't a perfect story, I admit. I don't think this turn of events had been hinted before (if it had been, then it's my fault I missed all the clues) but I don't care. I'm still having a lot of fun reading.

Mika telling Yuu-chan once again that he'd just want them to live together until the end made me sooo happy! Ah, it's times like these I'm happy to be a MikaYuu fan haha. I remember that in the PSP game, they did mention this also with Mika and Yuu wanting to live and raise kids together. (>///<)

I'm curious now about what Shika Madu is actually feeling about all this in the present. He did care a lot about everyone back then but now it doesn't seem to be the case and he's willing to sacrifice the other vampires just to get his son back. But then again knowing that he could just have them reincarnated, maybe he's okay with sacrificing the current them cause he can just make new bodies for the vampires.

Also wondering why Shika Madu kept remaking the Yuu from Ancient Greece. Did he realize there's something special about this new human? Did he realize that in a way, this was the human form of the homonculus eyeball (actually Angel Mika)? Or did he just think of making a human version of homonculus Yuu cause it'd be easier to experiment on something like him which he could just remake? I wonder if it's the reason why Yuu from Ancient Greece didn't have emotions while the new humans created in the past had personalities or seemingly could have one even before getting possessed by angels?

Also, Shika Madu's tragic backstory is enough to make Rigr sympathize or at least care about him though. I wonder how this would affect things as Rigr hated the First Progenitor and was willing to oppose him. How about now?

That ending there though. What did Ferid mean by "Have you looked into their memories?" when talking to Guren? Vampires have now been revealed to be able to read memories - Rigr and Shika Madu did so earlier and Ferid says he would at the end although I think I should've seen this coming since vampires turn into demons and demons have that ability. Does the question mean Guren also have that power? How?? Or is it Mahiru-no-Yo's power their talking about since she's now Guren's demon? Hmmm..... but then again, didn't they mention a connection between the Ichinose clan and Rigr?

Oh my god, so many questions! XD

I'm so glad I didn't end up taking too many photos cause tumblr had a photo limit for posts and I didn't hit that. Excited for the next chapter! Hope it's as fun as this one.

If I don't get to post anything in the next few days, here's a Happy Holidays to you! I hope you have fun and thanks for reading. :)

#owari no seraph #seraph of the end #sana_post #mikayuu #ons manga

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nebulousfishgills · 11 months

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I could just be a dumbass who came to this conclusion after everyone else did and I just don't realize it, but I was mindlessly drafting a one shot and the thought occured to me.

There's a lot of mystery around the Massacre of Hawkins Lab and Henry's past that I think we're all trying to piece together. Weird inconsistencies, time gaps, missing information, and the like. I don't really have a coherent way of saying this cleanly, so I'll just dump it out.

I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of us in the "The Mind Flayer Was Behind It All" camp, but we all end up looking like Pepe Silvia in "It's Always Sunny" because of those missing pieces we're trying to drag together. I'll probably sound the same way, but here we go.

What I think is part of what's going on is that the Creel House is just a location in Hawkins where the barrier between both worlds is extremely weak, like how some haunted locations are more prone to paranormal activity than others. One might argue that Hawkins Lab is another one of these weak spots, but I wanna focus on the Creel House.

The Mind Flayer had always existed as a shadow-y soup of chaos for god knows how many years and as we can see, it's what connects the Hivemind together. It's like Bluetooth, really.

It's an entity on its own and I think it's goal is to control all things, in the Upside-Down and in the Overworld. What I think happened was that it was looking for a vessel to get into the Overworld it's been locked out of. Henry comes along, already disillusioned and dissatisfied with society for probably several reasons that we can't yet confirm nor deny, yet are implied (is he gay, is he neurodivergent, both, who knows).

These things will probably reveal themselves in The First Shadow, one of many reasons it's going to be a very important piece of lore...

The First Shadow... Shadow... Shadow Monster... Mind Flayer.

The Shadow Monster started to invade Henry's mind, stoke his worries and hatred to eventually link itself with him. That's how Henry's powers developed. It's a tired parallel at this point, but it's easy. The Flayer is Emperor Palpatine, Henry is Anakin Skywalker (and El is Luke). "Join me and together we can rule the galaxy/world, here are cool powerups to boot."

Once Henry's taken to Hawkins Lab, he's separated from the weak barrier that his house was, but the Mind Flayer has still infected his mind.

"The particles went inside them" is what Murray said about the Demo-creatures in the Russian prison, and I think somehow the Mind Flayer got particles/its influence/Bluetooth into Henry. He's constantly simmering, just waiting for the day he can escape and take his revenge. Which is where the Massacre comes in.

I can't explain every weird detail or inconsistency, but I can explain two things:

-I don't remember who said it, but I completely agree with it: Henry's monologue makes so much more sense if we look at it like someone possessed by an ancient evil eldrich being.

-Henry *absorbs* his victims. Remember how in Season 3 the Meat Flayer *absorbed* residents in Hawkins to grow stronger? I think the Massacre started as Henry clearing a path so he and Eleven could escape, but eventually the Shadow overtook him, telling him to keep going, keep killing, get him/it stronger by absorbing everyone, all those kids with powers like his.

I think the same thing happened at dinner in 1959.

I don't know what Henry's beef with Alice was or why he killed her, and I don't think he knew either. I think the Shadow Monster clouded his mind and judgement so he would kill everyone unimpeeded. His mother went first, the sticking point. The Flayer promised Henry it would help him deal with her, but once he did that, it was essentially Doctor Faustus signing his soul to Mephistopheles (if you'll excuse the too-appropriate reference). Too much power comes at a price, and that price is Henry's autonomy.

Oh, the Mind Flayer lets Henry shape it into the spider-like creature he'd visualized oh so long ago to let him believe he's the one in control, but he's not. The Shadow keeps poisoning him, his mind. How else do you think Henry decayed so throroughly?

I expect if you were to banish the Mind Flayer from Henry like they did Will in season 2, everything would go back to normal. He'd be human again. Powerless, sure, but he's no longer a pawn with his distaste for humans exacerbated to the point of serial murder. It would take effort, but I think it's possible.

Show Henry that he was loved as a child. Victor loved him, Alice loved him, Virginia... tbd. Eleven showed him kindness in Hawkins Lab, that kindness she showed and those past memories might be the key to ending this...

Oh wait!

Boom.

#i'm spitballing #but it all makes sense to me i might just be bad at explaining it #henry's the pawn who thinks he's the king #the victim who thinks he's the villain #so what i'm saying is that if he dies at the end i'm gonna be so pissed off #stranger things #stranger things 4 #stranger things 5 #stranger things theories #the first shadow #stranger things the first shadow #henry creel #vecna #001 #the mind flayer

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anxious-ace · 4 months

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I have some lore (?)

(Yes this is why I referenced Alan Wake in the notes thing, I ended up making him an alternate version of Toast):

"I don't remember anything that happened last week. I mean I remember getting a call from Bright Falls regarding a famous author and shadow entities, but I don't remember making the trip over here, what happened when we arrived or the entire week we were here. All I remember was running around in the woods one night and the rest of the team clamoring to find me but that was about it, besides an entity calling itself "the collective" forcing me off the side of a wooded hill (which I rolled down mind you). It could be 1. My narcolepsy, 2. The concussion I sustained that night, 3. An apparent bout of alcohol or other substance use or 4. A combination of factors that brought on this amnesia. Either way, it's not good and I need to figure out what's happening and why."

-Toast (12/6/23: 10 am)

"In regards to Toast's log from this morning, he's right. After we found him near the bottom of that wooded hill, we rushed him to whatever medical professional was around. The doctor did indeed confirm a concussion, which means that Toast will be staying back at the cabin while the 3 of us help the author and his agent. The agent has noted that we should first check for any more scientific explanations, and has permitted us to look at any files that they had on them. I may not trust them, but who said I needed to in order to do my job and help them? Also, we need to look into this "collective" entity that gave Toast the concussion in the first place. If anything else pops up, I'll check back with everyone when I get the chance."

-Ghost (12/6; 5:14 pm)

"Harvey's is a pizza parlor on the outskirts of PMA Square. Jackie Houghs has asked us to investigate during his next shift there, he has the day shift so they cleared out a few days for us to investigate as we have to get back from Bright Falls and they have to make sure it's clean for our arrival. The reason they asked us to look at the place is because it keeps getting attacked by the spirits of past visitors who have died while attending. Who or what killed them we don't know but we know that something must've."

-Colon (12/8; 3 pm)

I forgot that I said that Jackie was a software developer, apparently blanked and just gave him a job at my Fazbear's stand-in (maybe it's to keep up the civilian act)

"I hope everyone in Bright Falls is okay, it's been hard getting back into the swing of taking care of the company. The new guys are so…adamant about all of the evidence the base has and how if the field workers aren't careful, a whole lot more damage can be done. I mean, John's son already has a concussion and is suffering acute memory loss, and it hasn't even been 2 weeks. It might be paranoia from past experiences or parental instincts but I can't help being scared for everyone. I'm just…I want my son to be safe and for him to know how proud of him I am."

-Timothy Casket (12/8; 3:40 pm)

#ego islands au #taleblr #johnny ghost #johnny toast #venturiantale pie #timothy casket #jackieboy man

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fire-lizard-ro · 10 months

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HSR Theories pt. 1

This post is more for me than anything else.

Because I need to write these down so I can keep track of my current theories.

I'm SUPER into HSR theory crafting and lore.

So if you are also into that, then have a peek at this, I suppose. Fair warning- It's going to be a bit all over the place.

I'll be adding stuff later, because I don't have the energy to right now.

Theories under the cut for spoilers. Like- MAJOR spoilers.

Blade, Dan Heng, and Jing Yuan

So these are theories I've had for weeks, now. And I was correct about Blade being immortal and seeking his own end, so that's already a win.

From what I understand, Blade, Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, and Jingliu are four of the five members of the High-Cloud Quintet.

All four of them wear a red ribbon. Likely to symbolize the bond they once shared. Jing Yuan's is in his hair. Dan Heng's is on his spear, Cloud Piercer. Jingliu and Blade's are on the back of their clothes. I wonder if those two share the spot they put their ribbons for a reason...

It's somewhat sad, because just like in Jing Yuan's voiceline "About Self" he and the rest of the High-Cloud Quintet all walk very different paths now. "My past enemies are either dead or captured, and my past friends are scattered to the winds..." Jing Yuan is an Arbiter-General of the Xianzhou Alliance who must uphold his duty, Blade is a Stellaron Hunter who is wanted dead or alive by the IPC, and Dan Heng is running from a past he doesn’t remember as a Nameless of the Astral Express. Jingliu is... well? She's alive, as we've seen in Yanqing's companion mission. But we aren't really sure what she's been doing all this time or how she's alive. Just that she's looking for the man who now calls himself "Blade".

I'm almost certain that the three people that Blade talks about is Jingliu, Dan Heng, and himself. Jing Yuan is not one of the choices since Blade has already said himself that "you are not one of them, Jing Yuan." Since Blade, Jing Yuan, Jingliu, Dan Heng, and one other person are all part of the High-Cloud Quintet... Of five people, three must pay the price. The Quintet is a group of five people who were all connected.... quintet, literally meaning five.... It makes a lil too much sense to me... And since Blade is seeking his own end, it makes it more of a possibility.

Also- About five star Dan Heng/Vidyadhara Dan Heng... We already know he's Imbibitor Lunae. Now about the sedition of Imbibitor Lunae. I'm almost certain that Blade's immortality has something to do with Dan Heng.

I think that's why Dan Heng was banished from the Xianzhou Alliance. Something to do with breaking a law among the Vidyadhara that has to do with the mara struck, perhaps. Because in the 1.2 livestream, they confirmed that Blade has mara in him and that it flares up and Kafka is able to use her ability to keep it at bay.

Remember that one of the quest NPCs we see a lot for Luofu quests said that the Vidyadhara have different rules than them. But Imbibitor Lunae was the High Elder of the Vidyadhara and the Luofu. But laws and whatnot with the mara struck have to have worse consequences...

I also think that Dan Heng had a cycle of rebirth (or whatever the Vidyadhara call it) while imprisoned before being sent away. Based on some of the things he's said in the story AND based on Dan Heng's voice line "About Self: Past". "I come from an alliance, and was born on a gran and beautiful ship that I barely had the chance to see... I can never return."

"barely had the chance to see", huh?

AND in the new version trailer, we hear Jing Yuan ask, probably Dan Heng, "Has coming here triggered your memory?"

We already know that with the Vidyadhara, when they have a cycle of rebirth and return to being an egg to hatch into their new self... They no longer have the memories of the previous cycle.

"The power to turn into dragons was a rare inheritance passed down only to those who could successfully complete numerous rites. A long-lived species, Vidyadhara molt after living for centuries, repairing their bodies then hatching anew from eggs with their memories wiped. They are unable to have offspring."

Only certain Vidyadhara will have the appearance of a dragon with the horns and tail, according to what Dan Heng himself said. And they would have the chance to be the Vidyadhara High Elder, from what I remember.

For the Vidyadhara, each cycle of rebirth might as well be an entirely new life.

While they are the same person at their core, all of the memories that shaped them have been erased.

Like a slate wiped clean.

We already know he no longer has any memory of his past as Imbibitor Lunae. But I think that with Dan Heng once again obtaining his old Vidyadhara form, he'll be getting back his memories. It seemed like it in the leaks and based on what we saw in the version trailer.

That's all I can remember theorizing, but I'm sure I wrote down more elsewhere. So I'll edit this later if I remember more of what I'd thought about.

Edit 15/07/23

You know how I said that I think Dan Heng has something to do with Blade becoming immortal and it's likely also the reason he was banished from the Xianzhou Alliance? Maybe those things have something to do with the fact that the Vidyadhara are known as Long's Scions. As in Long, the Aeon of Permanence. And Dan Heng was the High Elder of the Luofu and the Vidyadhara, meaning he'd passed the trials that the Vidyadhara must pass in order to have the blessings of their kind, includnig the features of a dragon. Maybe that has something to do with Blade becoming immortal? Dan Heng being a one of the strongest beings who were descended from the Aeon of Permanence?

#Roro writes #HSR #honkai star rail #hsr theories

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katyspersonal · 11 months

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Let me reformulate.

Who do you love / simp the more for between Aldrich, Micolash and Shabriri?

(Or is your favorite crazy soulsborne man a secret 4th thing?)

Why you have to put it this way sdfhhfds

Okay but honestly, every question of a kind is rigged by design if it includes Micolash in it, because I will ALWAYS choose him xD You know he is very dear for me, and at this point the "relationship" we have in my dreams where he appears feels like actual communication. It just runs very deep. And I could not abandon him if I tried because whenever it is about to happen, I have some sort of a nightmare of him dragging me back to him emotionally :^) 👍

I'll say though, without Micolash in the equation it is probably THE other Deep Sea simp guy. I never get to discuss Aldrich with anyone but Val, but I have a HUGE soft spot for the guy. The 'corrupt cleric' trope in fiction attracts me like a moth to a light bulb, but even further than that he has a similar transcendental motivation to Micolash (and Rykard, for that matter) - trying to get out no matter what cost because if you really think of it, no depraved actions really matter in the world that is already broken and corrupt by design! I suffer (am I tho... am I, tho) from some sort of disconnection from humanity, and this sort of higher plane thinking really resonates with me and gives me peace. Just finding a character that can 'understand' this makes me feel less lonely, even if that's a villain who is so comically evil he is long past redemption horizon. Val will also confirm that I've legit had very peaceful, elaborate and even 'magical' dreams about sea after discussing the guy in lengths, and when a fictional character gives me 'significant', personal-feeling dreams that's an automatic W.

...I also imagine him being fat even before eating people, and this is my favourite body type. Huggable is good!!!!! Yeah, when I think of Aldrich, I picture his still human(ish) self, and not the state of stealing Gwyndolin's look that we meet in the game.

This is not to say that I disregard Shabriri of course. I've been torturing Val and Crow with essays about him for a good reason, you know xD However, he DOES terrify me in a unique way. Micolash wants knowledge and to take his place in a higher plane away from the plebs, Aldrich wants to get to the better era for him and his simps in general being in the world stuck in vicious cycle, but Shabriri wants to, like... destroy everything, you know?

All three characters made quite huge human sacrifices out of despairing for how their world was designed if you think of their lores in general, whether they found it easy (if not enjoyable) to do or not. (I'd think the former for all three -_-") But I see Shabriri as someone without grandiose ideas but rather, he got a hunch of THE forbidden, the most evil power that goes more against Golden Order than anything imagineable and just... couldn't NOT. The call of curiosity is the most sparing way I can describe it. There is a Russian saying - "Суету навести охота" - that specifically refers to a person that ruined everything Just Because. Without even beneficial goal, just because things were too peaceful and 'boring'. That's him, okay? xD Yet I still feel bad for him, just... just why he had to tangle himself with something THAT horrifying.

youtube

^^^ I've been overthinking the contrast between how Kale says 'May chaos take the world' and how Shabriri says it. The intonation is so... drastically different - with Kale already seeking some peace and liberation from pain in the prospect of all things being melted, but with Shabriri (as you remember) sounding like a goddamn maniac. 'Some men just want to see the world burn', huh? I don't think anyone can truly comprehend Frenzied Flame since it comes from the power equal (or same) as Greater Will, so it is like a 'sickness' that will draw power from drives, feelings and principles of the host.

All in all? Shabriri is Chaotic Evil. I could write an essay about why Aldrich can qualify as Chaotic Good (at least past some point in his history) and Micolash as Chaotic Neutral, but this post is already overstaying his welcome because this question SHOULD be much simpler than I made it be x) I'll always like the 'Chaotic' type the most, but the Evil one is always least attractive. Adrich will do one a "favour" of eating them to add to his mass and take them into a better era, Micolash will do one a "favour" of making them a martyr in the progress torturing and sacrificing them for his weird rituals goals to commune with Gods... But Shabriri, bless his heart, will harm one... why? 'For fun' is the NICEST it can be. @_@" I am sure that Shabriri has a lot of intelligence packed in him as an extremely skilled manipulator then and now, but even tangled with hivemindish superior power, he is danger and evil for the sake of it and not out of twisted but noble motivations. He is uncaring and..... ironically 'cold' for someone with his element? I'd still quite love to bother the guy for attention and discuss existence and memories with him but in the end this is, figurally and literally, playing with the fire. xD

I know it is a combination of interpretations and super extensive analysis that was left behind the doors, but again, with Soulsborne characters, your own intuition and experiences is often all you've got! Thank you for the question, though! xD It was fun to think about..

#fandomry rambles #ask replies #personal #(ish)#cringe #soulsborne #basically shabriri is losing because he doesn't have 'nobility' in his motivations even albeit twisted and distorted #as selfish as Micolash became you can still sympathise with his drive #(also Micolash is my cute precious baby)#but it doesn't mean I do not simp for Shabriri HARD lol #just ask Val #(actually don't xD)

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pink-spikes · 1 year

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IM SO EXITED FOR THE NEW OBEY ME GAME!!!! AHHHHH!

I have always wanted to see more about Simeons past because in the game, he has hints here and there of the past and the celestial realm, but nothings has been put together as a full story.

spoilers:

for example, Simeon said that he used to be Seraphim, which is the highest rank in the celestial realm. He is now an archangel, a warrior angel known to be one of the lower ranks and looked heavily down apon in demon society. Was he demoted before, during, or after the war? (I'm only on lesson 75? in obey me so correct me if some of my information isn't correct with more recent events) Why does he still work for micheal? How long has micheal in charge? Did god or micheal demote him from seraphim? Why does he take care of Luke despite being a war angel? How long were archangels a thing? Has there been wars between the demon realm and celestial realm before? what does Rapheal look like in the picture? I think Simeon dislikes the celestial realm to some degree, he never mentions it and when he does he doesn't really reminiscent of the present but rather the past where he got to hang out with his brothers. No one has ever seen his angel form, but hes a human. IN THE NEW GAME WE MIGHT SEE HIS ANGEL FORM! anyways, in simeons HDD card, when he mentions realms, he says we should visit the human realm, and then says celestial realm too. It took him a bit to say that which was weird. Events are inherently cannon but represent their cannon forms in different scenarios, and in HDD he was still in his angel outfit, meaning it isnt up to season 4. Thats just one instance though I'm sure to find more.

In the video, we see Simeon with luke, and rapheal in a hallway (idk if its in RAD or the celestial realm). Rapheal walks ahead, not looking back and simeon looking outside, with the next clip being luke clutching his clothes. This might be hinting at a rocky relationship between rapheal and simeon. There's are some holes that need to be filled in within the lore about Simeon fighting against the brothers and why. I don't know what he was doing in the war, if he was demoted then, or was punished for wanting to defend him. Simeons flaw is staying in the past, as he is seen wanting to go back where he was hanging out with the brothers as angels. This could because of many things that aren't confirmed, like regret, guilt, or finding difficulty in the way things are in the celestial realm now. I personally believe that Simeon will have to grow as a person to move forward as he is now a human, making it so he only has like 70 years of his life to live. He wont be able to be there for Luke anymore, and It's a possible reason that they sent Rapheal to be an exchange student so he will take care of Luke after Simeon dies and probably his soul gets sent downwards.

+(I want to know why Solomon has never asked Diavolo, the future king of the demon realm, for a pact and only bugs Lucifer for a pact. its really odd but I dont think the new game is gonna answer that. The devs purposely but in that line from Diavolo about solomon but was never explained further so there is prob going to be something in the future about Lucifers powers scaled from Diavolo.)

I would also like to know how the dagger that can kill demons were invented, and if they were from the celestial realm or a witch or a demon.

WAIT HOLY SHIT I RemEMBER SOMETHING. I remember seeing screenshots and meme forever ago i dont have them but it was levi saying one of his long anime titles, and it said something about being reincarniated as punishment and being a man servant suggesting that barbatos was somehow Liliths (angel-form) lover and was reincarnated as punishment from god, which could be more of an explanation to his time powers(thinking like Homura Akemi), it may or may not be a stretch my memory can get fucked up over time of things happening. The anime title does exist, i just dont remember the exact contents. take everything in this paragraph with a 2 pounds of salt. Last year in May when my fixation was at its peak again, I spent hours searching for juicy Simeon lore and celestial realm lore. Ive been theorizing and questioning a lot of things since then. I have screenshots of somethings if anyone wants me to post about them I can, but I might have to look in game again for some of the stuff.

I could make a post about a Simeon timeline/speculations that would like an essay. hes my favorite character and I love him an unhealthy amount <333

#obey me #omswd #simeon #obey me nightbringer #EDIT: the hallway scene was at RAD because earlier we see pannels of the brothers at HOL in the rain and the scene is the same at the hallw #as cool it would be to see barbatos as liliths first lover' it would make any romantic relationship between mc 1000 times weirder #like how they acknowledge solomon in a romantic relationship with mc has a large power dynamic and they try to “fix it” through saying they #are like partners in crime' but they are still a student teacher relationship

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bluebellthesponge · 6 months

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apropos of nothing my brain just remembered you talking about NSYNC being your parents' ages and suddenly putting together that you are actually a few years younger than Joey's oldest kid. This isn't that special, but I still remember when her existence was confirmed after months of being an Internet rumor and the fact that she's basically grown fucks me up.

lol obvs i'm sure in couple of years it will be a mindfuck for me as well to see kids born in the 2020s like artists from today in 2040 and refer to them in such a way as a distant memory...i am already flabbergasted seeing kids born in 2013 being 10 years old and not babies...also tiktokkers already making aesthetics and romanticizing things from 2014 is also sort of weird to see, but i am sure as time goes on i will probably start seeing more posts about past years that i fully more lived in/remember talked about in a way like it is something "distant" and that will be interesting to experience

for me i can look back at old nsync performances and see them basically around my age/only a couple years older do these performances it's still a different experience than watching people actually around my age today be performers you know? i know nsync aren't around my age anymore, i know what i am watching was filmed at a time i did not exist in, they're now all dads...(besides jc technically speaking which good for him), but like dad age basically. like i can so see joey be a friend of my mom's, my mom loves joey, but not in a cougar way, because i know joey back then was also popular with the moms but now being the 2020s, it's not like my mom is thinking this 20 something year old guy is cute, because i mean joey is from my mom's generation so she just likes a guy around her age lmao

it's interesting to hear how joey's first kid was just an internet rumor back then, while it is not impossible today to basically be hush hush about your pregnancy/kid today, it is definitely more interesting/rare to see somebody of influence not be quick to post a pregnancy announcement/birth post right away or never even post at all about their kids these days. i just feel like back then almost every celebrity was so detached from being so interactive??? with their audience, there wasn't individual users of them online, just some guys you would listen through a radio or see on tv lol. that's how i prefer it tbh. i actively do not follow any celebrities on social media. i prefer being detached to them on a personal level and only really enjoying their art and some lore that surrounds them. i just like them beep booping around on screen singing a song, not whatever they have to post on tiktok these days

maybe reversed to you it's a weird experience whenever i come across these old forgotten fansites that haven't been updated since 2001 still exist or come across fics that were written at a time i wasn't even conceived of is just so fascinating to me...fandom has really always been happening before i existed and will continue even after i die lol. obvs i wasn't there for nsync in its heyday in the early '00s, it's still a very interesting subject...once again i hope to one day make some video essays about nsync topics since there is a lot of things that could be talked about the band, the period, and the fandom itself and i just don't see much talk about it haha

one of my older sisters was born around the 2002 winter olympics, and nsync performed a concert for it and i am so mad she didn't drive her 10 day old ass to catch nsync all the way to utah!!! fakeeee (joking)

also i just listened to songbird and thank you! honestly chris get on it...NOW... now i am mad because it reminds me how much potential nsync could have had on covering songs, but they are cowards and don't really do that >:((( i watched nsync's rio show last night and when they did that very interesting medley cover of bee gees song,,,it just reminds me how much potential nsync just generally could have had with showcasing all their abilities back then but at last,,,hopefully with this reunion(???) we get more fun stuff out of them, but if not it's fine ig lol they don't owe a random 18 year old on the internet anything

#asks #rae-conteur

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stellocchia · 3 years

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Since I really enjoyed yesterday's stream I decided to do one of my overly long analysis on it

So, here's my analysis of (DSMP LORE) Healthy Competition

Dialogues will be color-coded as usual, so here's what I used: Phil, Wilbur, Ranboo

As always I am incapable of brevity, so everything's under the cut

The stream starts with a conversation between Phil and Wilbur in which Wilbur admits that he hasn't been to visit Phil in a while, which makes Phil's later threat about throwing him out feel that much more ridiculous since Wilbur clearly doesn't really live with him either way...

"Alright, it's got one for Phil, one for Ranboo, and one for Techno. Is that all that live here? Just you three?" "Yep, just us three, just chilling"

The only reason why I'm singling this out is that it was right after the mention of Techno's birthday and Wilbur was pointing at the seats occupied by the 4 members of the Syndicate so it feels slightly weird that Niki wasn't mentioned at all. But also it's technically not a lie, she doesn't live there and she only comes around for the Syndicate meetings.

Another thing to add is that Wilbur did notice the chest Ranboo left for him and consciously decided to ignore it.

"I must admit I've come to you with a bit of a- a bit of a proposition. You're into propositions Phil? Are you a bit of a 'propositions' kinda guy?" "Oh, depends, depends. You- you've had some pretty... let- let's just say, uh- not- not a great track record on propositions that you've had in the past" "Alright... I mean, I'm trying to move past that"

I wonder what exactly Phil is referring to here. Because, like, Wilbur did bad things, don't get me wrong, but what's his track record with "propositions" in particular? Because he isn't talking about "Tommy, let's be the bad guys" here since he doesn't know about that. Is he talking about Wilbur founding L'Manburg? But then again, I don't think Wilbur interpreted it that way. I think that, from Wilbur's reaction, he clearly interpreted it as a jab at him exploding L'Manburg (which is the one thing he's trying to move past) which would be extremely hypocritical from Phil since he did the exact same thing but worse.

Also, I really do think that Wilbur is trying to move forward. He's lonely and he has the lowest possible opinion of himself so it doesn't feel weird that he'd want to move on. He isn't putting the work in it right now and he hasn't really changed, but he does seem to want to (though I think he may not know how).

"He [Quackity] didn't seem afraid of me, which is cool. Not many people- I mean you don't seem afraid of me. You aren't afraid of me, are you Phil?" (little look into Wilbur's mind and his fear of isolation once again. And this is fear of isolation, he's worried that other people are afraid of him and therefore are only waiting for him to step out of line so that all their fears would be confirmed)

"'Cause I'm not afraid of you [Phil]" (bold words for someone who spent who knows how long lying to his dad because of a crippling fear of disappointment...)

"Technoblade spent his entire time taking down the establishments, what he left is, as predicted, a power vacuum for a new establishment to come in" (in case it wasn't obvious, Wilbur is not the biggest fan of anarchy. And he actually got this one criticism spot on, indeed all taking down L'Manburg did was getting 4 new governmental-like structures to sprout in its place)

"Phil, I want to make a burger van" *Phil sighs and walks away* (I'm more sure now that Phil really meant "creating L'Manburg" as Wilbur's bad track record with propositions)

Wilbur repeating 4 times that he has no ulterior motive with the burger van managed to make me think the exact opposite. That said that ulterior motive may just be to create a safe little home for himself and Tommy for all we know honestly. Also, the whole thing with Phil trying to convince his grown-ass kid to go play with the neighbor kid and Wilbur throwing a tantrum in response was hilarious...

"If he's [Ranboo] shit you gotta come help me okay? If he's shit you've gotta come be burger boy with me, okay?" (he still is mistrustful to an extreme and pretty childish admittedly)

"Why is he [Phil] treating me like a kid?! Why is he treating me like a little baby?" (remembering how Wilbur treated Fundy I think it may be a family problem)

Another interesting thing to point out is that Wilbur was openly scared of the spider attacking him here, and fights it off, but he doesn't move away from the explosion later on and he didn't move away from the exploding creepers last stream. Other people already made this connection, but I do think it may be a sort of way to punish himself. Specifically, it's brought up later on that he thinks he got off easy for what he did, so he's using what he hurt others with (explosions) to hurt himself now as a sort of punishment for that. Which is another indication of just how much his stay in Limbo didn't help with his mental health.

"Am I being- is this [Ranboo having both cows and wheat] a setup?" (the paranoia never left)

"Ranboo I'm gonna go out on a limb here: do- do you wanna be friends?" "Su-sure yeah, I don't see why not" (I think that at this point it was still just Wilbur following along with what his dad told him to do and trying to find out more about Ranboo. That does seem to change later down the line)

"And then we decided that it [the 'cookie' outpost] was too much trouble so we kinda just left it" (So we have confirmation that the cookie outpost was abandoned)

"We're not gonna annoy Quackity" "That's good" "We can't annoy- we can't annoy him because we're simply put- we're simply put gonna be making...- I got the real estate! He's giving me the area and we're gonna be making a competing business"

Wilbur says this as if he wasn't perfectly aware that this would annoy the sh*t out of Quackity. As if the point of it wasn't exactly to annoy Quackity. Or well, annoying him isn't the end goal, it's just the means to an end. We don't know the actual end goal (though I think Wilbur still wants to either be let into Las Nevadas or actually instate a rivalry between them as he said, one of the two).

"We [he and Quackity] were a part of the same cabinet during New L'Manburg or whatever" "Cabinet?" "Yeah a cabinet is like-" "Was this- was this with Tubbo?" "Yeah yeah" (...) "So you were part of the old L'Manburg? I didn't know that actually, I thought you were a bit of an independent"

Once again: Wilbur is missing A LOT of knowledge. He wasn't aware that New L'Manburg had a cabinet and he wasn't aware that Ranboo was ever part of the country either. He has a lot of misconceptions about what happened during the time he was dead so it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that his views on a lot of things are as warped as they are. Wilbur is getting to his conclusions with an incomplete and sometimes wrong set of data.

"Do you dislike anyone Ranboo?" "Not too much I don't think. I mean there are other people I don't, like, agree with what they've done of course, but I think that everyone is just a product of what they've gone through and everything so if you understand that then you understand the person!"

There is nothing inherently wrong with Ranboo's reasoning here. It's true that most people are a result of their environment and, once you understand what they've been through you can understand them better as a person. It's also fine that he personally doesn't want to hold grudges. But that way of thinking isn't applicable to those who have been hurt by others, sure they can reach an understanding, but an understanding of a person doesn't justify shit and doesn't change shit unless that person works towards repairing old broken relationships. It just all sounds like a nice way of thinking about things in theory, but in practice, it just takes away responsibility from those who have wronged others to fix things and moves it to those who have been wronged. (Ranboo isn't advocating for everyone to think that way though, but I know the fandom will).

Either way, they arrive in Las Nevadas and Wilbur talks about how their place doesn't benefit the consumer and puts down 3 signs.

"I've been trying to think of a name for it [his and Tommy's area], I'm thinking about 'Paradise'"

There are two possible reasons for the name that I can think of:

1) It's in reference to Las Nevadas itself and how Las Nevadas is based on Las Vegas, the famous city of sin

2) It could be a reference to Tommy insistently calling Las Nevadas Paradise in the last stream and Wilbur trying to convince him that their place is the true Paradise

Wilbur does decide to make the Burger Van right at the border which really feels like a very obvious provocation. The other thing is that he makes it clear that he wants the van to be red and white which could be a random choice, but really feels like a reference to Tommy (since they are famously his colors) or an imitation of their opposition. Or both considering how much Tommy liked the restaurant of the opposition and the fact that Wilbur is still trying to convince him to stay.

"I'm not very fond of blue" (at this point it's obvious that Wilbur has quite a bit of pent-up animosity against Ghostbur. I wonder if it is because it still feels like people liked the ghost more than him...)

"Like, the Cookie Shop, I don't even know if it was a cookie shop, to begin with, because it was a little... fortified if I'm entirely honest, I realize that now" "Really?" "Yeah did you not see- oh wait- that giant stone structure?" (Ranboo really did fail to realize that the cookie shop was actually a military outpost, huh?)

"See, I like Tubbo. He's strong-headed, he doesn't let people push him around, you know?" (this is both an interesting change in what he thinks of Tubbo if he actually thinks that and further confirmation that Wilbur isn't a fan of people he considers to be 'followers')

"Why do you claim that you're so 'peaceful' and 'neutral' and yet somehow appear in almost every conflict this server's had since I died?" (since I saw people claiming this is manipulation already, just know that it isn't. He's just confused because, admittedly, Ranboo is a confusing guy and Wilbur doesn't really know him at all)

"Ranboo, why did you come to help me?" (...) "And then also I just think, you know... you can, you know- I think- I think you're an alright person, you know? So I wanna- I did kinda wanna get off on a better foot with you then what happened-" "Why?" "Just because I don't really like having the thought that people don't really like me" "Nonononono not the bit about the right foot, the 'why don't you think I'm a bad person'" "Well I mean, I think that you did bad things, but like, I think that you also went through things that made you that way and then I also think that you've changed now (...) but I think that now you've- apparently you've been away long enough that I think that if anyone goes away for that long eventually they'll have a thought about their morality and everything and maybe become a better person because of it"

I know this quote was absurdly long, but it is one of the most interesting conversations of the whole stream and it is really important and it tells us quite a bit as well. For one thing Wilbur was left quite emotional from someone simply admitting that he's an "alright person" and that they think he's capable of changing and this does bring him to open up to Ranboo right after. What Ranboo says to be exact is that anyone would have changed after going through what Wilbur went through and that change could be positive and while I completely disagree with it, it's clearly something that Wilbur needed to hear.

Now as to why I disagree with the notion that 13 years of semi-complete isolation could change anyone for the better should be rather obvious. But if it isn't, well, that's torture to put it simply. Psychological torture. Just like abuse it's one of those things that only cause trauma and a worsening mental health state and we see this with Wilbur because he didn't change, he only became more self-deprecating. Hurting someone doesn't make them become a better person all of a sudden, that's really not how it works. Hurting someone makes them become more traumatized.

"I think I scare people" ( as I said, immediately opening up about his insecurities)

"I think that a lot of people share your idea, but they share your idea in trying to- trying to keep me from hurting them" (for a bit here Wilbur talks about how he feels like everyone else is just waiting for him to step a foot out of line, which does really show that he's still interpreting all his interactions with people through the lens of his paranoia and self-deprecation, because no one is really interacting with him with that objective in mind)

"Dream's had his comeuppance and I've not" (this seems to be the crux of Wilbur's insecurity. This idea that he got off scot-free for his crimes, the idea that the only difference between him and Dream is the punishment that's been bestowed upon them which, of course, is wrong, but he doesn't know this, because he doesn't actually know why Dream's in prison)

"I've been investing into the wrong areas Ranboo, I've been investing into the wrong people" (This is either a reference to Tommy, to Phil, to Quackity, or to all of them)

"We're kindred man, we get each other" (the reason why he thinks that is because he seems to think that Ranboo has a similar type of paranoia to what Wilbur experience himself and he's not entirely wrong. Ranboo is deathly afraid of conflict and of being disliked so much so that he never stands up for anything in fear of angering others)

Little definition of "neuroticism" for you all since Wilbur kept mentioning it: neuroticism, one of the Big 5 personality traits, is typically defined as a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.

I'd say it's quite fitting for both characters...

"I feel like life dealt us the same cards and the difference is that you built your trust by showing people your cards whilst I- I keep them close to my chest and I feel like that may be the big difference" (I felt like this was interesting. Especially knowing how much Ranboo actually doesn't share and how much he actually also keeps close to his chest)

They talk about tubbo in general for a bit and about what's been going on the server in general. Ranboo also that he's part of both Snowchester and the arctic commune (mostly the latter though).

"This has been chill, this has been good, I'm excited to show Tommy. What's your opinion on Tommy?" "Oh, he's- he's great. Tommy's awesome" "I agree I agree" "Definitely gone through a lot but I think that it's made him a good person" "Well you seem to think that everyone going through something at least gives them some merit you said" "I mean, yeah. I mean if- if no one- the only really bad people are the ones who are just evil because- just because and they don't have any reason why"

Included the whole thing here because if I stopped at Ranboo saying that Tommy going through trauma is what made him a good person it would have sounded really bad. As things are I think that that was just poor wording on his part and that this mostly goes back to the mentality he expressed before about how people sometimes do bad things because of the environment they're in pushing them and this idea he seems to have that actual hardships (like 13 years in Limbo or whatever he knows about what Tommy has been through) can encourage people to be better which is... sort of naive honestly. Again, trauma isn't a catalyst for the betterment of a person, and any improvement Tommy has made came from his self-reflection, not what he's been through.

After they're done with the van Wilbur brings Ranboo to their competing establishment and asks him to smash the windows, which Ranboo does with no hesitation whatsoever. After that Wilbur proceeds to place down one single block of TNT in a corner and Ranboo starts being a little more hesitant.

"You trust me right?" (I feel like that was a trick question considering how their common paranoia is the thing that Wilbur praised in Ranboo before)

Wilbur hands Ranboo the flint and steel to detonate the piece of TNT which Ranboo does, albeit with some hesitation.

"You passed the test, good job man, you go back to the van (...) Ranboo- Ranboo... I'm proud of you man. You've taken a side, you've proven that you can choose a side"

Quite a few people have already pointed out how similar this scene was to the time Wilbur tested Tommy in season 1 to decide if he was fit to be his right-hand man. In both situations, Wilbur gave someone a chance to cause some destruction against someone on the opposite side. Tommy passed the test by refusing to do so and showing that he was willing to uphold his morals and what he believed in. Ranboo passed the test by doing the exact opposite, by showing that, as much as he talks about how he chooses people and not sides, he's not willing to prove that even when all he would need to do to do so is doing nothing.

And it's an interesting scene to analyze as a parallel to that, but it's also interesting to note that Wilbur knows about Ranboo and Tommy griefing George together. He knows that Tommy was the only one to face any consequences for it (not that exile was actually the consequence for the griefing, but this is from Wilbur's point of view). Now putting this in the context of Wilbur seeing himself in Ranboo and thinking that he himself got off scot-free explains this next part perfectly in my opinion.

It explains why he made sure to leave this sign:

To me at least. This is only a theory honestly, we don't have an actual full explanation. But I do think that Wilbur may feel like the both of them never got the comeuppance they deserved, which is why he did something that's sure to get a reaction from one of the most powerful people on the server. Though considering that he also left 2 diamonds as retribution + a chest with all the materials he picked up it could have also been Wilbur's idea of a bonding moment and he could actually really be proud of Ranboo.

#long post #dream smp #wilbur soot #philza #ranboo #c!wilbur #c!ranboo #dream smp analysis #character analysis #stream analysis #tw self-harm #tw self-deprecation #tw torture mention #tw abuse mention #I'm sure there are plenty of things I missed #but this was all for now

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ruby-whistler · 3 years

Note

(Just for time- any name I refer in here is all character unless specified!)

Nah, cause I'm convinced that the vault was 100% a set up and there's so much that is just left unexplained that proves that:

The Elevator

The Polished Blackstone room

The Gold/highly lit stand for the discs

The enderportal

The attachments

The Avenger's Endgame bullshit at the end

Ranboo

(1) - I don't know why, but this was one of the bigger ones to annoy the hell out of me as to why it looked so complicated. Dream- as far as I remember- hasn't had that many creations with such complex machinery/redstone engineering. Even more so to the extent of making an elevator that can function going up and down with a platform big enough to fit multiple people on.

(1) - Not only that, but we never even got to see the inner workings of the redstone itself- it may seem like an unnecessary detail, but as far as I'm aware, not many people are able to make redstone this complex in order to properly function as an elevator (in Minecraft terms). Dream just doesn't seem to fit within that category because- again, as far as I'm aware- the most complicated redstone device he's made has been the doomsday one, and even then, it wasn't even that complicated- nowhere near the level enough to make an entire elevator by himself.

(2) - Maybe it's because of the amount of times I've seen Dream login to the server and how infrequent it had been in the past, but I don't see how Dream could mine up so much Polished Blackstone, especially to use in this specific purpose. Dream doesn't even have many structures to his name, even his own base doesn't even have any materials that could suggest he would need extra Blackstone for. If it had been made out of obsidian, I could believe it considering all that material had been used for walls around L'Manburg. (Plus, it's been confirmed by the CCs that creative mode is barely used as is, so this makes mining this much Blackstone/Polished Backstone make even less sense.)

(2) - I feel like this is strongly indicated with how much Ranboo had been supposedly mining at the time and had a ridiculously low durability on his tool set so often, sure he could be mining for something totally unrelated, but if that were the case- why would he be so "unaware" of why his tools are so low to begin with?

(3) - Now this is where the bullshit meter starts kicking higher. Why would Dream display the real discs so proudly and in such a gaudy manner, especially when it functionally served no purpose? Not even the walls he had around L'Manburg or the obsidian grid were as flashy. Gold floors, bright lights, the portraits of the discs side to side by the very clear escape portal™, hell, they were even positioned to be directly in front of the elevator so that Tommy and Tubbo would first notice them and would try to run for them. AND THERE WERE TWO ENDERCHESTS RIGHT NEXT TO THE PORTALS AND THE DISCS.

(3) - What kind of Saturday cartoon evil villain™ leaves such an obvious flaw, even when taking into account that Dream is supposedly a strategist? What kind of strategic mastermind would leave an interdimentional chest that could potentially have back up gear and various other items to assist his enemies out in the open like that especially next to a portal where they could easily escape? Not even Jack Manifold would make such an oversight like that.

(4) - The placements of the portal and where Dream, Tommy, and Tubbo all stopped off at the end of Dream's grandiose speech were all much to convenient/coincidental. It was like it was choreographed so that when Dream was specifically away for the duo, Punz and whoever else would be able to step in and "separate/rescue" the two from the big bad Dream despite the fact that Dream could've easily killed the two if he really wanted to by being near and crit'ing them out.

(4) - Plus, the portal was already lit. Which leads directly to where they would've been. Again, from a strategic standpoint that makes no god damn sense. Why leave an obvious portal out in the open like this so that your enemies could try and come and find the people you're trying to supposedly kill?

(5) - Oh yeah, but the bullshit alarm is blaring. Albeit with a bit of wavering doubt, I thought that the attachments room was the most solid part of the plan, at least, if we're going with the mindset that Dream's ultimate goal was to take control of attachments, force everyone to be friends/unified again, and achieve his ultimate goal of peace and unity on the server. But as I thought more on it, some of the attachments... Don't make sense for Dream to know.

(5) - How did Dream know about someone having an attachment that was bedrock? How did Dream know about Punz's shulker box? (I know Drista gave it to him and cc!Dream was there for that, but canonically it makes no sense.) Why did Dream specifically think that Enderchest was Ranboo's only primary attachment? How did Dream know about Dogchamp despite Purpled and him never properly meeting in canon?

(5) - Sure Dream could've gone snooping around and managed to find out, but some of these attachments he doesn't even properly know of unless he had to walk up to someone and be like: So hey, what are you emotionally attached to that would make you utterly destroyed when it's gone? :D

(6) - How in the ever loving fuck did everyone manage to get there?

(6) - This one is clear that Punz lead the charge on this one, but why did everyone flat out believe him? Beforehand, everyone was deadset on staying back, regardless if it was on Tommy and Tubbo's word. But Punz? Alone? He managed to convince everyone? Even if they had a neutral opinion on Dream, to go with him to the vault to rescue the two? Nobody questioned how he even knew about where the portal to the vault is, or that it even had a portal? Nobody? Not a single soul? Or how nobody even questioned how Punz knew that Dream had taken the two down there and didn't just send them off into their own exile?

(7) - Ranboo rarely ever metas about the lore. Unlike most CCs in the DSMP, cc!Ranboo has a particular way of making sure that chat doesn't spoil him on plot points going on, so I highly doubt he would "accidentally" recite Dream's speech, word for word, bar for bar in a room he hadn't even been in yet. Nor even was there for (it's heavily hinted that Enderwalk was present during the confrontation instead). Plus, although it was confirmed unintentional by the CCs later on, Ranboo and Dream were both staring at each other, and I don't think it was to keep him in place- considering Enderwalk went to go visit Dream as often as he could before his ban and Enderwalk seemed to be on good terms with Dream even before the whole Doomsday Era.

Nah, the whole confrontation makes no sense, even down to the cherrypicking examples of it all. If it somehow gets confirmed that the confrontation wasn't staged and that Dream was somehow this cocky, I won't make a fuss, but I'm not gonna be entirely too thrilled at the idea.

But contrary to popular belief, I don't think Dream did this with only Punz or Enderwalk, I think those three were the main ones to set up this whole thing, but considering the redstone and the attachments that Dream wasn't supposed to know of. I don't know, but something about that screams like there was one other involved, the question is- who would also help Dream like Punz or Enderwalk too?

This one is an old one, but I absolutely agree. The Disc War finale is, with all due respect, either egregious writing with no character continuity in the slightest, or c!Dream faked the whole thing. It's way too suspicious not to be obvious. That's a banger analysis.

#my asks #anon #*an old one as in an old ask #dsmp analysis #anon is genius #c!dream #dream smp #dreblr

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hootcifer · 3 years

Text

talking about toh | season two, episode eight: "knock knock knockin' on hooty's door"

holy shit

sorry this was a few days late, i was equal parts busy and lazy.

previous | first | next spoilers under the cut, as always

the beginning

awww hooty’s writing to lilith! like he promised!

btw, just so you guys know, i’ll be referring to hooty with he/they pronouns, because it makes sense to me. also i use he/they and i’m a hooty stan so it works.

I realize now that i spelled “hootsifer” wrong in my url. oh well, i like “hootcifer” better anyway. (also the url “hootsifer” is taken anyway)

oh no, hooty feels unimportant! i’m sure the large majority of the fandom is okay with this, but i’m not! poor thing.

i found it adorable that luz wants to find a way into amity's heart (even though she's had a place there since grom). how she would use the echo mouse for that, i don't know.

luz saying "we have to go" was almost a direct parallel to amity saying "I GOTTA GO" in "wing it like witches".

king's plot

i love how king is going through his angsty teen phase. that's hilarious.

why the fuck does hooty just eat people?! and then just act like that's an okay thing to do?!

i think it's a fun detail that hooty is wearing king's teacher hat from "the intruder". i love little things like that.

i like how this episode gave us some lore as to how demons on the isles work. they emerged from the muck of a decomposing titan? that's dope! it's also cool how there's three main types of demons.

hooty is a worm?!

on the board with all the bug demons, i recognized the butterfly alador kept chasing in "escaping expulsion", as well as adagast from "witches before wizards", the bear trap demon from "the intruder", and the kindergarten teacher from "i was a teenage abomination".

it was neat to see the fairy from "a lying witch and a warden" and the butterfly... thing from "witches before wizards". more neat continuity stuff!

what did king say with his dance? i'm very curious.

maybe king didn't want to talk about the cocoon, but i certainly do! what the hell happened?!

because of some of the images in the background when hooty was talking about demons, we can infer that some students of hexside are demons and not witches. i wonder if witches are more powerful than demons, or if they're on the same level.

other biped demons i recognize are the bounty hunter, tibbles, one of the pirates, warden wrath, and braxus.

i also saw a cat-person. are catgirls and catboys a thing on the isles?

i like how tiny nose and hooty are friends. somehow, it makes sense.

was tiny nose playing on a nintendo switch? that's cool.

we got to see even more past demons from the section about beasts, such as the ratworms, the echo mouse, the trash slug, the selikdomus, the slitherbeast, and the snaggleback.

has tiny nose's voice changed, or is that just me?

i'm really curious as to what the heck king is. is he a unique kind of demon? a hybrid, maybe?

i thought it was sweet that hooty and tiny nose tried to celebrate king for who he is, even though it just made him sad. they're trying.

eda's plot

hooty had a good point in wanting eda to sleep. sleep is important! says the guy who regularly stays up until at least midnight.

i completely understand hooty's fear of the owl beast. remember what happened last time?

the cookies hooty made were very cute. i loved that.

hey, the sleeping nettles are back! the same thing luz and hunter used a few episodes back to put kikimora's steed to sleep.

we got to see eda's dad! we know very little about him, but we did see him. also, did he look like nigel thornberry to anyone else? no? just me? okay then.

it broke my heart seeing raine and eda breaking up. it was neat that we got confirmation that they were together!

eda clearly regrets pushing raine away. poor thing.

who is the cloaked figure? i've seen a lot of theories that it's amity, but that makes no sense. i don't think she was even alive at this point. it could be odalia, though. that would be a cool twist.

the little owl beast was so cute. i want a plush of that.

HARPY EDA! holy shit, she's so cool. top tier character design.

luz (and amity)'s plot

you better bet your ass i have a lot to say about this! plot! okay, let's start from the beginning.

i was really hoping we would get some mutual pining lumity this season, and by god did it deliver! luz referring to her as a "cotton-candy-haired goddess" was too cute.

from what she said, it sounds like this isn't the first time luz has tried to ask someone out. she's so afraid of getting rejected. wait a minute, amity was afraid of getting rejected too! that's a parallel i didn't even realize!

i wasn't expecting to see amity this episode! it looks like her parents let her keep her purple hair. that, or the twins are using illusions to hide her hair from their parents.

i love how hooty's solution to getting amity to the owl house is to straight-up eat her. that's one way to do things.

i really want to know more about house demons. are there more than one? are they all bird-like? are they born as houses or do they just inhabit houses? so many questions and not enough lore!

the way luz interrupted amity when she suggested "forgetting" about what happened in front of blight manor reminded me of how eda kept interrupting king last episode when she thought he was going to tell her he was planning on leaving.

i'm not gonna lie, i skipped through the majority of the tunnel of love scene. that kind of thing gives me second-hand embarrassment like you wouldn't believe.

my heart shattered into pieces when amity said that the idea of her adting luz was stupid. she obviously doesn't believe it, but she's probably been trying to convince herself of it.

this part had me terrified that the lumity plot for the episode would end there. thank goodness it didn't, eh?

the ending

AAAAAAAAAAAA

okay, okay, let's start from when hooty freaks out for a third time, after the tunnel of love.

i thought it was funny how hooty ripped himself out of the door in order to run (?) away. at least we didn't have to hear all the sounds this time.

wait, "things always get weird when hooty's upset"? has this kind of thing happened before?

gosh, the part where king's voice powers saved luz and amity was so cool. i saw somewhere that the animator wanted to reflect the lesbian and bi flags and they did a great job.

eda encouraging luz to ask amity out was so cute. we stan a supportive mom, always.

and then comes the scene everyone's been talking about. oh my gosh, this was done so beautifully! it was equally awkward and cute, the way it should have been, and the fact that they both asked each other was perfect!

LOOK AT HOW HAPPY AMITY IS WHEN SHE SAYS YES!!! this is the happiest we have ever seen her, and it's adorable.

something i really love about this scene is the fact that they didn't say "i love you" or even kiss, like what seems to happen in a lot of confession scenes. they just held hands. it was probably one of the most realistic confession scenes i've ever seen. it kind of reminded me of when my gf and i got together.

oh yeah, that's right! they're officially together!!!!!!! FINALLY!!! i was not expecting anything that happened in this episode, but out of everything this one was the most surprising. holy SHIT! we have a canonically sapphic couple! in a disney cartoon! a disney cartoon!

honestly, i hope everyone has gained more respect for hooty after this. they've helped further the plot more in one episode than anyone else has done throughout the rest of the show.

we got to see king's dad properly for the first time! i don't think we'll see him in "eclipse lake", but maybe we will in the episode after that? i hope so.

everyone's freaking out about hooty eating the letter but... can't they just... throw it back up? like they did at the beginning of "really small problems"?

predictions

to my knowledge, the next episode is going to be about amity looking for an ingredient for the new portal. i also know that eda, king, and hunter will be there too. i don't know what to expect, but i am very excited. until next time!

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umbralstars · 3 years

Text

OK.

I am going off complete on wishful thinking but I don't believe that all of the Nabateans, besides the obvious, who lived in Zanado are dead. Do I have much evidence? No, but I do have speculation from evidence and headcanons. If you're still interested let's go.

The two pictures above are most likely depictions of Zanado before the massacre. They don't 100% line up with the Zanado/Red Canyon we see in-game, but Nabatea could very well have been spread all over the Oghma Mountains include the snippet we see. The first one can be seen in the opening flashes but Sothis, in her original physical form, is there and the second is from the SE art book but from what I understand it's not 100% confirmed to be Zanado or part of Nabatea. I'm sure most people in the Fandom have seen seen these by now.

My main point with them is that Zanado as a city is pretty big. Due to the Nabateans being dragons one could argue they would likely need to build bigger architecture to accommodate their dragon forms, but it seems to me that the Nabateans are in a more Laguz type situation vs an Archanean Manakete. Where most primarily lived in their smaller humanoid forms, only few chose to be in their dragonic forms most of the time, and this has always been part of the Nabatean physiology with no Cataclysm induced dragonstones. For instance: Indech and Macuil choose to live in their dragonic forms 100% but could likely shift back if they wished, Rhea can go back and forth, and don't ask me about Seteth and Flayn. I still don't know why they can't transform at all as they claim.

I say this because, outside of the Gods, most modern depiction of Divine Dragons or other Dragon races aren't that much larger than humans. Tiki in FE Warriors is big in her dragon form, but she's no Rhea. There's a clear difference in FEH as well with the Manaketes vs Dheginsea, Seiros, and even Ena as the majority of the playable and NPC Manaketes are smaller than the Lazguz not go mention Seiros' sprite who's part of the gigantic club. In 3H the Nabatean dragon forms are consistently sized as huge compared to humans.

The Nabateans living in their own city would likely choose to live in their humanoid forms since they have the choice. They wouldn't need to build structures as gigantic just so they can accommodate people, thus the city could be less spread out, they likely wouldn't need to eat as much, and it would be easier to live with humans in humanoid forms as the Nabateans were want to do in the past. Even Sothis seems to primarily live in her humanoid form as that's the form we see in a very brief flash of her looking over Zanado, and if the Goddess feels safe doing that her Children would as well.

This is all to once again point out that Zanado from these depictions is a pretty big city. Nabatea itself could've ranged from a city-state (with Zanado as the heart with surrounding territory, often farm land and small settlements dependant on the city) or even a small country with Zanado and other smaller cities and towns. The population of Nabateans from this seems to be pretty big even if you think humans lived in Zanado too. I do have a feeling that after the Calamity, which Sothis healed Fódlan from, the population may have been cut down by a lot, but not enough to where all of them could be killed all at once in Zanado.

Even though they could've been virtually trapped within that canyon, I don't believe (and I hope) Nemesis, the Elites, or the Agarthans killed every single Nabatean in that city or any Nabatean settlements beyond Zanado. Given that the Agarthans needed bodies for the Relics (and Nemesis was actually there with his Elites) I assume they didn't use the Javelins of Light but I will admit it's a possibility. If they did not, there is a distinct possibility some Nabateans could've gotten away even if the number is as low as only a few hundred or under even that.

As for where they went, and why the Nabateans we know don't know that some of their kin are still alive is because they likely all fled Fódlan. I believe there is a possibility of diaspora communities in Almyra to various countries across Dagda. All hidden among humans to keep themselves alive.

The most interesting possibility I think lies with Morfis. The Traveller's Journal Issue 1 states:

(Picture of the text from FE Datamine)

As far as I remember we know next to nothing about Morfis except from this little bit of text tucked away in a lore book. I believe that it's possible Morfis may house the largest community of Nabatean diaspora or may have been founded as a result of the diaspora. Morfis is fairly close to Fódlan, but still disconnected from it via the ocean and so would discourage Nemesis or the Agarthans from pursuing the survivors.

Morfis was also known as the 'City of Illusion' and seems to still be unknown to outsiders despite the trade networks. The Nabateans, as the Children of the Goddess, would be quiet connected to magic and may have know how unknown to mankind. After they fled their homeland and traveled deep into the desert the survivors hid their settlement via illusions and re-established their lives best they could. Zanado is also consistently shown as a rather arid environment, so the Nabateans could perhaps easily adapt themselves to life in the desert using skills they already had from Nabatea.

Any other survivors back in Fódlan wouldn't know of Morfis since they, justifibly, hid themselves and were disconnected completely from the outside world. The Journal also makes it seem like Morfis is still incredibly mysterious with their trade routes only bringing rumors of the city, nothing more. Even if the city or country now is more open to outsiders, perhaps in hopes of bringing more Nabateans to them for safety, they may still be wary of Fódlan. It's possible they know nothing of what has been happening in Fódlan for the past centuries, unaware of Seiros and Cichol's presence, and assume the religion worshipping Mother Sothis to just be a human continuation of bygone days if they even know of that.

I don't think it's farfetched to believe that some Nabateans may yet live somewhere outside of Fódlan. Perhaps I'm a bit optimistic in believing they were able to re-establish themselves in Morfis, but I want to believe it even if the chance is next to non-existent. Also, even if this is a possibility, it doesn't negate the sheer horridness of what happened to them, and doesn't undercut Rhea's continued grief over the genocide.

#fire emblem #fe3h #fe nabateans #nabateans #fe3h headcanons #more like conspiracy theory #morfis #i hope i didn't miss anything thing completely debunks this #cause i do like the theory #fuck the slithers #also i don't think the nabateans were in the millions #but even a number as low as 10000 is still a lot #and comparable to the citizen populations of Sparta Athens and what do you know Petra at it's peak #even if the population was cut in half by the calamity 5000 as a low estimate is a lot #zanado was a CITY even with nigh immortal demi gods as a populous the situ still would've needed a lot of people #i rest my case in the tags

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daggerfall · 4 years

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Why people hate meridia? Really i don't know what happened about her and Daurien Gautier, i would be glad if you could explain to me :)

I have a paranoid suspicion this is bait but whatever, fine, you can have it.

There’s like two general reasons, the first being her in the lore and the second being her actions in eso.

In the lore, going all the way back to the time of the Ayleids, Meridia was the one who backed them in their fight against the humans they were enslaving. Particularly, she backed Umaril the Unfeathered (who you may remember from the Oblivion DLC) in his fight against Pelinal Whitestrake. Pelinal also sucked, but he was fighting alongside Alessia the Slave Queen to free her people. The Ayleids sucked and were an incredibly cruel people, so Meridia helping them is not great.

In the lore as well, Meridia is known to “purify” her servants, making them immortal but also taking away their free will. She also does this as a punishment to those who break their vows to her, and just in general. We see this in the dungeon “Depths of Malatar”, where she enslaves the Imperials who went to loot it, as well as keeping her Ayleid worshippers “alive” for thousands of years in service protecting half of the Wrathstone for some unknown reason. I believe it is implied she wished to use it someday, but dont quote me on that.

And in the lore again, Meridia has been known to “collect” people, being called the Daedric Prince of Greed in the Illiac Bay. We can arguably see this again with the Purified Imperials in DoM.

And finally in the lore, Meridia’s feud with Molag Bal has resulted in her sacrificing the lives of her own worshippers on the regular just to spite him. When Molag Bal’s forces were attacking a city of her worshippers (the Hollow City), she used the portals they were coming in from to move her city into Coldharbour. Molag Bal could not touch the city, but she moved/displaced all of her loyal followers into another princes realm just to stick it to her enemy. Every single inhabitant of that city either died from being placed outside the protection of the city, or eventually left the city due to being sick and tired of being trapped in there/Oblivion and eventually died. The only survivor was the last Ayleid king, who had been being held and tortured the entire time before his rescue via the Vestige. So a few thousand years.

Now in the games, particularly ESO, it is a popular belief that Meridia was the one who originally led the Vestige to the Worm Cult where they were killed, and is the kickstarter for the events of you being the Hero. The Hooded Figure looks shockingly like the Groundskeeper, has the same voice, and has a vested interest in getting someone powerful to have a deep hatred of Molag Bal and the Worm Cult and be on her side. A lot of people don’t take kindly to being led to their torture and death. Though this is a theory, not confirmed canon, but fandom interpretation is powerful.

Meridia also did not tell the Vestige she was Meridia until just before the fight against Molag Bal, playing with the Vestige like a chess piece in her own fight against her enemy. A lot of people don’t take kindly to being manipulated and used, even if it was against a common enemy.

As for Darien, Meridia created Darien to be her champion on Nirn. She let him believe he was just a normal Breton his entire life during ESO. At the end of the main quest, Meridia does not return Darien to the rest of the group, and instead takes him to her realm and keeps him there. A lot of us players, as well as NPCs, cared greatly for Darien, and very much dislike Meridia for that.

Darien writes from the Colored Rooms that he wanted to come home, a letter we can show to his friend Gabrielle (who it is strongly hinted he loved and who loved him back).

We don’t see Darien again until Summerset, when Meridia sends him there to help stop the daedric triad. Meridia did tell him the truth about who and what he was, to some degree, but not everything. When Meridia first talks about Darien, she expressed distaste for how he had changed having met the player. He had a singular purpose, but now he... cares. Meridia does not like her servants having their own freewill and thoughts.

Darien has to sacrifice himself at the climax of the main story. Once that quest is over, you can find a letter again from him, warning us not to trust Meridia. Just one tiny bit from “Words of the Fallen” “I need to tell you something about Meridia. She's a deceiver. She promised that if I served her faithfully, I'd earn my freedom. She never told me that freedom was just another word for the void. Don't trust her. Don't trust any of the Daedric Princes. Not ever.” I highly recommend reading all of Words of the Fallen btw.

So! Meridia promises freedom to her most loyal champion, and then takes it away after he does his job. Those who like Darien once again very much dislike Meridia for this.

In Dragonhold, there is a sidequest where you find someone dead next to what looks like Meridia’s Beacon. A letter on him implies that Meridia is looking for a new champion, one who will not betray her, implying that Meridia thinks Darien betrayed her. We know from Words of the Fallen that Darien sacrificed himself for the player, not Meridia. Meridia does not like that Darien cares about the player.

You can bring the letter to the dead khajiit’s wife, who says she is going to throw the stone in the lake. But if you talk to her again, she says that she thinks she’s going to hold onto it now, implying that she thinks she will be able to hear those same voices as him, and that she might take up the champion mantle.

The world boss quest giver in Southern Elsweyr talks about his own issues with Meridia, being a people collector and possibly having some past trauma with her/her cult.

And in Greymoor, Meridia's temple (mount kilkreath) is attacked by the Icereach Coven's harrowstorm, which steals the life energy of people and either kills them, turns them into mindless passive zombies, or feral vampires known as harrowfiends. It was mostly her priests and pilgrims that were attacked. Meridia did nothing to protect her followers or purge this corruption from even the inside of her temple. Many followers lost their faith that day.

All of this together, and the sneaking suspicion that she is not done with yet in ESO, makes a lot of us not only dislike her, but not trust her at all. Zenimax brought up Darien for Valentines Day, keeps bringing him and Meridia up in DLC, has her featured greatly in the main quest and a major chapter DLC...

It’s less an outright hatred of her. Believe me, I hate Molag Bal significantly more than I “hate” Meridia. I tend to take on my OCs beliefs and feelings as I play them, and my own main character was in a relationship with Darien and hates all daedra. Also she gets brought up more in recent DLC and thus is more of a relevant topic than Molag Bal. So I tend to post a lot about Meridia in less than positive lights. It’s more than I take issue with her being so connected to slavery and manipulation of mortals, yet being painted in a benevolent or even good light by a lot of the lore. I take issue with people who ignore the fact she is featured very prominently in recent games and accuse anyone who talks about disliking her of misogyny for not being equally or more loud about their dislike of other, worse daedric princes, regardless of if they do or do not. I take issue with people who romanticize her slavery or call her a “feminist icon” solely because they don’t like Darien (or me. That’s another reason). But that’s more of a specific tesblr community issue rather than “legit reasons in game or lore to not like Meridia”.

Overall, Meridia is a daedric prince. They’re not good or bad by mortal standards because they don’t ascribe to mortal defined morals. They do what they do because they must. It is their realm, their sphere of influence. Meridia started out as the Daedric Prince of Greed in early games, a collector of people, and her hatred of undead and Molag Bal are extreme. The fact that she is more present in ESO, a game I play on the regular and that gets updated multiple times a gear, means that people will talk about her more. When I was deeply into Skyrim, I talked about my dislike of Hermaeus Mora a lot. When I was deeply into Oblivion (for a short while), I talked about my dislike of Mehrunes Dagon. And when I am thinking about Morrowind, I end up talking about my dislike of Azura and the Tribunal. She isn't necessarily better or worse than other Princes, just more of a hot topic in the ESO side of the fandom than other Princes.

If this was sent in good faith then I apologize for saying it felt like bait. If it is bait, then here. Take it and start raving about what an awful misogynist I am. I await my callout post.

#disc horse #long post #anonymous #asks

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