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trans-queen-administrator · 7 months

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My favorite manga ended after 6 years of me following it, so y'all get to hear me ramble about how Falin from Dungeon Meshi and Noelle from Worm are counterparts. Major major major spoilers for Dungeon Meshi, just a warning. And Worm I guess, but I just kinda assume anyone seeing my posts knows about Worm.

So first off, super obvious comparison, they're both women who have had their lower halves replaced with a massive monster body that's a mishmash of multiple animals that is so large their human torso is dwarfed. Falin has a rather coherent feathery and scaled chimera body, and Noelle has a mass of meat and mouths and limbs that's constantly expanding. Both of them got this lower body through some sort of fucked up life-saving medical procedure too. Noelle was dying and needed to drink her vial to heal, and Falin was a completely deceased set of bones before Marcille revived her. Both of them immediately seemed better in the aftermath, only for the consequences of drinking half a vial/repurposing dragon flesh to regrow a human with dark magic to show themselves after a short period of relief. The two of them are both taken over by their monster half as well. Falin's soul is overwhelmed by the dragon soul and her orders now that she's part of the dungeon, and Noelle is slowly subsumed by her broken connection to her passenger that takes away parts of herself until she's a violent and aggressive mess with barely anything of Noelle left in her.

Noelle and Falin are also the heart of their groups. Noelle was the common friend among everyone in the Travelers, and Falin was was similar with her being generally friendly and very important to Laios, Marcille, and Shuro. Both groups immediately start looking for a way to save them, but I think it's rather interesting how the relationships strain in different ways. In Dungeon Meshi, when Falin died the adventuring party fractured. Namari and Shuro left, and Chilchuck only stuck around because he had been paid in advance, and when she was revived into being monstrous there was consideration of giving up. The adventuring group in Dungeon Meshi weren't really friendly at first with Falin gone, they were co-workers who argued and bickered and stuck together out of obligation. Marcille thought Laios was crazy, Chilchuck thought he was dumb, and Marcille and Chilchuck were often getting on each others nerves, but through their quest to revive and then to un-chimera Falin they all bonded and actually grew close and cared deeply about each other. The Travelers are similar, they were all friends before their wacky psychological body horror isekai, bar Cody and Krouse, but once the group was put under stress and the heart of the group in Noelle got her condition they began to grow apart. By the time we see them in canon, none of them really like each other and they all feel alone despite being in the group, but they remain because they don't have anywhere else to go and most of them care about fixing Noelle. Both groups go from being friends, to having something horrible happen to the common uniting factor in the group, to being strained and disliking each other. The difference is though, Dungeon Meshi has them grow to like each other beyond their bond with Falin, and they make new friends along the way, but the Travelers just become more and more resentful of each other and can never really bond with anyone else on Earth Bet. The groups have the same starting point, but they travel in opposite directions and reach opposite destinations. Noelle doesn't get cured, but Falin does.

This is a Dungeon Meshi post, so I have to make a comparison to food as well, I'm legally obligated to. Falin is saved by being consumed, with everyone coming together to eat her lower half, and it's a proper meal. Noelle though, she mindlessly consumes with no purpose. She feels a constant hunger and is sustained with insane amounts of meat, eventually consuming people as well. It's not a meal, it's not a way to spend time with others and appreciate the effort put into food, it's just consumption with no joy or meaning. It's an odd parallel. One of their monster halves eats, and the other is eaten.

Another fun little parallel is how the adventurers line up with the Travelers in some ways. Both groups do some pretty illegal shit in their quest to save their giant monsterified friend, but I think there's especially a fun line to draw between Krouse siding with Noelle when she was fully gone and rampaging and Marcille becoming the lord of the dungeon with saving Falin as one of her main goals, and then they both get sentenced to super mega turbo jail after it all. Marissa and Laios both get the fun little moment of "resolving to kill their former closest friend because she's completely gone, only for her to appeal to their bond," but Marissa incinerates Noelle anyway while Laios hesitates. Marissa also parallels with Marcille because both of them have massive codependent desperate crushes on their respective friends turned into mindless monsters, and Laios parallels Krouse in being a leader that the group often hates, there's a lot of ways to twist those 4 around and look at them for funsies. Beyond that there aren't really any easy parallels to draw between the group members. Cody could be Shuro because they both have a crush on Noelle/Falin that goes completely unrequited, and they fucking hate the leader of the group. Jess could be Izutsumi because they both resent their bodies and desire freedom. Luke and Chilchuck both want to leave the group when everything goes to shit, and retire from adventuring after the experiences. Oliver is Senshi because they're both eye candy.

Ultimately, I don't have a point here, I just think that it's nifty that I can draw so many connecting lines between these two groups in vastly different media. Its neat seeing how having the central member of a group be put through the horrors can either fracture or forge friendships, and I like how they both turn out in such vastly different ways despite the similarities. Rip Noelle you would have loved Dungeon Meshi.

#worm #parahumans #noelle meinhardt #echidna #dungeon meshi #falin touden #girlbosses haunting the narrative with their horrific transformations #worm spoilers #dungeon meshi spoilers #why didnt the travellers just eat noelle's shambling mass of meat lower half #are they stupid?#anyway this post will make sense to like #5 people maybe #if you're here from Worm go read Dungeon Meshi #if you're here from Dungeon Meshi go read Worm #smashing my favorite medias together like a toddler with play-doh #ramble

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oumaheroes · 9 months

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What do you think of the relationship between Italy and Romano? And what about their relationship with grandpa Rome?

These are two big questions for characters I really don't spend much time thinking about :')

I haven't got any thoughts concerning the Italys and their relationship with each other. I remember, way back when, that LSunnyC had some great Italy characterisations in their Snakeskins fic (a holy grail of fanfiction in my opinion, if you've not read it, though an incomplete monster boi), whereby they incorporated the differences of North and South, how this affects their relationship and personalities and governs them going forwards. It honestly opened me up to the characters and I won't be able to add much, other than these points:

I think North Italy is a very charismatic, very charming, and very polite man, whilst similarly running political circles around his neighbours. People forget, or don't know, the power and influence North Italy and Venice have had in Europe in the past centuries, and this man is no goofball simpleton. Can be very dangerous and cunning, loves sly poisons and the elegance of a good show

South Italy is rough and blunt and abrasive, but he's also not socially charming and suave. He is not this way intentionally, only that he cannot be anything but. He is jealous of the social skill his brother has but is also less ruthless and more upfrontly honest. He counts on his word and holds it in higher value far more than North Italy does. Hard on himself for lacking in areas he doesn't need

South Italy is very hard working about the things he cares about, whereas North Italy can be hard working to put on a show/ for a reason only to drop it once it's use is over

With their grandfather, I have thought about this even less. They were very young when he died and I think he was their father (in as much as nations can have) but just very old and near the end of his time when they appeared. They were his final death knell, the undeniable truth of his end, and I think this humbled him as much as devastated him. He was done, his last fight and gasp of life over, and these were who would come next. But oh God, he would not be forgotten

With all the littering and influence of small nations that Rome had done and created, it was a relief to have there in his arms an indication of a direct evolution and survival of what he'd worked for within his own lands. The moving of the empire's capital to Constantinople, the fracturing and the over extension of himself an his resources, and the constant invasions from several different groups, still there he saw his own features in two small boys born from the same lands that created him

He left them few memories, but the ones he did leave them with were the most human of all Rome had left his other colonies/ descendants

#aph rome #hws rome #aph italy #hws italy #hws itabros #aph north italy #aph south italy #hws north italy #hws south italy #aph romano #hws romano #aph veneziano #hws veneziano #heroes headcanons

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allthingsfern · 1 year

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This weekend

Saturday and today (Sunday) I did something I have not done for a while: Two days in a row, I spent over an hour walking and photographing and enjoying. Coincidentally, both times I wound up taking lots of "flower pics." There are lots of flowers around here to choose from, but some of my favorites are roses. Luckily, they are abundant in this region.

In Woodland yesterday, I got to feel part of the public library's rose garden. It is small, but has plenty of lovely, willing rose "models." Today I visited Sacramento's McKinley park, which has a larger, more well-kept rose garden and also has plenty of lovely, willing rose "models." It was fun to see the families and groups of friends walking around, taking photos of the flowers and of the members of their group. All, except for one with a small point and shoot, were using their phones. I was the lone "photographer," whatever that means, with my hefty camera. But we all shared the fragrant space harmoniously, beautifully.

I share this because since I fractured my arm last year (almost to the day; it happened May 6, 2022), my health and stamina have declined a lot. This decline occurred for several reasons, including, I admit now, a fear of hurting myself with physical activity and mild depression during this last winter’s severe (but much needed) rain and cold.

Now I am finding my way to a healthier, more active place, way of being. I am not thinking about “going back” to any pre-fracture physical or emotional state. That is impossible, since I am a different now. In 5 seconds, in 1 second from now, I am different. I am in constant evolution. I do, however, want that evolution, which, as part of my aging becomes a decline in strength and physical activity, to be healthy and active and strong.

And fucking fun. Always fucking fun.

So yeah, part of this is even relearning how to take photos. I have pain in my right index finger from some mild arthritis and, right now, a gout flare up (yes, in my right index finger) and my right eye’s cataracts are leading me to use my left eye for the viewfinder. My right eye is useless for focusing because it is like looking through a paper towel. Hopefully the surgery sometime this year will help. BTW, the whole left eye for the viewfinder thing is tricky; most cameras (and specifically SLRs & DSLRs) were made for right hand/right eye use.

But, I am doing. I am moving. I am photographing.

And yes, I am having fucking fun through it all.

It is about fucking time I start having fucking fun again, no?

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eoinmcgonigal · 5 months

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So I saw a post about tumblr wanting to try this 'communities' thing, and I just gotta vent/say my piece. (the tl;dr is 'fuck that shit')

1. I really hate the current trend of fracturing and fragmenting things down into little pieces so they can be categorised into boxes. That's not natural. (Also, discord pushing threads, which I already detest for 1) making me feel like I'm gonna hurl from the violently dissonant, ugly layout, 2) the severely narrow topic problem, and 3) how neurodiverse-hostile they are.)

Like, naturally conversations meander. If you're only allowed to discuss one topic, it's gonna be stifling. You WILL run out of things to say. Making another little box isn't going to fix it, it'll just add to the clutter

2. Quite importantly, honestly, just stop fucking changing shit. It's unnecessary

3. It's not going to be neurodiverse-friendly. As if fandom hasn't changed enough to become increasingly unfriendly to people who are just here to enjoy their hyperfixation and/or special interest. I don't need another thing to learn to navigate. I don't need another place with different rules to carefully traverse. Yes, I'm fandom old and salty. I'm AuDHD and a spoonie with about half a spoon to spend on a good day. I do not have the energy to do all this switching about and jumping from thing to thing. It's exhausting. I want everything where I can find it, and where I can be passionate without having to perform tasks like it's some customer service job, or job interview

4. FOMO shit is toxic. This whole 'be a part of the thing!' necessity if you want to 'engage' or see the conversations and 'content'. Why? I guess it's a social media model that drives engagement, but the stress of it is going to fuck people up. What if you don't have the time, energy, health, spoons, social skills, etc? I have no idea how much interacting will be expected with other people in the 'community' but I can see it becoming a twitter-like circlejerk, and if you're not one of the 'in' crowd doing your required interaction/reblogging/commenting then you might as well not exist to that fandom/group

5. From the description, it looks like these things will be ripe for drama, toxicity, clique shit, becoming echo chambers, etc. because 'semi public' means you gotta opt in/join in some way and whatever's said isn't visible to any old user

Like, who is going to create and mod these things? Who decides what the rules are? What if your fave is 'problematic', or your kink is 'gross' (if nsfw is allowed at all), your take doesn't fit with fanon, or you are just a bit weird and people shun or turn on you for that?

I hope I'm wrong and either these things never happen or they're not as bad as I fear, but fuck sakes I have the above worries because it's shit I've seen happen time and time again, and I don't want to see given a place here

Also, genuinely, what the fuck is tumblr going to be like if you can't/don't want interact with these community things?

Quickly, 6. it creates an 'us' (in crowd) vs. 'them' (not part of our gang)

And then 7. who is going to be dominant in these 'communities'?

Yes, I'm upset right now, because tumblr was just fine (well, fine enough) until this point. I mean:

We have the ability to make sideblogs! (My Star Wars sideblog from... well a decade ago oops... is still out there, I don't touch it any more but I left it up for people to go through). Tumblr even made it so we can reply with sideblogs, which was a very neat update.

Tags!! I don't think it's as usual these days for people to go through tags to find new content, but that's how I do it, how I've always done it, and how I always intend to do it. I'm not following everyone who makes an SAS:RH post. I love you guys, but no. My dash would cause me to have a panic attack. It's already too much for me most days.

EFFORT!!!! I can be here every day full-time doing Stuff if I want! Or I can zone out for weeks if I want/need, materialise and contribute a silly meme, then drift off into the sunset again. If I 'miss' anything, I can go back through the tags, or scroll someone's blog. But honestly, who notices/cares on here if someone lurks or goes afk for a bit. It's super low pressure, because I'm doing what I can/want when I can/want

I want to opt in/out on my own time and terms. The thought of having to be part of a 'community' so I can see/not miss Content TM is freaking me out. I don't want there to be an 'appropriate' time window to interact with things like there is on other social media sites.

So, idk how the shit will look, but I don't agree with making things harder for people to access/find. I won't be posting stuff 'semi-privately'.

And you know what's super upsetting? The thought that I won't be able to see conversations and creations for things I love, because they're hidden away behind some complex new social thing I can't navigate. (Which is already an off-putting, ostracising problem on discord.) That's not how fandom communities should be.

The thought of there being less stuff 'out there' because it's in some 'community' somewhere... really not the direction I'd ever hope this site wold go in

I'm fuckin exhausted. Just lemme do my fandom whateverness without having to perform to some arbritary social interaction standard/requirements that I neither understand nor can do

#i want to murder discord threads because this feels like similar bullshit that's just gonna exclude people #JUST PUT SHIT WHERE PEOPLE CAN ACCESS IT EASILY #aim to be as inclusive as possible with as wide an audience and engagement as possible!#why is that so damn fucking hard?#also lol how long until they'd turn communities into a subscription thing or something #they keep changing shit and the newer people to things like discord and tumblr and fandom in general have no idea what it was like before #things have not always been this bad!#they were bad in other ways but nothing as exhausting as this social-media-model bullshit #yes i'm very fucked up over discord's update #i detest threads with a violent passion there's no fucking need to separate everything out until nothing is left in the channel #i can't even turn the ugly icon off in servers i own #i miss irc #i miss forums #i didn't like lj that much but goddamn #i miss pre-jumbled-up-tags tumblr #i miss pre-threads discord #we do not fucking need this change but it's being shoved down our throats because investors want to see new shit #i'm off to see if i can fix discord so i don't nearly throw up when i open it #the horrible thing is that it looks faintly passable in light mode but i can't read in light mode and you get light or dark and nothing els #personal #vent #just in case anyone hides those tags idk this has been a vent post #i'll go back to rogues soon

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h-worksrambles · 1 year

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How to get into Echo

I’ve been posting, reblogging and writing about Echo quite a lot over the past few months. I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone when I say this is one of my favourite games I played in 2022. But I’m sure some of my followers are looking at these posts and wondering what exactly Echo is. God help you, some of you may actually want to try it out. So to give myself an additional excuse to talk about this game, here’s a short spoiler-free guide to getting into Echo and its assorted spin offs.

What is Echo?

Echo is an indie horror visual novel following a group of anthropomorphic animals and former childhood friends whose reunion in the town where they all grew up quickly grows awry. You play as a 21 year old otter and college student, Chase Hunter, who returns to his old home to investigate the town’s history and reunite with his old friend group, only for things to go very wrong, very fast. The game explores a mix of psychological and supernatural horror as the characters are forced to confront their pasts, their inner demons, as well as their fractured interpersonal relationships as they attempt to unravel the truth behind the town.

The game uses a route system common in visual novels and plays with the tropes of dating sims in particular. About 2 hours in you pick a dedicated route for one of five characters, each one of Chase’s oldest friends, and follow their personal narrative making choices as you go. Each route has a pretty hefty amount of content and several have multiple endings. Depending on individual reading speed, seeing every route could take around 25 hours give or take. And it’s highly recommended to do all of them to get the full story. Very little content is repeated between them and they’re all substantial worthwhile stories.

That’s the basics of the basics in order to give you the lowdown without spoiling anything. But just know that the game is free to download, and is absolutely worth it if you’re interested in expertly written slow burn horror, intelligent character writing, and complex, flawed LGBT+ characters.

Anything I should know going in?

As much as I want to reccomend Echo there are some important qualifiers before going in.

1) This game is NOT SUITABLE for those under 18. Echo is a exceptionally dark horror game with numerous topics of adult subject matter. It is clearly marked on its download site as 18+ so pay attention to that warning.

2) Building off my last point, the thematic material of this game is heavy, and it’s important to give proper content warnings. There’s frankly a lot of ground to cover but the biggest warnings would be: Graphic depictions of violence, descriptions of sex, as well as portrayal and discussion of sensitive topics including homophobia, racism, drug addiction, mental illness, emotional abuse, sexual assault and torture.

Take the developers’ advice and be considerate of your own mental well-being before starting the game. There is no shame in deciding this isn’t for you.

Any advice on how to go about playing?

Honestly the best advice is to go blind. Make whatever choices make sense to you in the moment, and be sure to save regularly, so you can go back and try different outcomes. Several of the routes have multiple endings so keep plenty of saves handy to pick up where you left off and experiment with the game’s choice system.

There is some dispute among fans about recommended route order. I maintain that you can play the various routes in any order and enjoy the story regardless, so just go for whichever of the main characters you think is interesting to start with. By the time you play every route, you should understand everything no matter the order. The route split is very clearly signposted so you’ll know it when you see it. However, if you’re having a hard time deciding, the developers have suggested following the routes in the order they were completed back when the story was being periodically released in updates during the game’s beta. That order being:

1) Carl. 2) Leo. 3 ) TJ. 4) Flynn. 5) Jenna.

But again, feel free to divert from this order if you’d prefer.

You can download Echo at itcho.io for free.

I finished Echo. What do I look for next?

The first thing I would say is once you’ve finished all the routes, click on the image of the lake on the title screen. There’s a bonus menu there with some content that, no spoilers, you’ll probably want to check out when you’re done with the game.

After that there are three other spin offs of Echo I would suggest looking into if you’re hungry for more. And I’ll go into each of them one by one here.

It’s also worth remembering that all three of these titles are also 18+ and two of them are also full on horror titles. As such, many of the same content warnings still apply.

Route 65

This is a short prequel visual novel that shows a point in time where the main characters were all teenagers. Specifically, it follows Chase, the protagonist of Echo, over the course of the day he comes out to his friends and family as gay. This gives you a chance to see the cast at a younger age and get insight as to how their dynamics used to work compared to how fraught they are in the present day. It’s very short, only taking a couple of hours to complete, with a few minor choices to provide replay value. However, it’s really just a minor slice of more Echo content. Not particularly essential but a good way to give minor details of the main game more context.

When should I play Route 65 if it’s a prequel?

That’s really up to you. Route 65 provides enough context that you could concievably play it first, and then move onto Echo. However, I’m not sure I would advise this. You certainly can still follow the story, but Route 65 was made while Echo was still ongoing, and expects you to know these characters already. Some people suggest actually stopping midway through Echo and playing Route 65 partway through, usually before either Leo or Jenna’s routes, as it covers topics that their routes will build on.

However, if jumping between games like that sounds confusing, I would suggest simply checking it out after you finish Echo to get a little more context. There’s different ways you can go about it, and it’ll work fine whichever way. Route 65 is also free to download on itch.io.

Arches

This visual novel is a sequel to Echo, set five years later. It follows two new protagonists, young couple Cameron Wilson and Devon Ortega. They visit the now almost completely run-down town of Echo due to Devon’s interest in the paranormal. They quickly learn that the town’s reputation doesn’t even scratch the surface of what goes on there, and must come to terms with their own secrets (some of which they haven’t even told each other) if they want to get out alive. Arches is a relatively distant sequel to Echo and does not explicitly follow on from the ending of any one route so far as we know. It’s most commonly interpreted as an alternate timeline which doesn’t undo any of Echo’s possible outcomes. But it does revisit places, characters and concepts from Echo so you should still play that game first to better understand Arches.

The main difference between Echo and Arches is that Arches is much smaller and much more linear. Currently it has absolutely no choices. It has all the aesthetic elements of a visual novel but you simply read it like a book and can save to pick up wherever you let off. However, I would suggest clicking on the image of Cameron on the title screen at some point after you start. You’ll know why when you see it. Another important thing to remember is that Arches is not currently finished. The story gets periodic updates every few months with a new build. If you choose to get up to date now, be prepared to wait for the rest. I know some people prefer to wait until these kinds of stories are done and read it all at once, and others like to follow along. However, whichever choice you make, Arches is already well into its climax, so you won’t be waiting too long for the ending either way.

Regardless, this chilling sequel is there and ready on itch.io if you want to see what happens next in the town of Echo. Or if you feel like going back instead...

The Smoke Room

Last of all is this ongoing prequel visual novel. Set in 1915, 100 years before the events of Echo, the player follows Samuel Ayers, a character whose name, if you’ve played Echo, should be more than a little familiar. Sam is barely getting by as a sex worker in Echo, but one evening, sets out on what he thinks is his one chance to leave the town behind. When the plan quickly goes awry, Sam is left stranded in Echo, carrying a dark secret that could get him sent to the gallows. Sam’s only real option is to lie low with help of one of his clients, unaware that his secret is only one of many lying at the heart of Echo, which now threaten to disastrously boil over.

While still a horror game, The Smoke Room also has a much more overt romantic element, though I still wouldn’t exactly call it a dating sim per se. If Echo is a deconstructive horror game disguised as a dating sim, Smoke Room is more of a horror/romance genre hybrid. Like Echo, the game operates on a route system. After about an hour or so of gameplay, you choose one of a group of four characters, each of whom are one of Sam’s clients. They all have a fully fledged story to follow while also being very much the love interest of their respective routes. While it’s unclear how long the full game is going to be, it’s likely to be at least as long as Echo once it’s finally complete and even now there’s a decent amount of content on each route already should you wish to get caught up now. Still, even at this early stage, so far it’s offered the same mix of effective gradual horror and intelligent character writing and I would still absolutely recommend it.

Anything I should know going in?

1) Once again, this game is NOT suitable for those under 18. Much like Echo and Arches, The Smoke Room is a horror game, one just as dark, if not darker than its contemporaries and all the same content warnings apply, including graphic violence, discussions of racism and homophobia and drug addiction, as well as references to abusive relationships and sexual violence. Another thing to note is that The Smoke Room is also substantially more sexual than the previous Echo VNs. You might have guessed as much when I said the protagonist is a sex worker, but suffice to say this is a pretty major part of the story and there are multiple, very graphic sex scenes between its male characters on each route. This is hardly unprecedented in visual novels, but it is worth mentioning it as something to know going in if you plan to try it yourself.

Take all of these matters into account before playing the game yourself.

2) Much like Arches, The Smoke Room is still under development. According to the developers, each route is, at most, halfway done, and it will be a substantial amount of time before the game is complete. The development will likely be far longer than Arches, so if you want to get caught up now, you’re in for the long haul. While personally I would highly recommend it based purely on the quality of what’s already there, (similar to something like Deltarune), it’s worth keeping in mind before you start.

3) One other thing to note is that, being set 100 years prior, The Smoke Room is only a very remote prequel and can actually be played standalone. I’d certainly suggest playing this after Echo as there are certain details you’ll notice as a result, but if you want it start with Smoke Room, you can.

2) Any advice on how to go about playing?

For the most part, all the same advice as Echo applies. Go in blind, save regularly and be extra sure to save at any choices. Even at this early stage, The Smoke Room has already implemented a number of branching decisions into its routes, arguably more so than Echo. So be sure to make enough saves that you can experiment with all the different outcomes as there’s already a lot to see.

Much as with Echo, there is the question of route order. Fortunately, at this stage, that’s a pretty flexible arrangement. Since none of them are finished and are being updated concurrently, there’s no fixed order of release and none of them have really overlapped enough to make any route order really preferable. However, the developers have suggested doing William’s route last out of the four. While largely standalone, it features many of the characters from across the other routes and somewhat brings the threads of the other stories together, kind of like Flynn and Jenna’s route did in Echo. Other than that, I’d just start with whoever you find interesting. But as a possible order if you’re stuck, you may consider:

1) Nikolai 2) Murdoch 3 Clifford 4) William

Though again, this is very flexible.

3) What’s this I hear about an AU?

Ah yes, this is another aspect of The Smoke Room worth checking out. Currently, Echo Project have released two downloadable ‘special episodes’ featuring the main cast of The Smoke Room reimagined in the modern day. For as much as Smoke Room is a supernatural horror, it is also just as much a period drama, exploring how the various struggles of the characters are exacerbated by the circumstances, social climate and prejudices of the time in which they live (being queer wasn’t any easier in 1915 after all). As such, this AU places the cast in a more contemporary setting to show how a happier, more hopeful outcome for how their lives could have gone. Basically, it’s like the kind of coffee shop AUs you see all the time on AO3, except this one is made by the actual creators. As of now these are just light hearted slice of life stories with these characters, one being a Christmas special and the other a summer special and outside of strong language and suggestive themes, require no major content warnings. At present, nothing about this AU is canon or significant to the main game, you don’t have to play any AU content to understand the main story. This exists purely to have some cute fluff with these characters if you enjoyed them in the full game.

Like all other Echo Project VNs, you can download the latest build of The Smoke Room from itch.io.

And that’s all the advice I have into getting into Echo and its expanded universe. These games mean a lot to me, from their stories, to their characters and of course, their horror. They’re definitely niche experiences and I wouldn’t recommend them to everyone. But if my content about them here has peaked your interest, I hope this helps you make a start on these remarkable games for yourself.

Who knows? You may just find yourself moving in circles thinking about these game, just like the rest of us…

#echo vn #arches vn #the smoke room vn #echo project #beginners guide #welcome to the fandom

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faith-thee-slayer · 2 years

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What makes Buffy and Faith such an excellent pairing for me is the ambiguous, undefined nature of their dynamic. BTVS never explicitly states their relationship as romantic (and even with the piles of subtext, a lot of it is ambiguous enough for an unsuspecting audience to be none the wiser). And a lot of character dynamics in media tend to focus more on the romantic end. We all want to see an epic romance (I do too), and of course romance can be complicated and messy, but what fascinates me the most are the complicated dynamics that aren’t straightforwardly stated as “the characters have feelings for each other/are in love.” What has me captivated is when their dynamic is left up to interpretation, able to be explored on several different levels at once. I think Buffy and Faith have one of the best dynamics on the show because they are not explicitly romantic. I think a canon recognition of such feelings for each other would actually limit the reading of their dynamic (and I know this sounds strange coming from a Fuffy stan but hear me out).

Buffy and Faith’s dynamic has several facets to it, most notably:

1. The Slayer-bond — They are the only two people on the planet that know what it’s like to be the Slayer. They are sisters, in that regard. You could almost say they’re blood-related, united under a birthright and an ancient system which oppresses and controls them. Cut from the same cloth, whether they choose to accept it or not. Both envy the other, wanting to be the other girl. Both feel like they’re being replaced by the other. They are Cain and Abel. And after everything, when the Potentials take refuge in Buffy’s home, she and Faith have to step up and be the leaders the girls need.

2. Desire for the chosen family — Faith will never admit it but she wants the love of a family, what she never had in Boston. When she meets the Scoobies, she hopes they can be that for her. And Buffy, though she does have a family in Sunnydale, still feels like they can’t truly understand her. Once Buffy and Faith meet, the potential is there for them to both get exactly what they need. But failures on both sides prevent this from happening. And it doesn’t help that the Mayor is the thing that the Scoobies couldn’t be for Faith. She admits more than once how much she covets Buffy’s friends, family, and Watcher, and her exclusion from the “in-group” continues to be a point of contention throughout the series.

3. Antagonism — It hurts hard when Faith betrays Buffy. Even if they didn’t get off to a great start, their connection develops over the season, and you can tell they never wanted to be enemies. But due to their individual natures, as well as the building of emotions surrounding their slayer bond, the attempts (or lack thereof) at making Faith feel connected to the in-group, and the fallout after Allan Finch, their relationship fractures. Faith feels driven to evil and that’s what she becomes. And being someone who fights evil, Buffy has to go against her. And it hurts so much for both of them — because you think you know someone and can trust them. You feel like you’ve finally found the thing you’ve been looking for all this time. And then one day you wake up and all that’s gone. And you do horrible things to each other. And you know that it’ll never go back to the way things were before. And neither of you will be the same person again. Even years later, when they come together to stop the First, the history is still there between them. Will the elephant in the room ever go away? Or will it always be a trigger for the both of them to jump right back to old times?

4. "They were in love” — Of course we cannot forget the lovers lens when talking about these two. In a lot of ways, it’s the interpretation that makes the most sense for them. The levels of intense emotion that these two reach, especially on Faith’s end, can be hard to justify in a platonic light. And that was after Faith’s flirting, her dismissal of all men, disdain for Angel, and making everything in her life about Buffy. There’s also the deliberate parallels of Faith to Angel and Spike (main two explicit love interests) to the point where Riley (third explicit love interest) is often overlooked in favor of Faith. Buffy is ultimately her weakness. She wants Buffy to care about her, approve of her, be there for her, and to see that they are the same person. And when the shit hits the fan, Faith is absolutely devastated. Heartbroken to the point of aiding in the apocalypse, trying to kill the Scoobies, Angel, Joyce, doing the body swap, etc. Anything to hurt Buffy back. And Buffy is heartbroken because of Faith’s turn into evil. She begs Faith to let her in and help. She fights for Faith in the hopes of bringing her back to sanity, but once she realize Faith is helping the Mayor, she shuts her feelings off because it’s easier. And when she has to put a knife in Faith? When she kisses Faith’s forehead in the hospital (mirroring Faith’s first kiss to her)? When she dreams about Faith? When Faith wakes up months later and Buffy’s first thought is that she’s hiding somewhere, feeling sorry and wanting her help? Anyway...

All of these different aspects/lenses carry a unique weight in viewing Buffy and Faith’s connection to each other. But I think that by putting a significant amount of weight on the romantic lens via canon confirmation, the other lenses lose the ability to stand on their own outside of a romantic reading. Because then it becomes strictly “they went through all that they went through and did all those things to each other because they always had feelings for each other.” All moments of affection/obsession one of them has for the other are seen solely as romantic. Which, is a fine reading, but it overshadows other ways of viewing the dynamic, and becomes the most important/only way of looking at it. We then miss out on the sister dynamic, the “I want to be you” dynamic, the “you are the one who understands me the best but I actually want to be completely separate from you,” the estranged family members dynamic in S7. Ultimately, I think we rarely see two characters on the same side obsessed with each other in a non-romantic way. It’s so fascinating and occupies this unidentifiable space in human relationships. It becomes less easily explainable and understood.

And it does a justice to both Buffy and Faith’s characters if we see their actions as existing outside of their relationship. I love seeing Faith’s development as she becomes her own person separate from Buffy. She breaks out of prison to save her best friend and prove she can be a Slayer again. She chooses redemption for herself. She makes amends with who she can. She rejects the First when it comes to her in the form of the Mayor. She experiences what it is to be responsible for the lives of other. And after their last confrontation in ‘Sanctuary,’ Buffy gets to move on from Faith and heal/focus on other things in her life. And she goes through a-fucking-lot from S4 to S7. Before I want Buffy and Faith to get together, I want them to HEAL and to GROW. I want them to be the best versions of themselves and not so codependent (as much as it makes for good drama).

So that’s what I appreciate about Fuffy — the romantic reading isn’t the Official reading, it’s just one of several fascinating angles. It’s like the cherry on top. Some of the best dynamics in the Buffyverse are the ones that are friendships, or more familial (siblings, parent-child), or complexly antagonistic. Somehow Buffy and Faith are capable of doing nearly all of it at the same time without actually ascribing any one label to themselves. Amazing.

#i hope this makes sense to at least one other person besides me #and now that i've said all that: fuffy canon when #faith lehane #buffy summers #fuffy #buffy x faith #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #buffy #what prompted me to write this was that i was thinking about how after all this time fuffy still wasn't officially recognized in canon or #represented in any way. and i think i like the freedom of their interpretation the best actually #i will die on the ship hill though #a similar concept that all this makes me think of is #how we retroactively view willow's relationship with men in the early seasons -- knowing that she will eventually come out in S4 #jd.text

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enneamage · 1 year

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hi i dont know how to start this so im just going to get right into it

i never understood why twitter got so mad at this clip ever since i saw it live i actually thought i was more good than bad? that might sound crazy but the fact as a 16 year old cis guy got called a lesbian and didnt go "ew im not a LESBIAN!??!" and actually thought about it for a second.

i think thats perfectly normal at that age to wonder that to wonder about your sexual and gender identity. hell i did and i think if i never did that as a teen i would have never accepted the idea of me being a trans guy.

now this brings me to the point of this essay. i think if twitter didnt have a shit party over that clip he would be more comfortable expressing himself femininity and accepting his bisexuality.

sure he doesnt have a problem flirting with guys as we've seen but they've always been less "masc" than his whole "big man" persona i think he finds it easier to flirt with guys (with the exception of ranboo of course) if he views them as more fem or even as a women perhaps

im not one to truthing him being trans or clem being real but im not against it. this also isnt me truthing him as being trans. i think cis people expressing femininity and masculinity is so important male or female (femininity and masculinity are ALWAYS put as things that go inherently together, but for some reason theyre never put as things that compliment eachother but thats a whole different topic)

but what do i really know? i dont have an audience of 12 million on youtube and 7 miliion on twitch i cant imagine that many eyes on you just waiting to judge you on your every move

Anon I admire the drive but I’m afraid you’ve sent this to the person who authored the “Tommy being Bi won’t fix him” post, so I must stick to my convictions on this one.

(As an aside, for those who don’t know, meet Clementine!)

I was not directly around for The Lesbian Moment, but I think I heard the gunshots down the street. I think it’s hugely under-emphasised how everyone was on the back of a world-changing mass death event spread out over the course of at least two years around that time, and the way that it (reasonably, all things considered) affected the way people handled stress. People were very sensitised to a lot of things, and it doesn’t surprise me that this would be a case where zooming out from what the problem was ‘supposed to be about’ would reveal a massive soup of situational stressors looking for a fracturing point to express themselves.

As thousands of people were all suddenly shoved online to share the same spaces, the social processes involved with creating norms and group standards had tons of gas thrown on them. It was going to be messy no matter what, people were electing scapegoats left and right to set social standards about what was and wasn’t acceptable. This is grim but important context (Tw), lockdown was horrific for rates of at-home physical and sexual abuse. Being a woman online in general is a state of psychological warfare against an objectifying culture. I remember talk about how his audience was divided even then, a group of lesbians were like “hell yeah we can let Tommy join /nsrs” and then another group were not even remotely okay with that even as a joke.

People were sensitised to feeling invaded in a time where lockdown had personal agency down to record lows, especially for teenagers and children. In a world where you have next to no agency or personal control over your circumstances, having a say in dominant moral narratives and the accepted behavior of people skyrockets in value, because you’re constantly in other people’s power. People were profoundly invested in the few square inches of control that they could/did have, so they were deeply reactive with it. A lot of pandemic reactivity was the behavior of people who felt over-activated and cornered, so while it’s possible to critique the outrage and take it apart on the terms that it presented itself on, it’s important to understand it as part of a whole as well.

👏 ON TO THE GAY SHIT

I feel like what goes into Tommy flirting with each of the men he’s flirted with in the past has been a little bit different. Tubbo seemed like possessive best friend claiming mushed into a straight lens with a side of teasing (I like girls, I like Tubbo, Tubbo is girl.) Ranboo was a fascinating intersection of girlfriend sublimation and flirtation to raise his self-esteem, also a bit of an apology for the not-so-passive-aggression from when it looked like Ranboo had “stolen” Tubbo. I wasn’t around for TimeDeo, but fuck it, that counts too. I don’t think that the majority of his homosocial flirting was to make himself seem more masc, especially with Ranboo. (I’ll spare you examples but that particular stretch has some moments.)

Tommy had a ‘playing toughguy’ problem when he was younger, and it contributed to some of his worst habits in terms of what came out of his mouth. I would have attributed a lot of this to his environment, the influences that he related to both positively (edgy youtubers) and negatively (macho schoolmates.) He was very teenage boy, but even then he had an off-beat streak that I impressionistically related to as more femme, even when he was being abrasive. Ever since being forcibly civilised through Wilbur and the forces of the internet he’s had much less of that, but his femme streak has stayed in some form or another, just evolving to fit what’s needed of him at a given time.

The rate at which Tommy being a cishet man comes up as a genuine issue that people feel compelled to try and see resolved is interesting, even as someone who occasionally feels it myself. Like there’s got to be something to unpack in that dynamic, that whatever behavioral issue he’s experiencing at a given time feels tied to his identity as a cishet male and something that can be revised if he had the right personal revelations. The issue is, I just don’t think it’s true, or at least wouldn’t make the difference that some people would want it to make. Some of his problems could even be tied up in his Englishness, and that’s straight up incurable. It’s hard for me to imagine that having a sexuality related revelation would make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of… him as a person. He’s got a lot of moving parts.

I do feel some frustration on behalf Tommy in terms of being a target of essentialist thought. He’s not allowed to be as camp as he probably wants to be because it comes off as offensive to gay culture, and he’s not allowed to be overtly femme because people are strict about policing gender expression right now if a given person doesn’t take on a certain label that corresponds with it. He’s assumed to have the worst intentions if he isn’t directly part of a certain group, and he really is clumsy with things that he doesn’t understand so he can be better off sometimes keeping his hands inside his box, but it’s still kind of sad to see the roundabout way that these binaries re-enforce themselves with someone like him. At the same time, try not to mourn over ‘what could have been’, because it’s still a form of essentialism to think that having traits more commonly associated with non-cishet identity would solve his problem-of-the-week, and there’s no guarantee that’s the case.

#Tw: Violence #tw: SA mention #Tw: Assault #Tw: Abuse #Brief mention but still worth noting for being so abrupt #As you can tell I’ve been thinking this topic over for a while #I want him to have Queer Freedom as much as the next guy but it’s not the vital jenga block that will knock the rest of him into place #Him being a sticky little man is his journey. His path #mageessay #since this is the spiritual sequel to the first one

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springcatalyst · 1 year

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BELOVED, DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKED UP SIDE CHARACTERS THAT HAVE INDESCRIBABLE EFFECTS OF THE LIVES OF YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS??????????

oh babey you KNOW i do!!!!!

Sumaya is an old friend of Milo's that he'd known for quite literally forever. They grew up together, and while Sumaya had a twin, Milo did not (most fauns are born in twos), so he was always like an honorary triplet of theirs- both of them, but especially her. Wherever she was, chances were he was close behind. Eventually, though, because everything has to have an 'eventually,' something changes. It shifts the way they understand each other and in the aftereffects, promises are broken. That shift starts to seep out to other places and people and it scares him- with the threat of a consequence he does not deserve (though for a long while he believes them), he leaves.

But their friendship never really faltered, they didn't have a falling out they didn't even have a disagreement- things just... changed. Both were uncertain of what it would mean or what it even should mean. They are both missing something in the absence of the other, and both feel like they did something wrong in the way they left things. Sumaya is nostalgia personified to Milo, but she's also regret. Anybody else would blame her and they wouldn't be wrong, persay, but he can't. Her memory is bittersweet.

Diana is something similar to Julian, but they never really fractured (that, or they were fractured to begin with). They were never as close as Milo and Sumaya, by nature of the kinds of people they are, but they understood each other because they were in much the same circumstance. Their reasons were different but the end result was the same. She actually comes back later (ehehe) so she's more of a main character than others, but she's evidence of something that doesn't quite fit as it 'should' early in his arc. Then later she's a bit of meshing of past and present that he didn't want, but can't turn away. She's dangerous: not to him, but to the image he's built, to the idea of him. She knows too much. Even then, she doesn't know anything because he confides in her, she knows because she was there. For someone who runs on secrets and lies, that knowledge unsteadies him.

Ciara and Naomi are two very different people but they are both Julian's sisters so I'll group them together. They both serve as comparison and motivation (theoretically), and they're both factors in something that sours. Ciara is younger than him by about two years, she's pushy and curious and impatient and driven- she's very sweet but she's also very stubborn (all the Kil family are)- and that causes problems when Julian stands in her way. After a certain point, the choices he makes, or rather, the ones he doesn't, affect more lives than just his own. He lingers and postpones and because of the way things work here, that places Ciara on hold. She gets impatient, then frustrated, then angry as years pass. She pushes him, and it would be misleading to say she makes things happen, but she definitely plays a role.

Naomi is older than him by about a year and because of this doesn't drive him 'forward' (depending on what you think forward should look like) in the same way Ciara does, but she is involved. Naomi is quieter than Ciara, she's respectable and responsible, (and has a little bit of eldest daughter syndrome) and she generally stays in her lane to a T. That means, though, that even if she sees something that may need intervention, she will look the other way, because it's harder to get involved, easier to just let it sort itself out. Which means, naturally, that when this years-long problem arises with Julian and Ciara and a thousand other things, she takes the path of least resistance, which means convincing Julian to just essentially do what Ciara wants. Or trying to, because it doesn't work. She does something that's not quite mediating but isn't quite picking a side, either. I'm getting off topic now but she serves as an example, as an ideal, that he is not and couldn't be and doesn't want to be, but that he should be, nonetheless. She is "wouldn't it be easier?" She's "just do what you're supposed to" personified. But also, notably, she is the one person (other than Diana but, she's different) that he sees again after he leaves. It's completely chance and she doesn't recognize him (years have passed, he looks and acts completely different, she never thought she'd see him again, transgener, etc), but he gets something as close to closure as he's ever going to get by exchanging a few words with her. He does the closest thing to forgiveness that he is capable of, with her.

And Liliana has her (late) captain. Who also happens to be her father. Who also happens to not be named yet, so he's gonna be Captain Hart for now. He is belonging and family in a way that she lacks elsewhere, by nature of being a sailor and by nature of being a satyr. She looks up to him, emulates him when she can. And then he's taken from her, and right along with him, everything she wanted to be. She chases that for FUCKING ever, of course, and that itself is enough to, yaknow, irrevocably alter her, but there's something in that way that she warps in his absence. In her quest for revenge she bends the rules of who he was and who she wants to be in order to reach her goal, which means that if she were to look back, she would be less like him than she wanted. She is more isolated than he was trying to build for her, she is more deadly than he ever was, and she is less free- she doesn't sail to explore, anymore, she sails to Complete. To find and to hunt. She knows this, really. She knows that she is no longer a person he would recognize, but she can't even allow herself to acknowledge that. Everything fades away beneath that fury.

I guess I'll do one more because it's similar to above: Reiji's mother (also unnamed) does things to my brain. Her place in his life is also characterized by what the loss of it means. I've talked about her a little before but she is safety and defense, home and consistency, and then suddenly all of that is nowhere to be found. She is not dead, he doesn't mourn her like Liliana does her father, but he misses her indescribably. The loss of his flock is what really begins that pervading longing, that search for something more that he never finds. He's trying to get back a piece of what he had in them (she's just a good single person to put this on, but it's really the whole group). But also she specifically formed how he walks in the world, just by nature of being the one who primarily raised him. She's so incredibly romantic, she lives in fairy tale- good and bad. She somehow instilled in him both a deep distrust of people, as well as on omnipresent love for them, a need for them. His perspective is very black-and-white. You're good or you're not, you're friend or you're foe, you live or you die, you run or you fall. Nothing is in between, to him. It works in a pinch, but ultimately this way of thinking runs him into more uncertainty when all he is looking for is home.

#ask #ocs #HELLO BELOVED YESSSSS THANK U FOR ASKING ABOUT BY FUCKED UP GUYS LET ME T E L L YOU ABOUT THEM #Sumaya especially is soooooo. i love her. did she make objectively wrong choices? yeag. did she make some things happen that didn't have to #yeash for sure. do i love her and not blame her because her information was faulty and she had no reason to question what she believed?#maybe so #did she betray his trust in breaking her promise? for SURE. do i love her immensely? YES #listen she didn't MEAN HARM she never wanted to hurt him that was NEVER her intention she didn't INTEND the outcomes that came to pass #she didn't know what else to do. i love her #no side characters for brooke yet. thinking about a brother but i have one of two ways i can go and they are VERY DIFFERENT #and will mean very different things to her depending on which one I pick so we'll have to wait and see

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thelogbookproject · 10 months

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The Unity of Skovlan, Entry 11: Calibri

The Unity of Skovlan is an upcoming unofficial supplement to Blades In The Dark about the fall and rise of the Skovlander people. This series explores what it is all about in the leadup to its September release.

For this entry, as well as the next six, I’m going to delve into the Soldiers of Alx Squad, one by one. We’re starting with Calibri, the creepy weirdo jack-of-all-trades of the group.

Calibri uses she/her pronouns, and has the base rank of Private. She was touched by the spirits of the island of Skovlan as an infant, and has had the ability to commune with them her whole life. Considering the ghostly siege upon the entirety of the human race, this makes her terrifying to most people. The Akorosi think she’s a corrupted monstrosity, and modern Skovlanders probably think she’s dangerous and unsettling, but older Skovlanders, especially those who are knowledgeable about the history of Skovlan culture, can see her for what she is: a landpriest.

I introduce the landpriest faith in Fractured Unity as a thing of the past, a stomped-out artifact of pre-Imperial Skov culture. Before the Emperor invented the Lightning Barriers, protecting cities from the vengeful ghosts of the Cataclysm that blanket the world, each culture had their own means of protecting themselves. The Akorosi established the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh, a hedonistic and materialistic ideology that hates and fights any spirituality, including ghosts. The landpriests of Skovlan took a different approach, communing with the spirits of the land itself, often predating the Cataclysm and not fueled by the hate and destructiveness of the Cataclysm ghosts. By making pacts with these genius loci, the landpriests kept the more dangerous ghosts away, often at personal cost. When the Empire brought the Lightning Barriers to Skovlan, marking the transition from the Skov Kingdom to modern Skovlan, the landpriests were no longer necessary, and Akorosi propaganda had wiped them out within a generation.

I’ll explore the landpriests again when I discuss the Ground, especially because I never actually call out Calibri as one in the text, even though I put her right into this cultural position. I don’t call her out as one because no one else does either — the landpriests are dead, forgotten by the average Skovlander, and Calibri’s abilities do not offer her any authority or position. Quite the opposite, in fact. Notably, the Grounds of Fractured Unity are not landpriests. The Grounds are a new, emergent successor faith, forged under the oppression of Akoros and the Church in the cultural melting pot of Doskvol, blending Severosi sorcery, landpriest tradition, and anti-Church sentiment to forge something new. That’s part of what interests me about including Calibri, it’ll feel very distinct from the Grounds later on. There’s no way to play Calibri in Blades, even in Fractured Unity. She is unique, and the only reason she doesn’t make history is because either someone doesn’t want her remembered, or no one wants to remember her.

One more note on my approach to the landpriest faith as an author: while there are clearly animistic and classical/neo-pagan roots to it, I’m trying very hard to not dig into any particular real-world culture in an exoticizing way. The details of the landpriests are left a little vague in order to let people fill in their own rituals and practices, and I named the spirits the landpriests speak to genius loci, using Latin, to keep from appropriating from a culture I shouldn’t. I’ve very deliberately and carefully avoided the word shaman. I think I’ve done a decent job covering my bases in making this vague extinct religion not say anything significant about any real world cultures.

Okay, back to Calibri herself. The most notable thing about her from a mechanical point of view is her Action Ratings. As a witch-y character, obviously I gave her good Attune, but players will notice that her Attune is ludicrously good. She starts with 4 Attune. The rest of her stat line is still balanced with the other characters — she only has a 1 in four other Actions — so she seems extremely narrowly focused. But wait, up top I described her as a jack-of-all-trades, that doesn’t make sense… Until you get to her mandatory Ability.

Every Soldier gets to choose one Ability when they are first brought on a Mission, except Calibri. Calibri always gets Channeler. While Calibri can always just rely on nearly assured Attunes, the Channeler ability lets the spirits inhabit her and move those Attune dots to other places. The balance to this incredible wild-card power is that the dots can only move from Attune — once they’re moved, they can’t be moved again until they revert to Attune at the end of the Mission. Still, this means Calibri can, in one very-easy roll, go from a 4 Attune to having 4 Skirmish and wrecking stuff all over the battlefield, or slide just one dot away to adapt to a situation without losing the Attuning skill, or spread the dots out to have a reliable 4 Resolve and be much more resilient. The mechanic also means it gets harder to Channel each time you do it in a Mission, as you still have to make the Attune roll. It’s effortless with the 4 dice on the first shot (though it might bring consequences on a 4 or 5, though this is usually a Controlled roll so it’s not too rough), but if you’re down to 2 dice and want to distribute them you might have a tougher time succeeding.

More than any other Soldier, Calibri really changes in playstyle from Mission to Mission, and is very adaptable to differences in player approach. Plus it’s always fun to be a creepy witch! Calibri is the most suitable Soldier for players without much interest in traditional military structure — others will work for them when they need to switch up, but Calibri is definitely an outlier amongst the Soldiers of Alx Squad, and a less war-story-y player might want to start with Calibri to get see how their fellow players handle their more military-styled Soldiers.

Also: I named her the same as the font Calibri by complete accident. I was playing with syllables in my head and assembled Calibri and got too attached to how right it sounded for her before remembering the font Calibri. It’s fine, I like the font. Just let it be a name and it’ll feel normal pretty quickly.

Next time, it’s Fane, the Mend of the group!

The Unity War releases for PWYW on September 1, 2023. Check out https://tinyurl.com/tuos-details for the rest of this series! Sign up for my Patreon at https://patreon.com/thelogbookproject for a preview, and full early access to the game! See you Friday!

#the unity of skovlan #prerelease series #ttrpg

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explorersaremadeofhope · 2 years

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some very rambly thoughts about dundy

I was looking through Terror screencaps lately and was struck by this frame from e3, which comes directly before Crozier emerges from Franklin's cabin and catches Fitzjames eavesdropping.

It's not a long shot - the camera stays there for maybe a second - but it's long enough that on the screencap website I use, there's 3 consecutive caps of just James staring at the empty spot where Dundy used to be until half a second ago.

Of course this scene serves several purposes, one of which is to show that both James and Dundy possess the same information about the friction between their commanders - knowledge which no doubt plays into Dundy's arguably strained relationship with Crozier, as he is an Erebite and receives none of James' later insight into Crozier's character development.

But I think it also shows us that this boy's self preservation instinct is alive and well. He yeets his body up that ladder like the football. And then, of course, a moment later, Crozier comes out, and James is left to catch all the stinkeye for eavesdropping.

Is this a strange thing for Dundy to do here? Not at all. He's directly outside the door; he doesn't have even a shred of plausible deniability if he's caught by Crozier.

But of course, neither does James. And operating on the assumption that nothing in this show is random, I do suspect that small lingering shot is there for a reason, which is to show us Dundy looking out for number one. I think there's an element of foreshadowing to it: showing us in a small harmless way something that will come back later with much higher stakes, and much more devastating consequences for James than just being left behind to deal with Crozier.

This is probably a good time to say: this isn't a Dundy hate post! The morality of Dundy's choices isn't the point here. On a rational level, his later solution to the desperate situation they find themselves in makes perfect sense.

(On an emotional level, it still breaks my heart - because I suspect that James "best walker in the service" "dives into rivers to rescue strangers at the drop of a hat" Fitzjames would have carried Dundy if need be, if their positions were reversed - but ultimately there are no right choices in this situation, and that's what makes it compelling.)

I think Dundy is representative of a position that applies (in various ways) to all the lieuts: he's privy to just enough information to know how screwed they are, but has no real power to do anything about it. The lieuts are all in this uncomfortable middle position, watching their shipmates divide into two equally alien groups: on the one hand, there are the ones who, as horror and deprivation chip away at them, turn out to be gold. They rise to the occasion and in some cases emerge as larger-than-life and almost saintlike. On the other hand, there are the ones who are either actively agitating for, or not strongly opposed to, outright mutiny. And in the middle, there are the lieuts, unable to join either.

All three of them are put in this difficult position and arguably all of them crack under the pressure in different ways (I say 'arguably' because while many feel that Dundy did nothing wrong, the narrative frames his choice as unfortunate). And this doesn't make either of them villains - it makes them human, and flawed. I don't think Dundy ever thought that if it came down to it, he was the sort of person who would leave a close friend behind or incite men to disregard his Captain's (implied) orders. I'm sure he thought he was as loyal a friend and officer as anyone. But the situation is impossible, and eventually all the lieutenants are sort of faced with the fault line or hairline fracture in their own character which they probably weren't even aware of themselves until Shit Got Real - but which, because the writing on this show is god tier, has always been there.

#*#the terror #i slept like 5 hrs last night so im sorry if this is incoherent lmao #love how the post says 'lately' but in fact it has been sitting in my drafts for literal months #brainworms put into words solely at the behest of discord #dundy #henry le vesconte

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sanstropfremir · 2 years

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Sorry if you talked about it but why is that the international scene isn’t really conducive to male solo acts anymore? What changed in 5 years? NCT’s Lab I thought it was just cause of their model, DO’s debut I think it’s a special case but Suho and Kai debuted with promotions. From other companies, in 2021, we had something like 9 or more male soloist debuts. Except for Kai’s, do you feel they are on a lower budget now? Is that why?

oh it's because the biggest kpop act in the world right now is a group that is particularly anti-solo work lol. 2017 was when they blew up in the west so that's why i said five years, but really the number doesn't matter that much. people are more predisposed to think of kpop acts as groups right now and the truth is that groups are just more profitable. more members might mean more upfront costs in training time etc but it also means that there's more variety within the group and a higher guarantee that a fan will latch on to at least one of them. with a solo artist, there's only one of them. a lot of what drives engagement and content outside of the music in kpop is group dynamics and interactions, which. hard to do with just one person, and especially hard to do if a soloist has left a group for any reason. there's a lot of mythologizing by the fans of the groups themselves and so doing solo work (or even just being in two groups, i'm looking directly at you dumbass dream vs 127 subunit twitter fights) is sometimes seen as a betrayal. can you imagine the chaos that would happen if a bts member decided to actively promote solo? that fandom would tear itself apart.

basically all i'm saying is that the industry is a lot different than it was in 2014 and it isn't possible to do the same kind of debut with full scale company backing as taemin had, because the landscape has changed so much. it's just another casuality of the changing times, nothing actually negative about it. there's easily five times as many groups and the groups are larger than ever, and boy groups in general are on the out with the general public in sk. and i don't think it's possible to have true success as a kpop group without having a relatively strong domestic success as well. shinee at the time was already beloved and also was six years into their careers, so they were in a place of relative stability and taemin could feasibly take breaks to produce full albums of music while the others were doing their own schedules. i'm also specifically making a comparison between taemin/second gen and fourth gen, because i think we're over the third gen popularity hump and we're ten months away from losing every boy born in 1994 and earlier, which is not really enough time to establish a strong enough groundwork to survive a two year hiatus. it might mean that we're going to see some more solo work from the younger members left behind, but this is all besides the point. my key point here is that there's just too many groups now and none of the smaller companies have the funding or influence to catch enough attention to boost them up to a level comparable with taemin/a big three company. also no i don't think sm is funding their solos less, it's just that there's no one to match them; yg only has a rookie group, jyp would rather die than debut a male soloist, and hybe knows it would fracture their fanbase and they're not interested.

also for more clarity's sake, i don't think this is a bad thing; i like that there's way more soloists debuting and there's more capacity for them to debut, even if it is on a smaller scale. smaller scale doesn't always mean a lack of creativity or depth of concept. i'm pretty sure half my best of 2021 lists were just stuff from male soloists. i just know that a fourth gen boy isn't going to have the same popularity to fill stadiums in japan for their first solo concert barely three years from their debut.

i don't actually have anything super profound to say about nct labs, i just think sm's pitching it as more 'self-led + project oriented' so they don't have to put as much money towards producing full scale promos. i can also imagine that sm is probably getting more pressure from the artists themselves for them to have more creative control after the repeated successes of older gen soloists in the last year, and this format is a very low stakes way to gauge initial interest in a neo's solo work without the cost of producing something on the scale of what they did for danger or even mmmh. nct has a lot of different avenues on youtube and they've got a huge fanbase so these nct lab projects don't carry any real risk for the company. i straight up saw a bunch of tweets from people yesterday saying they thought johnny was a youtuber and that being an idol was an inside joke. so yea, pretty sure it is a format thing related to nct in order to keep it managable and to combat the fact they're about to enter their military era, because it would be insane to try and full solo debut every neo that wanted to.

#kpop questions #i really could just delete all this text and say 'its impossible to make a 1:1 career trajectory with taemin in terms of #having all three aspects (company support/funding - experience - concept) so there will be no one single 'next taemin'#but instead a bunch of smaller 'taemins''#but i talk waaaaaaaaaay too much #like sm is still obvs putting money into their more established and older artists bc that's a proven format for them #but i dont think that's going to happen with nct. hence nct labs #jype literally lost their most profitable boy group because jyp couldnt swallow his ego and let got7 do solo work #but now i would say that theyve had the most success with soloists since literally all of them have done very well #everyone in mx is hooped because of this decree except for changkyun so we'll probably get more from him #what even are the other big third gen bgs? oh svt.#tbh im kind of surprised that neither hoshi nor woozi's solos did better but i'm not sure #if that's from a lack of effort on the company's side? i dont know anything about svt so im saying words #like i would have thought that an svt member would be the most likely candidate but it doesn't seem to be the case?#maybe the group is just too big #idk maybe i'm making my predictions too early #answers #text #ultimately i dont think sm is going to debut a soloist without a lot of gp support which is why i think ten got nerfed #even tho paint me naked did maybe the best of any new soloist last year #(he's foreign and there was a bit of an uproar about him guesting on sdc4)#which is why i was excluding the exos because theyre the exos #and none of the fourth gen powerhouses are popular domestically or have been around long enough #also the second gen renaissance is making it even less likely that a young dude is gonna break in #this answer feels really convoluted im sorry. i even sat on it overnight and did some more edits but i can't seem to make it any clearer #ultimately i'm talking way too much about a comparison that doesn't really mean anything #we're in a really big transition period rn and obvs establishing solo artists takes time #but it feels really hard to predict what's going to happen in the next year or two because of this decree

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nanagoswife · 3 years

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Congrats on 100! I was wondering if I could request something?

I was thinking obi wan and padawan reader could be out on a mission, and then reader accidentally gets themselves in a dangerous situation; Obi wan comes in and saves them, ofc, but then scolds them because they could've gotten seriously hurt, and how could you have done something like that without thinking?? But then he realizes reader just went through a really scary experience, so he gives them a hug and comforts them and tells them how much they mean to him, and how badly it would hurt if he lost them 🥺

Romantic (reader is over 18, ofc) or platonic, totally up to you! ((if you go for romantic, bonus points if the comforting leads to obi wan to confessing his feelings!))

Thank you! And of course! Also, it was almost a no brainer that I did something romantically 😜 without further or do, here is the story...

Hanging From The Cliff

W/C: 2.5k

Warnings: violence, mention of attempted assassination, mention of blood, angst?

Tree branches and leaves whipped at your face as you ran through the forest after a bounty hunter that you and your master had been tracking. They had made a move against the senator from Kashyyyk that had narrowly been avoided thanks to you and your master.

Your master happened to be none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi. In reality, he wasn’t much older than you. The two of you did a lot of training together when you were both padawans still. With your previous master’s passing, though, the council put you under the supervision of Obi-Wan for your last couple years of training.

The two of you were very close friends and you both worked extremely well together. That was why the council paired you with Obi-Wan. Though, some members of council disproved of the pairing for a time, due to how the two of you seemed a little too close. That was something you had to hide. You had always convinced yourself that, not only was it against the code, but that there was no way he felt the same about you.

It had been strange at first, calling him your master, but soon enough, it hadn’t mattered. The situation made for a good joke quite often.

Now, you weren’t focused on that, but rather the masked bounty hunter that you could faintly see through the brush. Obi-Wan had got caught in the rush of traffic, meaning that you were the only one to do this.

Slowly, you were gaining on them. Give it another bit, and you’d have them in binders, ready to be brought back to Coruscant.

That was the plan as you got ready to break out into the clearing ahead. It was the plan, until you were met by at least ten more bounty hunters all gathered together by a cliff. How did you not sense this?

Desperately, you skidded to a halt so that you could stay close enough to the trees for any potential cover. This proved to be useless as every blaster shot had you blocking and moving ever closer to the cliff.

All you had to do was keep this up until Obi-Wan showed up. You could only hope that he was almost here.

Suddenly, a wire spun and wrapped around your wrist that did not hold your lightsaber. Slightly turning your head, you saw that one of the bounty hunters had snuck his way so that he was just out of your vision.

With the wire around your wrist, he tugged at it to throw you off balance. Although it did make you take a step, you kept your attention on blocking the blaster fire.

Noticing this, the bounty hunter tugged at the wire harder, pain shooting through your wrist as it started to dig into your flesh.

As you kept this up, you kept drawing closer to the cliff until you were struggling to not shift your foot over the steep ledge. Catching a glance downwards, it was higher than you anticipated. Even with aid from the force, you wouldn’t survive.

Your hope for Obi-Wan’s aid started to dwindle. It had been quite a while since this all started. Surprisingly, you were only escaping with the scratches from the chase, the agonizing chafing from the wire, and a slight graze of a blaster that did more damage to your robes than it did your shoulder.

All of this considered, you didn’t know how much longer you could keep this up. There were no less of them than when this all started. You were more focused on staying unscathed than trying to lessen the numbers.

That’s when you saw five more bounty hunters join in. The once manageable task was now one that was mere impossible. Not only that, but it distracted you from the one that was still tugging at the wire.

What you hadn’t noticed was that they had managed to tie the other end of the wire to a tree. They had then snuck closer to you, enough that you still wouldn’t notice. Even when he kicked one of your legs out from under you.

Desperately, you tried to maintain balance. You desperately tried not to follow your instinct to plant your foot behind you. Despite your best efforts, you could not gain your balance back. So, you fell.

It was almost as if your heart temporarily left your body. That was, until searing pain shot through your wrist as your fall was abruptly stopped by the wire. It caused you to slam up against the cliff face fiercely. After a moment, your swinging stopped and you were left dangling vulnerably.

You tried to figure out a way to get out of this, but there were no solid footholds on the cliff. Then, if you tried to swing, you didn’t know if the tree that this wire was tied to would be strong enough. Not only that, but the bounty hunters were all still up there.

“Not so tough now, are you Jedi?” one leaned over the edge and yelled.

In response, you grimaced as they managed to jiggle the wire, causing pain to shoot through you again.

“As much as we would love to watch you fall, we think we’re going to leave you hanging. The pain must be excruciating!”

It really was, but you weren’t going to tell that to the very ones who were using this as entertainment. All you did was stay silent, afraid that the pain you felt would echo in your words. Not only that, but you were terrified. You had been this whole time, but none more so than now. On top of that, you were starting to lose hope that Obi-Wan would find you here.

Distantly, you heard more voices yelling about another Jedi that was approaching. You could only hear as they all scrambled to their ships and watched as they took off. Even though this meant that your mission had failed, you were relieved to know that he actually was almost here.

So, you dangled helplessly from your wrist until he got here. It was screaming in pain as the wire had now dug into your flesh and now was just irritating it further with any movement. You could feel as blood was starting to drip down your arm.

You waited for what felt like an eternity until you heard, “Y/N?”

“Obi-Wan,” you tried to yell as loud as you could. You could sense his worry as he could hear you but didn’t see you. “The wire,” you called out, trying to help him find out where you were.

After a moment, you saw his head pop out over the edge of the cliff.

“What are you doing?” he asked teasingly.

“Hanging out until you came to find me,” you quipped back only to wince as you moved too much.

Seeing this, Obi-Wan saw how the blood was running down your arm. “Okay, I’m going to pull you up but it’s going to hurt.”

All you could manage was a nod as you mentally prepared yourself, using the force to help brace yourself. You could feel as Obi-Wan had grabbed the wire and only slightly tugged at it. Although even that hurt, it was an indicator for you to prepare for much worse.

When he began to pull you up, everything happened in a blur. There was so much pain, but it seemed almost as though it took no time at all until you were laying on solid ground.

So much relief filled you as the pressure from your wrist loosened and wasn’t constantly rubbing.

Obi-Wan was by your side in an instant, checking how badly your wrist was cut up. It was bad, but it wasn’t bad enough that it would cause permanent damage with the aid of the bacta patches he had on him combined with further treatment later.

Carefully, he sat you up so that he could properly tend to your wrist with a gentle touch. You couldn’t help but be soothed by his fingers softly grasping your arm to hold it steady. His touch had always made you feel a comfort that you knew shouldn’t be there.

He had also seen the blaster graze on your shoulder, but that was a mere scratch compared to your wrist. Obi-Wan wouldn’t be surprised if your wrist was even possibly fractured or at least sprained from your obvious fall.

The treatment of your wound didn’t take long, as he didn’t have much with him in the first place. Not only that, but he started to think about how hasty you had been about this. He knew that you were too caught up with catching the single bounty hunter to think about how they were leading you to a trap.

“What in the blazes were you thinking?” he blurted out. “Did you ever think to stop and think about what was ahead of you?”

His tone was reprimanding and you didn’t know how to react. Obi-Wan was your teacher, your friend, the one that you had more feelings for than what was allowed. Now, he went from being gentle to hard in a single second. You were now hanging from a different cliff, this time unsure if he would pull you up or leave you to hang.

“I-I…” you struggled to find words. Not only was his tone hurting you, but everything came flooding back to you. From how you stumbled into the group of bounty hunters, how you were starting to tire out and let a blaster bolt graze you, how the wire had wrapped around your wrist, then finally falling and thinking it was all over.

Obi-Wan watched you and immediately regretted the way he had said that. He had seen how many ships had flown away before he got to you. Not only that, how you were helplessly dangling over the tallest cliff he had ever seen, it was a sign that showed just how bad the situation must have been. He had even sensed how terrified you were during many different moments.

Then, he saw as tears started to flow from your eyes.

“Hey,” he said more softly, placing a hand on your good shoulder before pulling you into an embrace. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not though,” you cried out, “I did everything you said. I didn’t stop to think-”

“That’s not what I really meant,” he cut you off.

You pulled back and looked at him with a confused gaze. How was that not what he meant? He was your master, afterall. It was his duty to correct you on what you did wrong, no matter the fact that you were only a few years his junior.

“How is it not,” you said in a broken voice. Not only was the terror from the previous events in your mind, but you started to think about how he didn’t seem as worried as you hoped he would be.

Little did you know, he was. Obi-Wan wasn’t thinking of how you didn’t think the situation through, he was thinking about how he could’ve lost you. He was thinking how, if he had lost you, he wouldn’t know what to do.

Looking into your eyes, he carefully brushed a loose hair behind your ear. With the same hand, he brought it to cup your cheek as he took a moment to gauge your feelings. He could feel all of the obvious ones, but he was searching for the one thing that he had felt from you for a long time. Something that he felt too, but never acted on because of the code.

After some time, he found it but could feel how it felt sadder than before. What caused this? Then, he thought about his reaction. He was more wrapped up in your strategy than your actual well being. How would you read his subtle nod to how he felt.

“That’s not what I meant, because,” he paused.

Was he really going to tell you now? If he didn’t, would that mean he would lose you before he could tell you how much he loved you? Feeling your love for him all these years only empowered him to push through, especially in the days after the events that led to his knighting.

That’s when he decided, “What I meant is that I don’t know what I would do without you.”

I took you a moment to realise what he was saying. Did this mean that Obi-Wan Kenobi actually felt the same way about you as you have about him all these years? Then, you took in the moment. His hand on your cheek, gently, and his cerulean gaze meeting yours, lovingly.

You were frozen. You never thought that this moment would ever come. Obi-Wan was finally admitting that he cared for you.

“W-what… I mean, I-” you couldn’t find the words. In this moment, one of the scariest you’ve faced in both the actual near-death experience and this quiet moment, you were unsure of what to say.

Obi-Wan watched your rapid thoughts and gave you a comforting smile. Then, to calm you further, he traced gentle circles with his thumb into your cheek. His heart started to pick up speed as he thought about how much he loved you. How in every moment he saw your smile, his heart warmed and sent a lighter tone his way every day.

He couldn’t help himself. Easily, while making sure he wouldn’t hurt you, he pulled you against him, wrapping his arms around you.

His embrace soothed your many racing thoughts. Even though you were trying to soothe yourself with his words before this, your encounter with the bounty hunters persisted. Now, it washed away all of those thoughts as you were enveloped in his arms. Without any hesitation, you hugged him back.

“I love you, Y/N. I don’t know how I could’ve lived with myself if anything had happened.”

You were shocked at his words and, out of instinct, you pulled away and met his eyes. Something in you expected to see he was joking, but his eyes were filled with sincerity. This was the moment you had been waiting for for years.

Now, it was your turn to bring a hand up to his cheek. Overwhelming happiness filled you as you looked into his expectant and hopeful eyes.

“I love you too, Obi,” you said, almost in a whisper.

Without realising it, you both leaned closer towards the other. There was no time to think about how the rest of this would go. Right now it was just this moment. Right now, he had pulled you up from the cliff. Right now, it was just feeling the sensation of his lips against yours.

#obi wan kenobi #obi wan x reader #ewan mcgregor #fanfic #obi wan x you #obi wan imagine #obi wan kenobi imagine #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi wan fanfiction #obi wan star wars #obi wan fic #obi wan #obi wan fluff #obi wan kenobi x you #master kenobi #obi wan angst #mrskenobi19’s 100 follower celebration #mrskenobi19s follower celebration

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reactionimagesdaily · 3 years

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I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space).

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

#Also: love (as in romantic love) is 'not canon' in the Bionicle universe. Big win for the aromantics #(I couldn't find a place in my lore explanation to mention that but my friend Zacch insisted I mention it somewhere)#also... fuck me dead this is a long post. I spent literal hours writing all of this down. Was it worth it? probably.#not a pic #Someone asked me a thing!#Ask mood: Don't Get Me Started #bionicle #bionicle lore #bionicle story

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retvenkos · 3 years

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Grishaverse Deep Dive: The Darkling is a Character that lives in a Society.

((spoilers for ALL of the grishaverse))

Ah, yes, Shadow and Bone season 2 is gearing up, the birds are singing, I have a cup of earl grey tea before me - it is finally time to sit down to talk about the Darkling, and explain his tenuous relationship with the Grishaverse.

The Darkling is a character greatly contested. When simply looking at his motivations, we see a rift in the fandom. Add in his backstory and it fractures even more. When you pepper in the third ingredient of his relationship with Alina, you get an entire war. The Darkling is a divisive character. He gets under our skin and lingers for days afterwards.

I am going to take you on a deep dive of the Darklings character, and try to tease apart the problems that lie within the creation of his character. Why were so many fans betrayed by his ending? How did he muddle the messages of Shadow and Bone, and why is his ending so complicated that it satisfies very few? Today, we’re going to look at The Problem of the Darking: An Essay in Six Parts.

A little history lesson;

So first, allow me to take you back in time, to 2012, when Shadow and Bone was first released.

Two years prior, The Hunger Games Trilogy had finished coming out and, in a rather stunning turn of events, shifted the popular Y.A. category from the genre of the paranormal romance (thank you, Stephanie Meyer) to the dystopian society.

Now, this is not to say that there weren’t dystopian stories prior to The Hunger Games, or that there weren’t paranormal romances in the Y.A. genre afterward. Both have survived, but the boom of dystopian stories and the whimper of paranormal romance was definitely felt.

So 2012 hits. In comes Shadow and Bone, in a time where we have some interesting precedents that our Y.A. forefathers created:

Firstly, let’s talk about themes.

Carried over from both genres, is this idea of duality. There is light and there is dark, and whether or not there is a middle ground is up to the author. As the Y.A. target audience is quite large, there’s a lot to be said for how nuanced this idea can be. In many stories, it’s a nail on the head. In others, the lines are a little more blurred. In most stories, you get some semblance of Good = Light, Bad = Shadow. In the end, the ultimate goal is to embrace one or the other. At the end of the series, we’re either in the midday sun or the midnight darkness. The peak of the story leaves very little middle ground.

Then, brought over from the dystopian genre, we have the idea that The Current Regime is Bad for insidious reasons, and it needs to be torn down and built anew. This is often the main focus of dystopian stories, and our main characters are revolutionaries that see the world in a new, free light.

Finally, a trap of the Y.A. category is it’s simplistic idea of good and bad. Again, we hark back to the vast target age range, and you can see why this would be so prevalent. There is very little by way of morally grey, in the Y.A. category, and if there is moral greyness, it almost always falls into two categories: (1) it is held by the main character alone, and that is why we root for them, or (2) it is martyred and killed. Moral greyness is either the Ushering of a New Era, or The Ideal that Could Not Be. If greyness is to survive, it must exist in the main character who, readers hope, will usher in a new dawn of peace (and light moral greyness) either through their small acts of love (the angel loving the demon) or in large displays of change (the morally grey character rising to be ruler).

These are all themes we expect to be present in Shadow and Bone. And for the most part, they are!

But now let’s talk about character tropes.

Carried over from the paranormal romance, we have the introduction of the “Othered” love interest. This character has a condition that sets him apart from others, and (whether it be vampire, demon, werewolf, etc.) is so prevalent that he cannot fit in. And because of his differences, he has been shunned by Society. This character, notably, is not the “light” or “pure” paranormal figure - he is not the angel - but rather, the demon. The angel would be able to slip into society (presumably because his goodness grants him some kind of godly camouflage). The demon cannot. He doesn’t fit in, and he never can. This creates tension in him, and so he shuns others just as hard as they shun him - he has done so for a very long time until he meets our main character, who gets close to him and breaks down his walls. This character is often the eventual love interest, for reasons that will become apparent later.

Sometimes carried over from the paranormal romance is the idea that the main character is secretly an “other in hiding” (an angel without her wings, etc.). This creates a bond between the “Othered” love interest and the main character - a bond that can’t be deteriorated once it’s been made, because the main character can’t be un-Othered. They can’t take back the forbidden knowledge they’ve obtained. If this character pops up, the “Othered” love interest is almost always chosen, if he exists.

The dystopian genre has a branching version of this trope, as there is almost always a healthy amount of othering. The main character usually comes from a group of people that is Othered from Society, but our main character is even more unique/different from their “Othered group.” This “specially Othered” character is superpowered in that they can navigate both “Othered” Society and “normal” Society. They can be the go-between.

Sometimes found in the paranormal romance is the “normal” or stereotypical character. This is the average human - the character that doesn’t understand the “Othered” love interest, and wants the main character to go back to the way things were before. This character can sometimes make up the other leg of the love triangle and become a love interest. Other times, it’s a family member or a friend or even an abstract ideal. The point of this character, however, is to show the main character that they can’t go back to the way things were. Too much has happened. Too much has been discovered.

All of this is to say that when Shadow and Bone came out, audiences had expectations with long standing. It is safe and fair to say that the Darkling was set up as a character to be viewed in a certain light, and then the rug was pulled out beneath fans, who had already invested so much in his character.

Shadow and Bone: The characters that Don’t Fit;

So now let’s look at Shadow and Bone in the scope of history and audience expectation. Let’s look at the characters as well as the Grishaverse, in broad terms.

The Darkling is, in the first half of Shadow and Bone, the stereotypical “Othered” love interest. He can summon shadows, which is remarkably different from the other powers of Grisha, and his “forefathers” have done terrible things with this power, making him not only an other in talent but an other in animosity and fear.

In comes Alina, and she is a perfect fit for the main character being an “other in hiding” as well as a “specially Othered” character. She was otkazat’sya before she realized she was Grisha, and she is seen as the go-between for these two different worlds - she can bring them together. Furthermore, she is stronger than your average Grisha - distinct from all others, excepting the Darkling.

Alina is understood by the Darkling. She is discovering parts of herself that she didn’t know she had. This is all decidedly Good, and the romance that is forming is living up to reader expectation.

We also have an interesting occurence of duality. Alina, with her light, is the equal and opposite to the Darkling and his shadow. Together, they have limitless power, a common goal, and perhaps a purifying dynamic as Alina can “save” the Darkling. Her light can banish his shadows.

History is leading us to believe they are the endgame ship.

This is only inculcated when you have Mal, who is the “normal” character. Through the framing of the story (not seeing Mal, holding on to him only causing Alina to not reach her full potential), we see that the love story with Mal is the Romance That Cannot Be. They are fated to be apart due to the tropes that readers know and understand.

But then the second half of the book kicks in, The Darkling is proven to have been manipulating Alina, things go South, and readers are left unaware of what’s coming next. In this moment, the theme of The Current Regime is Bad slaps readers across the face.

So let’s take a second to look at The Current Regime is Bad, because how the Darkling and his motives exist in that tempest is thought provoking, to say the least.

The Darkling is, decidedly, a part of The Current Regime. He is a general and close to the King, after all. He is a part of this life... and yet he is not. Remember that The Darkling is our “Othered” character. He cannot be a part of The Current Regime because he is shunned by it. And yet, he is tied to it like a prisoner.

The reader thinks: is the Darkling bad? He is shown to be a part of Society. He wants the war to continue - he doesn’t want to tear down the Fold.

As the reader is grappling with this revelation, we are told (in the same book!) that the Darkling is actually not a part of The Current Regime (which is Bad), but rather, had been working against it.

Okay.

So now the reader thinks that since Society is Bad, and the Darkling is against it, he and Alina do have a common goal, and his status as a love interest can be saved. He can be redeemed as a character because Alina can purify his methods, then together they can get rid of the current regime, and they can be Others together.

It’s a solid thought process. After all, the “Othered” characters have been consistently good at heart, and Alina can redeem him. We still have a bad guy to take down - and it’s not the Darkling.

But...

Leigh Bardugo decides that is not the story she wants to tell, and she has to pull out some literary gymnastics to give us an explanation. The idea is, no, the Darkling is Bad and his “Othered” status is not relevant because it doesn’t justify his actions. He is a part of a radical portion of The Current Regime and is just as Bad.

Enter Nikolai Lantsov, who can take over The Current Regime, because as the reader is constantly reminded, Alina no longer wants novelty - she wants normalcy (which is represented by none other than Malyen Oretsev).

So, what does all of this mean? The Darkling decidedly Doesn’t Fit into any of the currently accepted (and expected) tropes of the Y.A. genre. This, on its own, is not inherently Bad or Wrong, but you can see how readers were thrown and consistently, ideas were stretched to fit the simplistic ideas of good and bad that run rampant through the Y.A. category.

The Darkling: What We Left Behind;

We have all heard the critique that the most frustrating thing about the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is how the treatment of Grisha is never fixed. It’s mentioned, but it’s never addressed.

To play the Devil’s Advocate, I am going to tell you all that this problem was never fixed because it was never part of Alina’s Narrative. As I will now attempt to point out, The Darkling is an ill suited antagonist for Alina’s story.

As I like to joke with my friends, the Darkling is an Adult Fantasy character inside of a Y.A. Fantasy story. He cannot be properly served because the story does not fit him, and it doesn’t really try.

Y.A. stories are incredibly focused. There is usually a lot going on in the wider story, but the reader is confined to one point of view and one narrative. This is why the main character is always leading rebellions and fighting in the thick of things. In order to address the problems of the wider narrative, the main character needs to be pretty front and center with the problems.

Alina is at the center of an inner conflict of power vs. normalcy. She is not at the center of the Grisha’s problems.

Time and again, we see that Alina largely doesn’t care about how terribly Grisha are treated, as a whole. She has moments of clarity where she is angry (notably the scene in Ruin and Rising where the nations’ treatment of Grisha is described in detail), but her remorse doesn’t really extend past sympathy. In the end, she still does nothing to save Grisha.

Alina is a terrible hero when matched to the problems the Darkling is trying to solve. She doesn’t understand their full breadth, having not grown up with them, and she doesn’t want to fix them.

The Problem of The Darkling is that he is a character with problems and motivations that get shrinked and discarded because they do not fit into the Alina Narrative.

Alina’s story is about three things: (1) learning that a lust for power is bad and only corrupts; (2) tearing down the Fold, which is the representation of lusty power; and (3) returning to normalcy. (If you’re wondering why Mal is a rough™ character, it’s because he’s supposed to be the ideal of normalcy, that Alina both wants but can’t have as long as she seeks the amplifiers.) The Grisha don’t factor into that equation.

Alina doesn’t have a solution for giving the Grisha a safe existence where they won’t be sold into slavery, won’t be persecuted by the world, and won’t be forever Othered. She stumbles upon the vague promise of fixing the last of those problems when she runs into Nikolai (purely by chance, or, if you want to stretch it, The Darklings machinations). Furthermore, she doesn’t want to do any of that - she wants normalcy, remember? Her story isn’t going to be saving the Grisha - that’s not what it’s about.

The Darklings entire character motivations focus on all of the plot points that Alina doesn’t hit. He wan’t to make a safe existence for Grisha, he wants Grisha to no longer be persecuted and Othered. How is he going to do it? By ugly means, yes, but he’s going to achieve it nonetheless.

The Darkling has motivations that are not addressed in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. They aren’t what the story is about, or what the story chooses to focus on. His story is a braided narrative that is too complicated for the simplistic, black and white story that the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is.

So here’s the problem: the story insists the Darkling is the bad guy, but he can’t possibly be the bad guy if his intentions are Good, and there is no other way. Until Alina finds another way, he is a martyr - he is the Starless Saint. The Saint who was misguided, sure, but the only Saint who tried to solve things.

The Darkling is not fit for Shadow and Bone. His story and what he advocated for isn’t resolved by the end of the trilogy. So when he dies, it feels unearned. It’s tragic - and perhaps there is some beauty in that tragedy, or some lesson to be learned about how you cannot justify evil means for a good end - but it feels undeserved. His problems aren’t addressed. He is defeated, but his cause and his essence aren’t put to sleep.

King of Scars: A Cause Without Its Martyr;

Which leads us to the Nikolai duology.

Like I said - The Darklings’ problems are forgotten in Alina’s narrative. So what happens when we break out of that point of view? After a brief (and iconic) interim with the Crows, we are back in Ravka and the Grisha are still struggling with the problems that Shadow and Bone failed to address. Ravka is still dying, but now that we have gotten rid of a reluctant cast of characters and have made distance from the trope-heavy Shadow and Bone, we are better equipped to save her.

But here’s a question - can we ignore the man who pioneered these problems in favor of a more palatable cast? Can we not address the Darkling while picking up the sword he used?

Leigh Bardugo needs to reclaim the Grisha Problem by stealing it from the Darkling’s grasp. That proves to be difficult, given that we’ve killed him and have given him a tragically beautiful death. Absence has made the heart grow fonder, and in his final moments, the Darkling was not the evil Shadow Summoner but rather Alexander Morozova - the boy within. Readers (even those who didn’t like the Darkling) might be more endeared to him now that everything is said and done.

We need to separate the Darkling from his cause.

Enter the Cult of the Starless Saint and the Condemnation of the Starless.

To remind readers that the Darkling is bad, Leigh Bardugo does a few things. Firstly, she has her characters repeatedly condemn the Darkling. On one hand, it makes sense and feels genuine. On the other hand, it can be a little excessive. Sometimes, the vehemence reads like what it is - Leigh Bardugo is giving us reasons to hate the Darkling again. Add on the fact that Nikolai’s monster is Bad and one of few remnants of the Darkling still surviving, and you get a lot of hate.

Except, ah! The more we talk about the Darkling, the more we are reminded of what he stood for!

So we have to strip him of that - we have to take his legacy and drag it through the mud. Thus, we create The Cult of the Starless Saint. They represent the Darklings legacy and status in history - were his intentions Good Enough to grant him mercy? To give him Sainthood?

Spoiler alert: They are not. Not as portrayed by the Cult of the Starless Saint.

The Cult is a laughing stock. They don’t have a stance of the Grisha, they’re worship of the Darkling is meant to be seen as mocking Alina’s sacrifice, and the main priest readers interact with is the receiving end of a slew of jokes. They don’t care about anything the Darkling cared for, and they don’t really want to help Grisha. This is done to muddy the waters - if the people who emulate the Darkling are selfish and without cause, well... the Darkling clearly wasn’t Good. They just think his shadow powers were cool and want him to be a Saint. They exist to slander the Darkling.

So now we have separated the Darkling from his cause, and the story continues. The Darkling is Bad. He doesn’t have a legacy. His cause is passed on to others.

But (because we’re Delta airlines and life is a f*cking nightmare) it doesn’t end there. We bring the Darkling back from the dead.

*long sigh*

Resurrection? The Curse of a Second Life;

I have wracked my brain for many an evening, trying to give reason as to why we brought the Darkling back. The obvious answer is for his role at the end of Rule of Wolves - we need him to hold the rift of the Making at the Heart of the World together. However, when Leigh Bardugo introduces real Saints, he’s not needed. Suddenly, we have a slew of characters who could do the same. Furthermore, part of why this rift exists is because the Darkling was brought back. If he is both the cause and the solution, the conflict didn’t need to be there in the first place - especially considering how inconsequential it was to the narrative.

If I had to pin a reason as to why we brought the Darkling back, it was simply to further push the Darkling from his original motivation. He comes back and... doesn’t do much. He doesn’t seem to have the same care for Grisha, he has watered down character traits, and he largely does nothing. The Darkling in the Nikolai Duology is Not The Darkling because he’s a shell of the character he used to be.

Bringing him back from the dead was unsatisfying, and it weakens his original ending. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Darkling coming back cheapens whatever meaning readers gleaned from his ending. The Darkling is resurrected and he doesn’t truly seem to care about anything - which is the direct opposite of what the Darkling has been shown to be.

The Darkling has been bastardized in any appearance he’s made after The Demon in the Wood, and ultimately, it leads to a rather anticlimactic end for such a distinctive, hallmark character.

But let’s really quick establish why the sacrifice the Darkling makes at the end of this book is unfulfilling.

Because, in the final moments of Rule of Wolves, the Darkling gets his moment of penance and sacrifice - he chooses to hold the rift. It’s said he will have to hold it for eternity. You would thing that this would leave an impact!

However, as is, this ending leaves much to be desired for a few reasons:

The Darkling has been so far removed from his character, that when he states, “Everything I did, I did for Ravka,” it feels... incorrect? It sounds like the hollow, misguided claims of a tyrant king, because for an entire Duology, the Darkling has been bastardized and has been the cause of a blight that is killing Ravka. His presence is actively killing the country he claims to serve, and as for actions, he has done very little for Ravka, and nothing for the Grisha. The last time he did anything of substance was before Six of Crows!

None of the characters present for his sacrifice have any sympathy for the Darkling. The Darkling chooses to sacrifice himself, and we get no emotional closure. Alina isn’t there to whisper his name and mourn him, and while Zoya gets the glimmer of weak pity, we have much reason to believe that Zoya mostly feels disenchanted because he will be praised as a martyr and not hated as the evil man she knew him to be (more on that here). There isn’t sympathy so much as there is bitterness and the semblance of the remnants of tattered respect shining in the dim light.

The final chapter of Rule of Wolves tells us that it’s all going to be made inconsequential in the coming books, when they are going to replace the Darkling with something else. The Darkling won’t even get his full sacrifice, because he is undeserving of a redemptive act of selflessness.

So now, where do we leave the Darkling? For two books, we have separated him from his initial cause, watered down his character and motivations, and given him ends that are largely unsatisfying.

We’ve actually started to fix the Grisha problem, and there’s something interesting to be said in that it’s fixed by Zoya Nazyalensky, who goes up through the chain of command in a very similar fashion as to how the Darkling planned. She was a General, and then she became Queen of Ravka - the acting monarch, no less - with a beloved public figure on her arm (which, in the Darkling’s case, would have been Alina).

So I am left to wonder - was the lesson, then, indeed, that you cannot justify evil means for a good end? Was the moral of the Darkling all along about how you must be good throughout - with good acts and good intentions - in order to make change and be revered for it? If so, why did Leigh Bardugo slander the Darkling retroactively, the way she did?

If the problem was his actions and not his intentions, why insist that his intentions were devoid of meaning, as well?

Aleksander Morozova: What We Buried;

Now, you all knew I was going to get here eventually, and if you’ve made it, congrats. We are now talking about the emotion behind the deed, the man behind the monster, the boy swallowed by the shadows.

I believe it is pivotal to understand that Leigh Bardugo has always wanted us to struggle with our feelings over the Darkling. She wanted a character that you could sympathize with, she wanted a character with humanity, and she wanted a reason for his villainy. I think that Shadow and Bone, for all of its failings, gave us that. There’s a reason why there is such a big divide over the Darkling in the original trilogy. He was a compelling character! Somewhere along the way, Leigh Bardugo lost that nuance of her own character. At some point, she resorted to stripping him of his meaning and slandering his image.

Perhaps I am playing the Devil’s Advocate again, but I believe this was intentionally done.

Because one has to ask - why slander the Darkling? A large portion of the fanbase already hates him, so cheapening his character is doing nothing for them other than giving them sweet vindication, which is unnecessary and only disenchants the other half of your audience. There has to be some deeper reasoning. Leigh Bardugo wanted this character to be sympathetic, so why, now, does she want him to be two-dimensional?

Once more, I am asking you to think back to the original trilogy. What was the main moral? That power, no matter how good-intentioned the pursuit of it is, corrupts. What is the Darklings purpose of coming back again if not to simply have power? He certainly shows no other motive than lusty greed, after being resurrected.

And even if we ignore his lust for power, as he so willingly gives it up to Zoya Nazyalensky in the end of Rule of Wolves, we have two other corrupting forces that could account for the degradation of his character - time, and death.

We know the Darkling to have lived for eons, and he would have continued to live on for an eternity more. There is nothing like time to truly corrupt a character’s vision, and there is nothing like death and resurrection to husk a character.

In fact, if Mal’s character did anything of importance when it comes to effecting the Darkling, it lies in the epilogue of Ruin and Rising, where it is stated that “the boy and the girl had both known loss.” Mal’s loss is equated to Alina being stripped of her power - that is the power of having died, and being forcefully brought back to life. That is a vague basis for which we readers can compare what it must have been like for the Darkling to come back - even if he is so desensitized to feeling, that he doesn’t remark on it himself.

But let’s keep chugging on.

When we first met the Darkling in 2012 Shadow and Bone, he was unfeeling. He was cold and harsh. There was something beneath the surface, yes, but there were thick sheets of ice in the way. You had to mine for it. Time had already warped the actions of his intentions. It’s expected that time would continue to do its damage, and when he is revived in King of Scars, his intentions are warped as well. He is nothing of the person he used to be other than memories and power. That is why, at the end of Rule of Wolves, when he states that he did everything for Ravka, it feels hollow - that was once true, but the Darkling has even lost that. He has the vague impression of it, but nothing you can sink your teeth into.

I think, had this idea been looked at in deeper depth, it would have been a far more compelling story. Had Rule of Wolves really dedicated itself to showing the Darkling’s conflict of his current apathy, and the knowledge that there was once a time he possessed meaning, we could have found the marrow of his arc. If the book had made an allusion to this concept, his character would have been more satisfying. But as it stands, the Darkling is just degraded in the later books, and unless you really search for meaning, there isn’t any.

And perhaps, if the Darkling had been a different character - a character who, at his core, was more unfeeling - the way we left him would feel okay.

But while The Darkling was harsh and cruel, Aleksander Morozova wasn’t, and that’s what has us all hung up on his character.

If you haven’t read The Demon in the Wood for whatever reason, do yourself a favor and read that instead of revisiting the show’s version of his villain origin story. The show made the Darkling far less compelling by showing him as the grief stricken Black Heretic, rather than the boy within. When we meet Aleksander, he is a boy who is afraid of the world, who has never belonged in it or with others, and who is, ultimately, afraid of himself. With his mother, Baghra, he has taken on a thousand names and traveled a thousand places, and all the while, he is afraid of getting too close to others because he is an amplifier and he knows that if any Grisha were to find out, they would kill him for his power.

Thus, there is so much nuance to his relationship with the Grisha. He is one of them, but he is not. To hark back to our history lesson, he is the exact opposite of the “specially Othered” character that is so often given to protagonists. Instead of acting as a go-between, he is the one person that everyone - Grisha and otkazat’sya - can come together to kill.

And as a little boy, he knows that. He knows he has to stay in the shadows, and yet, he is deathly afraid of the dark - afraid of that which sets him apart, and that which he cannot escape.

This is poignant because at the root of every great character is a singular, vulnerable emotion, and for the Darkling, it is fear. And most importantly, fear of the shadows.

When he meets Alina, we truly see the strength of their duality. We truly see why he was so drawn to Alina - why he could so easily fall in love with her, despite the years and despite the tide, and despite his fear of letting others in. She is his equal and opposite - with her, there are no shadows. There is no fear. The fact that he lets Alina use him as an amplifier is so telling of his deep feelings for Alina.

Where each reader draws the line between their dynamic - either him truly loving Alina, or him simply loving and obsessing over the idea of her - is for the individual to decide. The wonderful thing about the Darkling in his current state in the original Shadow and Bone Trilogy is that he still has good intentions within him, no matter how corrupted by his evil actions. Whether or not they truly could have been is up to each person because the question over whether or not Alina could “purify” the Darkling was never deeply explored. We will never know if she could save him, or if it would have destroyed her in the end. Whether or not you want her to try is personal preference.

Again, Alina didn’t want to fully commit to that act, and so we readers will never truly know. Luckily, fanfiction exists.

But, I didn’t name this section “what we buried” for nothing, and I think it’s important to note that even in the beginning of The Demon in the Wood, the Darkling was already on his way toward a darker, harsher existence.

Baghra, from presumably the moment he was born, groomed the Darkling to be a certain way - the same way as her, a survivor with little hope, living for the sake of living and fighting for the sake of a meal. She had no plans to save the world - it was only after the Darkling had a run in with the possibility of death that he unearthed a deep desire within him - the desire to save the Grisha. Before that, it was buried.

Before that, the Darklings' desires were buried beneath his mother’s words and buried beneath the dirt that settled over his heart like a shallow grave, because his connection to others was buried as well. Baghra did that, and whether or not she was misguided or if she was the smarter of the two is an essay better tackled by looking at her, specifically, which we won’t do here.

As we’re reaching the end, I feel like I have earned the right to be cliche and quote the Darkling’s thoughts from when he was still a boy, but already a shadow. In The Demon in the Wood, he thinks:

“My father is dust. You all are.”

At such a young age, the Darkling has already lost his grip. Already, he knew he would outlive and outlast anyone, and this heavy knowledge was already piling up, and he was slowly being buried alive in his own infinence.

It was only ever inevitable that his story would end like this - with a detached man who was once a hopeful boy, but could no longer recall what such confidence tasted like - so perhaps the tragic beauty in the end of Ruin and Rising was not that he died, it was that he wasn’t given an end.

— Special kudos to @onceupon-a-decembr who let me scream about this with her, and another kudos to @musicallisto who introduced me to a book series that I will never stop screaming about. Ever.

— tagging: @maybanksslut, @musicallisto, @catsbooksandmusic, @thefifthweasley, @thegirlwhocriedwerewolf, @amirahiddleston, @lachichapequena, @mrs-brekker15, @amortensie // add yourself to the taglist here!

#grishaverse #grishaverse meta #shadow and bone #shadow and bone meta #meta #meta analysis #writing #the darkling #aleksander morozova #the darkling meta #i am once again ranting about the grishaverse #if miss leigh bardugo wants me to stop analyzing her characters and (kind of drag her) she better put me in the writers room.#or put me in the show her choice #and there's more i could have added to this smh #but i feel like people stop reading after 5.6k words.

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