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I love playing Wesker with the STARS skin so much guys! Imagining STARS era Chris going through the fog only to run into a fucked up evil version of his captain （⊙ｏ⊙） ‖"Captain...?" "Chris... Isn't this a nice surprise?"‖

BBS is a tragedy in many ways, but one of the things that gets me is that the catalyst, the one big thing that caused this mess to begin with, is so avoidable.

Like, the story starts primarily because Terra starts to fear himself (because of the darkness he has unwittingly 'used') and this causes a spiral of doubt and obsession. A spiral which he could've escaped from or maybe not even started if he just 1) had been taught the balance between light and dark properly (that darkness is more than just unquestionable evil, that light is more than unquestionable good, that they can and should co-exist in balance), and 2) had consistent socialization from more than the same 3 people.

Like. BBS is a cautionary tale about what happens when people aren't exposed to a wide enough variety of people and, therefore, end up naive and overly trusting because they never learned that people have ulterior motives. Terra is consistently manipulated and used by people literally everywhere he goes, because he can't see that they might not have the best intentions! He can't see the red flags because he doesn't know there are red flags to look for!

Xehanort knows this. It's why he targeted Terra to begin with: because he would be susceptable to his words. The main reason he couldn't use Aqua is because she was too confident in her own values, she didn't have the seed of doubt that Terra had. It's the only thing that prevents her from being used the same way he is, even though she is just as naive and trusting as he is.

Ven probably has it the worst socialization wise. Unlike Terra and Aqua who, presumably, has/had a family and life outside of the Land of Departure prior to beginning training there, Ven doesn't remember anything before then (not that he had much he'd be happy to remember anyway). And since he's the youngest and most 'fragile' one (due to being in recovery for most of his time here), he gets somewhat coddled and shielded by everyone else. Not to mention the way Eraqus completely forbid him from leaving and never intented for him to ever see worlds outside the Land of Departure. Sure, Terra and Aqua aren't typically supposed to leave either, but at least they'd be allowed in certain situations. Ven wouldn't.

Ven isn't allowed to interact with anyone outside of home. He's not allowed anything that involves the outer worlds. (He and Naminé are a bit alike in that sense. Though at least the people he's stuck with are nice to Ven and do genuinely care for him, unlike Naminé...)

BBS happens largely because Eraqus failed as both a teacher and a parental figure to all of them, but Terra most of all.

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

Old habits die hard all the way around (Patreon)

Zero Mission: Slight detour toward the end, but Samus is doing well.

Prime: Momentary bittersweetness, but Samus is doing well.

Echoes: Despite everything, the day was saved. Samus is doing well.

Corruption: The day was saved, but at a cost. Samus is... alive.

Return Of Samus: An ugly, yet hopefully necessary task, offset by a small ray of hope at the end. Samus is not doing well.

Super: That hope was delivered... and then immediately stolen, warped and mutated, and then killed. The last Metroid is dead. The galaxy is (not?) at peace. Samus is not doing well.

Fusion: Actions have consequences, and the consequences for extinction have shown themselves. Samus has lost nearly everything familiar and comfortable, with only the ghost of an old friend found instead. Samus is not doing well.

Dread: New bullshit after new bullshit, piled higher and higher and higher. Samus is not doing well, but that doesn't matter, because Samus is fucking done.

Perc'ahlia Week | Day 6 | Later

(Click image for better quality)

Day 6 of @percahliaweek

Yours/Later

Bonus under the cut

I've been painting a lot more lately! Mostly since I'm learning how to use Gouache atm.

I realized too late that I keep painting Nate's first design, it's hardwired into me at this point...

kip i gotta know how you feel about eraqus. idk why but i absolutely hate him. i despise this man. i want to maul him on site and i think he should lose custody of the wayfinders. get him away from them they deserve better. i am not including young eraqus in this i could him as a seperate character. old eraqus your days are numbered.

GREAT QUESTION I HAVE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT HIM. baby eraqus is a dork and a teenager and a stupid but very endearing young man trying his best and working with ideologies that don’t match up to his emotions old eraqus has had time to marinate in all of that and has NOT taken ADVANTAGE of it hardly at all. But he is still trying his best. But his best is harmful at the worst of times and often vaguely hypocritical. But he does love his kids. except for when he has other priorities. do you understand —

Eraqus. I feel. Is afraid. He has always been quick to abandon something difficult and something that’ll change his world for something safer. He’s afraid of Ventus. Not because he doesn’t think he can take the kid (obviously, he can hit the panic button any time he wants), but because Ventus represents danger, AND he cares too much about his old friend’s wishes and this sad kid that he has now to get rid of the danger right away, AND he’s too afraid to make a decision until he has to, AND he regrets it almost immediately. Eraqus wants the best for ventus and refuses to look the fact that it’s not possible under him in the eye. He’s afraid of Terra, for having a piece of the thing that ruined his life in him and he’s doubly afraid because Xehanort expressed his own fear out loud (that Terra may not be fit for mastery because of the darkness) and made that fear override the trust he tenuously had in his, like, literally adopted son. He trusts Xehanort because he believes he’s trying to do better, but he fears being wrong, he doesn’t want to be wrong. He can’t be wrong if he represents the Light. He’s on the side of light, so the things he does and decide on behalf of the light must be correct. Right? (He doesn’t have anyone left to consult with about this. No one is there to check him. He can’t ask) The only person he’s not actively worried about is Aqua, and even that’s kind of a lie bc he’s putting a lot of pressure on her because of it. Do you see. His actions don’t match his teachings. He cares too much, and it makes him make stupid decisions that weren’t meant to hurt the wayfinders, but were absolutely meant to harm, and he doesn’t see how those connect. It makes him! Rather frustrating lmao!!! It makes him harmful! He doesn’t get it!

So like. He’s a nice dad but not a very good parent . He, I think, really loves the wayfinders and had a horrible time showing it. I think they loved him back. They cared about him so much, he raised them, pretty much, he had a sense of humor, he let aqua make a million silly treats and wanted them all to succeed. He definitely hurt them. I don’t think Ventus is very comfortable grieving him and feels awful about it. I think Terra has weird feelings about him because he always wanted to impress him and it didn’t work when it mattered and then it worked, too late, once Eraqus was in charge again. I think Aqua can only start untangling what that relationship did to her as she starts being a master herself. You know? I can’t hate him. He tried so hard. But I can absolutely come after him with a mallet for being a colossal myopic absolutist idiot who embodies religious misinterpretation and generational trauma and also just puts his own personal trauma on his kids. Because he’s the last survivor of a dead society, SURE, but also because he’s stupid. Do you see

I fr have been eating every single tadpole. I have like 3 of them wedged in my brain folds. I even gave one to Astarion. Slurp slurp yummy worms in my brain

Tbh tho I have been operating under the assumption that if the dream visitor was evil WHYYY would I have designed them myself

I do not want spoilers about what’s gonna happen if I keep doing this (I’m midway through act 2) but everyone I’ve told this is like

anyway haha I’m afraid :)

it is truly criminal that the best written and best acted arc in season three of legends of tomorrow is the one between Damien and Nora Darhk

it really is wild that over the course of the heartstopper/solitaire novels, harry greene goes through significantly more self analysis and growth than ben bloody hope. ben stays a self righteous self loathing and homophobic dickhead. harry meanwhile eventually apologises to charlie, is dressing up in a cheerleader outfit on last day of year 13, texting charlie, taking photos of nick and charlie, and inviting charlie and tao to his parties.

it’s super important that we know charlie and nick never COMPLETELY forgive harry and still think he’s a knob (because he was a complete knob); but also, that harry and ben are contrasted as one person who was uneducated and an idiot, and the other as a genuinely horrible and deeply homophobic person. and while nick and charlie get into a physical fight with ben in solitaire, in the same book they’re comfortably making out at one of harry’s parties that harry invited them to. the contrast in development (or lack thereof) between ben and harry is INSANE by the end when you consider they basically start in the same place of ‘homophobic bellend’.

I just realized I haven't had my oc/fc interact with Gustavo yet! Honestly if I didn't do this it would count as a national crime

Oh my goodness what good boys! It goes without saying that these polite lads would definitely be friends. Adlin likes the company of kind, harmless people and would welcome him to the bakery any time, and Gustavo is probably friends with everybody because who doesn't like him? Nobody it's impossible to be a human and not like Gustavo he's perfection

and there's another bean who absolutely needs to get involved, but in the worst of ways

I really dug @unexpectedbrickattack's rendition of Peppino and I admittedly wanted to try the pose out for myself. But my own design who's holding a deepdish pizza tray or somethin. Then I got the idea to make a little scene around it. It's hard to explain an idea that flowed out so naturally. But here it is, a collection of the pizza game bois +1!

sunk cost fallacy andreas <3

OHHHHH KARNA LOVE CONFESSION LETTER IS SOSOSOOOOO GOOD. YEAH I CAN FUCK WITH THAT SO MUCH. KARNA ON HER DEATH BED MAKING SAVING THROWS GETTING CARRIED OUT OF THE MYCELLIUM AND THE CAVES FIRST BY DELI AND THEN WHEN HE STARTED STUMBLING, OVERTAKEN BY THE POISON, CARRIED BY COLIN; OUT INTO THE WSRM LIGHT OF THE BULB SHE DIDNT BELIEVE IN. KARNA WHO BARELY MANAGES TO GET STABILIZED BETWEEN THE WOUNDS AND THE POISON AND HER OWN ROT BUT SHES BREATHING. BARELY. LAYING ON THE GROUND BLEEDING AND PALE FROM THE POISON AND THE ROT AS THEY ALL TRY TO CATCH THEIR BREATH AND AMANGEAUX CASTS A LITTLE SOMETHING BUT IT DOESNT HELP MUCH BC KARNA IS SO POORLY OFF AND THEY FINALLY MANAGE TO GET HER BACK TO THE ENCAMPMENTS AND FIND A BULBIAN CLERIC OF SOME KIND (that deli threatens, voice shaking, hand empty without his long-abandoned spear, eyes red and bloodshot and colin hovering like a ghost at his shoulder, into silence and compliance despite karna's unnatural poisoning and the rot overtaking her body- clear evidence of the hungry one) THAT MANAGES TO HELP STABILIZE KARNA A LITTLE MORE BUT SHES STILL OUT. STILL UNCONSCIOUS. AND THEY ALL SIT AT HER BEDSIDE, LISTEN TO HER FAINT RATTLING BREATHS. AMANGEAUX NEVER LETS GO OF HER HAND AND DELI CAN'T BRING HIMSELF TO LOOK AWAY AND ALL THREE OF THEM REMEMBERING THE MISSING MEMBER OF THEIR GROUP WHOM THEY COULDN'T GET BACK OUT OF THE CAVES AND. AND EVENTUALLY COLIN TELLS DELI TO GO BACK TO HIS CAMP AND REFRESH HIMSELF AND CHANGE OUT OF THE DUSTY SPORES-COVERED ARMOR, STILL BLOODY FROM BATTLE, AND THATS WHEN DELI FINDS THE LETTER KARNA LEFT FOR HIM. AND. AND. AAUGHGGUGGG. DELI WHO WAS BETRAYED BY AND THEN IMMEDIATELY LOST ARIANA AND THEN ALMOST LOST KARNA AND COLIN WHO'S THERE BESIDE HIM BUT SO COLD AND SO LOST AND DELI IS. AUGHGRUG. THERES SOMETHING HERE AND MAYBE ITS JUST FOR ME BUT ITS HERE.

happy cat day /ᐠ - ˕ -マ Ⳋ

actually i dont care if it would make the story implode or if it would ruin everything i wish someone had told silver flint was in love with him fuck it. even if you dont believe silver in the finale, its fucked up how he genuinely thinks his betrayal to madi was fundamentally different from his betrayal to flint because he didnt know. even if it is just a story he chose to tell. "perhaps as the promise of seeing thomas got closer... he grew more comfortable letting go of this man he created in response to his loss" as if he doesnt know the war is more important to flint than anything else. as if flint hadn't told him that. he is still projecting his own priorities onto flint because it would work with him. love does makes it worth it to him, and he doesnt know flint loves him like that. like yeah he did something horrible but he still expects understanding, no matter how long he has to wait for it. because it was a sacrifice for love and love is not selfish, right? visibly shaking. if flint does stop resisting, its because hes just so tired. like "you fucking lied to me." you lied to me, again. like when did we go back to this. i love you how can you not see it do you even love me. its so heartbreaking they were supposed to be past that after doldrums. and then silver answers "im done wagering with her life", showing flint he thinks what he's got to lose is more important than what flints got to lose and that he is still oblivious to flints feelings for him on any conscious level and that if they were ever one, they aren't anymore. its brutal. like even if love made everything okay, he really doesnt see hes taking that from flint as well. and flint is so tired. he really wants silver to be someone he can trust but hes smarter than that. "tell me im wrong" like please god let me be wrong about this. but hes not. that's the end and silver still doesnt get it. he sees silver but silver does not see him so he just stops like. its already over anyway