#its a good parallel to what we see in the main story!
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some Thoughts on chapter 13 now that i've finished:
I LOVE HOEDERER.... i already did but like. Really enjoyable to get his POV in this event and see more of his inner thoughts and motivations. I'm fond of characters who are so tired and worn down and jaded, but manage to hold onto some scrap of hope regardless, even against their own better judgment. A lot like Mlynar in that way, tbh.
regrettably this chapter sold me on hoederines a little. i'm CONFLICTED because i love wines so much, dammit. (and manhoe, but there's not as much of a conflict with my headcanons there.) But their relationship is so good regardless of whether you read it as romantic or platonic.
speaking of, Ines was a delight in this chapter. Love her role as the resident non-Sarkaz Sarkaz who is completely unaffected by whatever arcane bullshit is getting to Hoederer and W in any given moment, so she can yell at them to snap out of it and save all of their lives lmao. I love her deep loyalty and care for them that she expresses in everything but words. ugh ugh i love her
the little subplot with Vendela and the Sarkaz commander who tried to keep her safe was sweet and sad, I wish he'd gotten a unique sprite at least. I kind of want to see her meet Flamebringer now and her reaction to the friendship between him and Perfumer... I feel like there's some parallels there.
We're starting to see some payoff to the buildup with Siege in this arc, and I'm so glad! I've never really understood the hate her arc gets - I know it's partly that I'm biased, she was my first 6* so I'm rather fond of her, and I just really like the whole concept of the Glasgow Gang. And I think it doesn't help that ch12 was (imo) the weakest part of act 2 so far. But also, it was always really clear to me that we've been just... laying the groundwork with her up til now, I didn't really expect her to have big moments or turning points yet? Idk. i kind of want to write a whole post about her arc and my thoughts on it at some point. BUT, I really liked her in ch13, seeing her start to really come into her own and how all the events of act 2 up until now have shaped her decisions.
I'M REALLY SAD ABOUT GUARD ACTUALLY??? :( Tbh I have not really cared much about New!Reunion until this chapter, except for Talulah, but I'm finally getting invested. And Talulah's confrontation with Eblana was AMAZING. I've always seen her as a foil to Talulah - while Talulah started down her path with good intentions and ideals, Dublinn seems to have been like late-stage Reunion from the very start, because Eblana has always cared more about seeking power than about the oppression of the people around her. SO FUCKING SATISFYING to see Talulah, of all people, calling her out on that, and protecting Reunion from her. I really hope we get more of these two in future, and also more Reed in main story please please pleeeaseee.
This chapter was wonderfully cohesive with the themes of tradition and bloodlines vs forging a new path. Siege, Delphine and Horn, all beginning to break away from their inherited roles in Victoria's hegemony and fight on their own terms instead. The Kazdel flashbacks, the spacetime feranmut, and Hoederer's POV - a character who wants to see a better future for Kazdel, while still remembering and learning from its past. Nine, Guard and Talulah dealing with what Reunion means as a symbol, and figuring out what it should become. Shining and Nightingale, confronting the Confessarii and their own past. Even Vendela, having to let go of the life and traditions she'd grown up in, the townspeople clinging to familiarity and the hope that things would go back to normal to the point that it was literally going to kill them. The confrontation with the Sanguinarch was such a great culmination of all of this, with his fixation on blood purity and the glorious lost past of the Teekaz. And he's defeated by several people who all soundly reject his vision of what the Sarkaz "should" be - Amiya, the outblood King; Logos, who does have a "pure" bloodline by the Sanguinarch's standards but refuses to be defined by the role he inherited; Hoederer and W, two of the mixed-race "commoner" Sarkaz he's so contemptuous of (and Hoederer specifically rejecting the idea that the Sarkaz's destiny must always be soaked in blood); Ines, who isn't a Sarkaz at all, except she is, because her family is Sarkaz, and she's always going to be one of them. It was! So fucking good!
#arknights#i need to properly write up my thoughts on act 2 in general at some point but.#CH13 WAS REALLY GOOD
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Cannot Unsee. Cannot Unknow.
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#xue yang#xiao xingchen#song lan#a-qing#blood#special appearance to the fox hairpin. Cute bonus episode and scene#alas I am already struggling a bit with maintaining good flow on this arc#I’ve got a better drawn mdzs art of A-qing coming soon to make up it though!#okay time to talk about This Scene…cause wow the angst is ripe and juicy#what really gets me is the fact Song Lan stays quiet while XXC stabs him….#And that Xue Yang never intended to tell XXC about the fake corpses#NOR did A-Qing want to tell him the truth!!#the theme of ‘ignorance is bliss’ is so strong here…xxc is blind to the evils of the world#and everyone seems to recognize how rare that is. How far they go to preserve it#Yi-city asks a lot of hard questions. As someone who values Honesty above nearly all else-#-the question posed here about whether honesty is truly the correct course of action really gets to me#Lying is a form of kindness in here. And in a story about rumours and manipulations of truth-#its a good parallel to what we see in the main story!#we see the harm caused by trying to lie to be kind. The harm in realizing youve been lied to#there are a lot of plot points around kind lies in mdzs and it facinates me!
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PLEASE PLEASE MEGADUMP THE ARASOL!!! PLEAAASEE MR BEESCAKE I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGING YOU
HFHGHD GLADLY aaa i’ve been adding notes to it here and there for months but just hesitant to post it bcs im 🧍♂️🧍♂️🧍♂️🧍♂
also this is just my own takeaway of the events, it doesn’t necessarily comply to the Ultimate Truth of Canon-Alignment or represent the actual facts of what hussie intended! v sentimental smh but hopefully its still interesting to read
i love when characters inform each other by proximity, it's one of my fave things to see in media :') it feels even more significant when two characters deliberately choose to stick together, so that when one operates, you can tell the other is similarly aligned in associative solidarity.
sollux is a keystone of this trope — whoever he aligns with is a wordless statement, a nod of approval. this stood out to me bcs the main four humans were alr friends by default, but once you reach hivebent you realize the trolls can actively choose who they want to hang out with.
and as we all know, after assessing every troll's biases/loyalties, sollux is the only one who maintains his selective preference for innately Good 👍 people.
aradia is such a beautiful character honestly, she evokes such incredible feelings in me. she might not have been consistently written with care but the best parts of her character are truly stunning. i think it's easy to remember sollux as the self-sacrificing one bc he's so open about it (and his friends frequently react to his Moments) but when you compare him to aradia, it's always struck me
how much more. raw it is
to be so alone as an agent of time, having to orchestrate immeasurably harrowing events nobody understands or gives a fuck about
with your role painted in the story as one who must tend to the needs of the narrative, responsible to match every next note
because when you're given the capabilities, it becomes your duty to carry it out.
it becomes expected of you to keep experimenting and arranging the machinations to work for everyone, dusting off hundreds of necessary failures to keep going
and having to be so unwavering in your drive knowing miserably that there's no one who can help you but yourself.
or alternatively: to make things fun! so other people won't think twice about letting you go off on your own.
sure she's had some very good buds, notably thanks to Team Charge v Team Scourge antics.
and yet, at the end of the day, the one friend that kept choosing her time and time again was the friend with the highest standards.
i can see why people like to define arasol as moirails/matesprits but surprisingly i find the nondescript, unlabeled aspect of their relationship more straightforward to understand.
there's no shortage of people who would accommodate sollux. most of the surviving trolls are his oldest friends bcs he’d chosen them well. his transparency with his feelings had built him strong friendships that won’t falter or break, regardless of how much of a dick he can be. they’ve already seen and accepted him at his worst, and they still like him for who he is.
contrast that with aradia, who'd been so approachable, friendly and reliable in her exchanges it was super fun to talk to her. but the moment she became depressed, all her connections broke down.
her friends became hesitant to interact with her (until she became god tier, “happy” and amicable again) because her gloom and resignation didn’t serve them. she dealt with it alone.
there’s def something of note here abt the disparity between the way male & female characters are written+perceived in homestuck (esp parallel arasol with davejade) but i won’t go into that lmaoo
with this in mind i like to think of sollux as a gift to her, a loyal companion given to complement and commend her resolve. she's capable of doing so much alone but hussie took the time to build her and sollux's relationship as one of a unit; a set.
the ambiguity of their status does complicate things, but i do believe it makes sense with their characters. aradia's relationship with romance is a rocky one, the dubious stringalong equius had with her is a pointed reminder that her feelings of attraction are ultimately controlled by the author writing her.
unlike the other trolls who can openly address and own up to their crushes, aradia had romantic emotions forced upon her (especially when hussie implies 'she kissed equius back on her own volition'). and it seems like her character is so intrinsically neutral abt attraction that even when forced by the almighty powers above, she's unable to retain it wholly.
however, looking back to pre-game when she could actually "choose" her own feelings, she did have a crush on sollux.
their soft spots for each other were so obvious to the point where other people could see it.
taunting aside, when vriska comments on their unit as bf/gf it actually informs the audience that arasol's relationship is romantic in nature despite not aligning with the quadrant system.
even while dead, aradia could still describe her care for sollux, expressing that she would like to see him happy. if they had more time to explore their relationship on alternia, it's possible they could've settled in a quadrant once they grew older.
but going back to the lack of labels, their dynamic was affected once more when aradia became god tier.
to me, her ascension was both the perfect culmination and possible closure of her character. it's the light at the end of her journey toiling through countless of timelines where she had to actively assess and participate. that's why it's cool to see her being silly and having fun giving guidance, passively exploring and watching other people do their parts.
and yet the joy of her freedom makes it hard to explore further introspection. if we take her by her word, she'd already come to terms with the hurt she's been through and forgiven those involved.
i can't help feeling attuned to how impersonal and detached it can be, to devote and meld your identity so completely with your designated position as Maid of Time until you've become hard for your old friends (and even some readers!) to personally connect to.
idk post-canon but i assume there’s some degree of similarity to be bridged here with aradia's god tier and how the hs2 humans' Ultimate forms was described as a consolidation of all their possibilities. since aradia's classpect is inherently of service to Time, going god-tier may have elevated her beyond personhood with the "game construct" possessing her entirely. sollux doesn't realize the extent of it bcs he's still mortal, but a part of him may have subconsciously understood this.
i think there is a core aspect to aradia that was lost to the dehumanizing glory of god tier — a core aspect that may have contained an element of why sollux enjoyed talking to her in the first place.
to him, aradia hadn't just been a nice girl, she was a cool girl. despite not having much in common, he's still willing to chill next to her so she's not alone while she does what needs to get done.
back on alternia, they held a mutual and equal-level regard for each other that could've definitely settled into something permanent. but now, he's placed himself in a position where he can be kept around or left behind at will. the parameters of the relationship are largely in aradia's court, so any label she suggests to identify their relationship with he's likely to accept.
but that's why it's so difficult to label it. because god tier aradia may not necessarily Want quadrants or relationship labels. rather than the initial romantic attachment, their commitment to each other had evolved into one fundamentally of companionship.
no label? ok fine. no matter what, he still thinks she's a good soul worth latching on to. the best, actually. aradia > everyone else.
even if it gets stilted at times. there's an unexpected struggle to connect when sollux's go-to default for talking points is his feelings about things, and aradia may not want to talk about emotions all the time.
not to mention god tier aradia became an observer, especially of chaos. but sollux's avoidance of involvement comes partially from his innate pressure to get involved if something goes wrong. and he can't always tell when something goes wrong, because aradia doesn't mind if things go wrong anymore.
it's a non-negotiable preference that causes them to take the occasional time apart, a new boundary that wouldn't have existed before the game and aradia's god tier.
but just like how his friends tolerated his moods, sollux accepts aradia as she is. with no quadrants, their connection doesn't break down because there's no implicit romantic expectations to be disappointed by or resentful over.
sometimes when i see hs content that deliberately distances sollux from aradia, i assume this is the dissonance people might have felt. people might find it "easier" to be cynical about them bcs of this strange tension.
but idc lmao. grab that shit by the neck
lack of easy resolutions and cleanly tied ribbons is pretty standard of homestuck and imo it doesn't make arasol's dynamic any less incredible. with the right affection and consideration, there's still so much potential to develop the nuance of their relationship outside of the popular quadrant-based depictions.
hs has a lot of really great character compatibilities but the way aradia and sollux are in their own special orbit is why i can write this much about them in the first place. it's that frail innocence between first loves that makes it so sweet to me, two kids who grew up too fast playing guesswork without being clear where they're going.
ultimately i do think you're meant to feel a little tragedy for just how much they care for each other, even if they can't quite establish it in simple terms.
maybe they keep taking breaks to progress their own paths. maybe they remain as anchor partners while seeing other people. but even if you decide to separate them, they're still (awkwardly) texting each other updates all the while. and when they reunite it feels like coming home.
and well. more than anything, i like to believe that they do want to be exclusive.
they're just afraid. after all, they're still learning how to love, beyond the projections of the foursquare quadrant system they had inadvertently distanced themselves from since young.
they might not have everything figured out, but they'll get there eventually if you just hold them together and write them there.
optional post-canon segment:
one of the limitations of main hs is that (monogamous) relationships are often written as the go-to solution to wrap up character growth; it's an easy "patch" to imagine characters getting their happy ending because they have a partner, and those who don't end up with someone don't get that closure (most notably jade).
hs2 reaffirms this by suggesting that aradia's character cannot progress without letting sollux go, because happily settling in a relationship automatically locks your potential.
that pathetic panel of sollux staring emptily into the sky is still my fave hs2 spoiler ngl i find the impact of their parting so emotionally provoking precisely bcs they were written in original hs to be each other's forever, coming back together again and again
but now, they're subject to the decisions of the post-canon authors who might choose to deviate from that.
it's not new for them to part, but now there's an underlying worry that her dropping him off this time might be the last time. while i think the prospect of shattering their stability to make them grow separately sounds fun on paper, no amount of me desperately hoping for a good execution is gonna guarantee it
idk. i guess prediction-wise im expecting sollux in classic dramatic-hs2 fashion to tell dave to back off aradia LMAO. otherwise it's just gon be sollux and karkat pathetically watching aradia and dave from a distance swimming in their unresolved feelings for narratively-powerful time players smh obvs it sounds corny as hell but who knows its still plausible
srsly tho i hope they take the opportunity to develop arasol's relationship in a fresh direction that doesn't hurt me too badly...... and i hope they force sollux out of his comfort zone. i like watching him struggle :-)
#sorry if this isnt fully accurate heh its just my personal impressions/feelings#despite best efforts to simplify my annotations the wall of text still ended up massive#there's also a comparison i wanted to make abt characters who “broke up” from romantic expectations losing a lot of what they had before#dave(sprite)/jade‚ karkat/terezi‚ dirk/jake etc = which is why i think arasol was rescued by hussie on purpose. arasol endgame truth#ngl there mightve been more moments that shouldve been mentioned but i have no memories of... limited cloud storage#long post#ask#anon#homestuck#arasol#aradia megido#sollux captor#arapostings#2024#vioart#not disqualifying acespec/qpr reading i think its also possible :]#if anything i dont understand fanon killing off aradia for their sollux ships haiyaaa why is this trope so damn popular#every time i open a slkt fic and aradia is dead i go outside and burn a tree. global warming could not come sooner#slkts who treat aradia like dvkts treat jade…. i punt u football style
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Ultimate Incest Tournament - Round 4
Propaganda under the cut:
Gerard/Mikey:
Vocalist and bassist respectively of my chemical romance. they are insanely codependent (describing themselves as the same person just different heights etc). gerard has also licked mikeys nipple onstage. good times
Gerard is decidedly super abnormal about mikey. he has written many songs about him that are always adjacent to straight up love songs. he has also been explicitly sexual with him (giving him a pantomime handjob, caressing his chest, saying he looks like a hooker etc etc) while also constantly babying him. theyre codependent and they finish each others sentences and theyre in ickydisgusting brotherlove❤️❤️❤️❤️
Grew up together as the outsiders in their New Jersey town and spent their teenhoods together in a musty basement. Mikey learned to walk by running after Gerard and face-planting. Gerard drew comics for Mikey and told him stories. They went to a Smashing Pumpkins concert together and decided that being in a band is what they wanted out of life. Mikey learned the bass because Gerard was in bands and he wanted to join. Gerard called up Mikey after witnessing 9/11 and told him they're gonna start a band. Everything they do is together, they love each other. And isn't it so much fun to turn that incest?
Mikey Way wrote a comic where the main character, who looks like him from the black parade era, gets a woman pregnant. Which isn't incestuous on its own, but she looks like the female version of Gerard Way from the black parade era. Love is love or something
Dave/Rose:
Daverose blondetwin sweep because they were codependent without ever meeting from growing up seeing each other in their dreams
What does it mean to be an abused teenage boy growing up alone and seeing a girl in your dreams every night who is also your best friend. and when you finally meet her you go on a suicide mission together even though nobody was asking you to die with her. and then you are the only two human beings left in the recognizable universe on a cold meteor surrounded by aliens but you’re glad it’s with her. and when you finally touch the girl from your childhood dreams she looks exactly like you. because she’s your sister
I don't have words for how good these snarky assholes are together. DaveRose is brain chemistry changing. They both put up so many fronts, and engage in so much snarky wordplay, and are constantly trying to get under each other's facade. They play off each other so well, witty and sharp, I need them to be together always
We all die & we all die alone are the two cold truths of the universe but dave and rose broke both simultaneously by ascending to godhood together
Their twincest wins because it is just so confusingly tragic? profound? dave leaving rose behind in a doomed world, dave following her to the bomb. they are both so closed & cut off & curt its hard to imagine the depth of these things. but that is their love language: giving up their lives for each other over and over, in a confusing and fumbling and heartfelt love song. i can’t say i love you but i know we’ll die together anyway. because we’re made of the exact same stuff. i’ll find you again at the last moment. that’s love.
THEY DIED TOGETHER, YOUR HONOR
Confirmed canon by the author, (something happened) between them. Parallels of dying by each other's sides in EVERY timeline. They are THE womb-to-tomb. There is nothing platonic about winking at your brother while talking about crushes, that shit is incestuous. Seer/Knight archetype. They will die protecting each other.
do you realize love someone if you don’t follow them on a suicide mission into the gaping maw of a literal fucking sun after they knock you out and psychoanalyze you in your dreams? the blueprint of the “ethereal androgynous blonde boygirl twins” trope. witch/knight dynamics. they find each other to die together in every timeline no matter what (but they’re still emotionally constipated teenagers who bicker and make fun of each other in pesterchum). kids with grown-up powers. perfect little freaks of nature. what if we looked exactly like each other’s eyes
#tournament polls#tumblr polls#incest poll#round 4#gerard/mikey#waycest#daverose#dersecest#mcr#homestuck#tw incest
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On love and sacrifices
There’s so much more to this scapegoating business and big sacrifices referenced in the Good Omens narrative than the literal goats. And they’re only getting bigger, louder, final.
But let’s take it slow and start with the beginning, quite literally — i.e., with the Good Omens 2 title sequence. As we follow Aziraphale and Crowley on their journey, the universe warps and their usual left and right side positioning switches during the magic show (not accidentally an act of trust and sacrifice required both from the angel and the demon). They stay so throughout the next scene, which is their little dance in the air, and after they seemingly get settled on the A. Z. Fell and Co.’s roof and back to normal, the flipped sky in the background suggests that something’s not quite right yet. In the central part of the shot looms a large, humanlike shadow of the Elephant Trunk Nebula.
The nebula is a part of a constellation called Cepheus, after an Ethiopian king from the Greek mythology who agreed to sacrifice his only daughter in order to appease the gods and end a local calamity started by her mother and his wife, Cassiopeia (talk about generational responsibility). With time and a delightfully ironic twist of fate, the name of said daughter, Andromeda, became more famous than that of her father. Although she was chained up to a rock and offered to the sea serpent Cetus, the girl was spotted by the warrior Perseus, casually flying over the sea — either on the back of the Pegasus or thanks to a pair of winged sandals — after his victory over Medusa. He fell in love on the spot, defeated the serpent (with the help of a magical sword or Medusa’s severed head, depending on the varying sources), and freed the princess. That’s not exactly where their story ends, but we won’t be getting into the rest here.
Not surprisingly, Neil has mentioned two parallel child sacrifice stories from the biblical context back in August. The first is one of the big ones — The Binding of Isaac. God's command to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, was a test of Abraham's faith. The angel of the Lord intervenes and provides a ram to be sacrificed in the boy’s place.
The second one isn’t nearly as popular, but you might have heard a variant of it in fairy tales or as the Law of Surprise invoked in The Witcher saga. In exchange for Israel’s victory over its enemies in battle, Jephthah had rashly promised God to repay the debt with the first thing seen on his return back home. The victorious warrior didn’t suspect to see his only child moving innocently "to meet him with timbrels and with dances" though. In horror, Jephthah covered his eyes with his cloak, but to no avail: ultimately, he was forced to honor his vow to God, and the girl was sacrificed. As grisly as it might look like in the Old Master’s paintings, it’s important to remember that human sacrifices weren’t limited to physical offerings only — Jephthah’s daughter might have been offered to God in the sense of officially shunning her family and dedicating her life to service instead, probably sequestered in a temple somewhere.
Interestingly, the main character of a big chunk of the Bible and the reason for the Second Coming happens to be THE most influential child sacrifice in the modern history. You know, a certain 33-year-old carpenter sent by his Heavenly Father to die on a cross for the sins of the mankind? Someone better call Aubrey Thyme ASAP.
Circling back to Aziraphale, he could be also seen as a representative of the concept of filial piety, since Eden willing to personally take a Fall not only for the humanity’s collective or individual transgressions, but the shortcomings of his Ineffable Parental Figure as well. Our favorite angel angel always fights for what is right and good, sure, but why would that be even a thing if God was truly omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent?
If Aziraphale’s medal is anything to go by, it looks like we might get an answer from the way it’s introducing another mythological narrative into the game, that is the story of Daedalus and Icarus. The most absorbing thing about this is the stark contrast to the recurring child sacrifice references for S3 mentioned in this post — Daedalus isn’t a father who wanted to sacrifice his son, it was his attempt to save him from imprisonment that ultimately drove Icarus to his death. The boy ignored his father’s explicit instructions, committing the grave and culturally universal sin of disobedience to one's parents that simply couldn’t go unpunished, one way or another.
But Icarus’s transgression could be seen both as high-flying ambition and striving for personal accomplishment as well as humanitarian sacrifice for knowledge and humanity’s advancement in general.
Similarly to a certain angel who left everything for what superficially seems like a work promotion, but is the ultimate act of love — both for his demon and the children they have been protecting and nurturing together for six thousand years. From the very Beginning, his white wings have been shielding everything he holds dear in this world.
#happy easter#child sacrifice#greek mythology#bible fanfiction#good omens#good omens meta#never skip the intro#peter anderson studio#easter eggs#nebula#archangel michael approves#sword fighting with snakes#prince and the serpent#supreme archangel aziraphale#bamf aziraphale#aziraphale needs a hug#aziraphale#crowley#yuri is doing her thing#daedalus and icarus#cepheus and andromeda#abraham and isaac#jephthah’s daughter#god and jesus
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I want to talk about my personal favorite fanon interpretation of Hank.
It all begins with Hank driving through a ruined Nevada, not an uncommon scene at all in Madness Combat. This cartoon begins with the typical expectation, in classic Hank fashion he's on his way to cause untold violence unto those who wish him harm.
And in no time flat, Hank does exactly that. One by one, the bodies of AAHW begin to rack up, incorrectly colored blood Engineers and all. All in all, it's a pretty good action scene. Not the smoothest animation the Madness animation scene has provided, but pretty impressive for 12 years ago.
But here's where this cartoon changes pace, and begins to divert from your traditional Madness animation. We see Jeb and Sheriff, characters that we're used to seeing in an antagonistic role, promising a better Nevada with their brand new Factory. Kind of wild how this parallels Jeb's misguided attempts at saving Nevada in the main series, when this one aired in 2011, before we even had Nexus Classic to give us Jeb's backstory. It's clear this factory is doing Nevada no good, and the story changes from here.
Here we see a looming, massive tower, not at all unfamiliar to the sight of the Nexus Tower looming in the distance, a symbol of Nevada's destruction. This tower is no different, Hank looks over it and his goals are immediately recontextualized. Hank's violence suddenly seems a lot less meaningless, less fueled by the pure desire to cause chaos and to kill. Instead, the goal is clear. Get to the top. Destroy the factory. Save Nevada.
A familiar foe stands in his way. Is he up to his old tricks, to play with his old pal Hank, or is there something darker hiding beneath that metal mask? I always got the vibe that Tricky wasn't fighting for himself here, but rather because he had to.
After a prolonged battle with the Clown, we are greeted with a most unique sight in a Madness cartoon. Blue skies, green grass, flowing water. Serene music as the birds fly through the air. Hank looks alien here, like he doesn't belong, a product of a ruined world in a small bastion of perfection.
This is one of my favorite shots in the whole cartoon. Hank, this bloodthirsty killer we've come to know and love, doing something so very vulnerable and human. Reaching for the sun, basking in its warmth. Something he probably hasn't felt in a very long time. Something worth killing for, something worth dying for.
And die he does. With the last of his conscious self, Hank fruitlessly reaches for a flower next to him as he dies. Hank doesn't look any less like a foreign invader here, an entity from a world that doesn't belong here, and I really appreciate that contrast. This small gesture of him reaching for the flower speaks volumes on the kind of Hank this is, one who has some love for the world he so effortlessly murders his way through. Someone who, somewhere deep inside, wants that killing to stop. One who wants to appreciate life, instead of living in death.
Jeb doesn't look any less alien here, a savior twisted and corrupted by the doomed world he promised to save. Again I'm extremely impressed in how Pegosho managed to capture Jeb's moral ambiguity here, in spite of it being somewhat nonexistent in the cartoons at the time. I think it also says something that his halo appears to be more in line stylistically to the world around him, as he sticks out like a sore thumb.
Jeb's last moments are spent looking in awe at the corpse of his fallen adversary, with his own factory's slogan taped onto the bomb that's about to spell his doom. Say what you want about Mr. Wimbleton, but you can't say he doesn't have a flair for irony. Maybe it's spite, one last spit in the face of Jebus, or maybe it's because he really does believe in that slogan. He wants the world to be alive, and maybe he has to die to accomplish that.
My personal favorite shot in the entire cartoon. A massive tree, perfectly contrasting the intimidating tower producing a cloud of suffocating smog, now breathing life into this ruined world. Hank's sacrifice was not in vain, and though he didn't live to see it, he bought back a piece of life into the cruel and merciless Nevada. It's hopeful, it's beautiful, it's everything Madness normally isn't.
As we all know, Hank is acting very out of character in this cartoon outside of his murderous pursuits, but I enjoy and love it all the same. Again, this is a favorite fanon interpretation. This Hank has so many layers of depth to his morality, his goals, his violence, and he never speaks a single word in the entire cartoon. He simply acts. Through small gestures and actions we can glean his personality and how it contradicts his canon counterpart. It's really great.
I love this cartoon. It's called Madness: Ascend. Please consider watching it, in spite of its age, it's one of my favorites.
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More Reminders:
Karkat is a bootlicker. This is a prominent character trait. He’s rooting for the Alternian empire- yes, even though it’s ruled by a system that wants him personally dead- and really wants to be a part of its military.
Eridan has a “genocide complex” and is able to be roughly described as the troll equivalent of a white supremacist. This is one of the first things we learn about him.
The Beta Trolls are 13. All of them. This includes Equius. This includes Eridan. This includes Vriska. This includes Gamzee.
99% of Gamzee’s character is racial caricature. No, he is not intended to be a Dionysus parallel. He is intended to be a “satirization” of Black people.
Sapphic pairings have always held precedent over MLM pairings. They’ve always been more important to the plot, been handled with much more grace, and had more screen time. This isn’t a bad thing.
Doc Scratch is a child predator. This is an incredibly prominent character trait of his, and you’re way past due for a reread if you’ve forgotten. He has a particular fixation on, as canon puts it, “little girls”, and targets both Rose and Kanaya. Do I even have to bring up what he did to Damara?
Regarding the previous point, Rose and Kanaya both get very traumatized during the course of Homestuck’s story. They’re not well put together sophisticated “mom friends”, they’re 13 year olds just like almost everyone else is, and they’re going through hell. Rose in particular makes the effect all of this trauma has on her very well known. This is what Grimdarkness is.
Cronus is a child predator, too. During the course of the Openbounds and Ministrife, we see him unabashedly predate on three specific kids, and this behavior is made out to be extremely creepy. These three kids are Karkat, Tavros, and, yes, Eridan.
The Exiles were incredibly important to the plot, actually. You guys are just mean.
Almost every relationship in Homestuck is flawed in some capacity, that’s the point of a tragic drama. The main cast is literally nothing but traumatized and/or mentally ill 13-16 year olds. A good chunk of them aren’t even socialized, or grew up in an actively hostile environment. Or both. No shit characters mess up sometimes, or have unhealthy behaviors- it’s just natural in that situation. Some dynamics are substantially more healthy than others, but the main appeal of Homestuck is that everyone is flawed and damaged.
A good majority of Vriscourse was just people leaping at the opportunity to express pure, unabashed misogyny. I don’t think I have to elaborate upon this.
No, Jane is not a fascist, nor is she racist. She’s never been either of these things, that’s something that was invented out of left field by the Post Canon writing team. Being a fascistic racist was never within the scope of Jane’s character. No, it being “a result of her having grown up being fed propaganda by The Condesce” does not explain that plot thread in Post Canon for a single second, because Jane experiencing a major personality shift because of HIC literally already happened in canon with her going Crockertier, and she came out of that a stronger person. Never once has “racism” been on the list of problems she has.
Hemoloyalty is not intended to be a 1:1 metaphor for racism, nor is it intended to be a 1:1 metaphor for classism, or any other type of oppression. It’s not a 1:1 metaphor for literally anything, it’s intended to be flexible and contextual. This is not a bad thing, and is, in fact, a common storytelling method used by a lot of fantasy/sci-fi writers. Condemning Hussie for a lot of things in their writing is valid, but Hemoloyalty not being strictly analogous to only one type of real world oppression is patently not one of them. You do not know how metaphors work.
Official =/= Canon. No one is calling Pesterquest canon. You really shouldn’t be doing the same for Post Canon. The Homestuck Epilogues and Homestuck^2 are Official, but they are definitively not Canon. This is literally the first thing you learn about either of these projects. This doesn’t invalidate anyone’s enjoyment of any of these properties, of course, but it has to be stressed: Official does not automatically mean Canon.
#i said id make a new reminders post. here it is!#homestuck#homestuck meta#homestuck analysis#beta kids#beta trolls#alpha kids#alpha trolls#karkat vantas#eridan ampora#equius zahhak#vriska serket#gamzee makara#doc scratch#rose lalonde#kanaya maryam#cronus ampora#tavros nitram#the exiles#jane crocker#post canon#dubcanon#nekro.pdf#nekro.txt
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Costume Meta 7x02
We are short on the costumes to look at this week as we continue this multi episode arc, so this meta is going to be a pretty short one! I’ve had a pretty busy weekend, so things have worked out for me and its also the reason why I'm only posting this on a Tuesday evening!!!!
There are a few things to point out before I get to the main costumes - we have more bright pink in play here - on the Mom in the car that got hit by the drunk driver. I still have no idea what its trying to tell us a this point, but I have my eyes peeled for more bright pink to appear in the next couple of episodes and see if I can unravel its use.
On the non costume front, on the ship - its a yellow cable that leads to the bomb that ensures communication cannot be restored to the ship when nit explodes - the fact the communications engineer also dies, just re-emphaises the point. Communication is a key theme in this episode.
Back to costumes an in the same vein as the cable, we see Captain O’s deputy in his yellow rain coat when she gives the abandon ship order, and the yellow wire is prominent on the radio when she tells him to do so. He is now the one responsible for communicating her order to the rest of the ship and getting everyone onto the life boats. This is good and effective communication and we see the results of it as we are shown the ship being evacuated.
Hen and Karen are the only ones we get in a new costume this week.
Lets start with Karen - its an interesting choice - we have her in this navy blue shirt and trousers combo with a brown belt. the top has blue and green Richelieu (cutwork) design on the sleeves and the trousers are also decorated with Richelieu. There are two things at play with this costume choice - the almost entirely navy outfit places her in the same category as Chim, Buck and Eddie. this is very very intentional - Karen mirroring/paralleling them places her in the same position they hold - Karen is meant to be there to show that Hens thought process is flawed and as an outsider to proceedings thats really important for the audience - we need to see that Hen isn't this flawless captain that we've been shown up to this point. The other thing it's designed to do is maintain Hen as separate from everyone else. This visual device helps the script re-enforce things so that when she is then spurred into trying to get hold of Bobby and Athena we are focused on her because of her 'otherness' visually she stands out and we obviously need her to to help drive the narrative forward.
The other thing with Karens costume is the green and blue Richelieu which creates this visual representation of storm clouds swirling and moving in - a subtle reference, not only to Hen's currently cloudy viewpoint on things, but also to the impending storm brewing out in the ocean around the cruise ship. I really love it when they can drop subtle hints like this in set and costuming!
THen we have Hen!
Putting her into her white tee, jeans, green sneakers and this printed silk jacket, and not showing her changing out of her uniform into said outfit while the rest of the firearm are still in uniform helps to separate her from the ‘three Judases’ its a really loud and obvious visual way of separating her from the not only the three boys, but also from the firehouse as a whole. The way the scene is set up helps with this as well -she is on the same side of the bench and room as Chim, Buck and Eddie, until they question her version of events (Eddie is the one to actually ask the question and he is the one dressed differently to Chim and Buck - this isn't about putting him in opposition to them, more just visually signalling that he's the one to ask the important question that we as viewers should be ready for) and then she moves away from them and becomes visually in opposition to them. Its the perfect example of costume, set and direction working in perfect harmony to tell the story visually - we don't actually need to hear whats been said, we can tell it all from the way its shown to us visually.
Hens jacket is a fascinating choice - it plays into a couple of themes we’ve seen in action over the two episodes we’ve had thus far. I did write a little bit about it when we got the first stills of it (which I now cannot find - stupid tumblr search!) but essentially it is a jacket that has various places around California - the golden gate bridge, the redwood trees in Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, etc. as well as the victorian style rose pattern running along the cuffs and edges of the jacket.
The pink roses are a really lovely touch - and one I picked up on specifically because Hen is not a flowery kind of person, so seeing them on her means they are important. Pink roses are generally considered to signify a strong friendship or family bond - something that is ultimately at the heart of matters - the fire family are just that - a family and they might have argument's etc, but they still love each other as a family and will go all out to be there for each other. Its a low key piece of
then we have all that water - do we even need to talk about its meaning?!! Its a literal visual play on the entire them of this arc - water! We all know that water is a really key theme that 911 uses a lot in its storytelling, whether thats big water based events such at the Tsunami or this cruise ship disaster, or smaller low key water theming such as the rain being present at so many of the disasters we see. I'm interested that we now have it appearing on Hen - because it hasn't really been connected to her in many of her personal story arcs (by this I mean arcs such as her deciding and training to be a doctor, Henren's journey through parenthood, the ambulance crash or even Karens lab blowing up last season) so its interesting that we're now seeing her pulled into the water theming in a visual way like this. It is also a play on the two aspects of this episode - there is the loud water theming of the Cruise ship, but there is also the fact Hen has landed in hot water/ deep water.
Hen is also wearing her 'H' necklace, not her 'K' one. This is important because her necklaces tend to be a visual indicator of what her arc is about - the 'H' is worn when it's about her specifically and not her marriage/ family, which is when we tend to see the 'K' heart pendant being worn.
Thats all from me this week! Thank you as always for reading and I hope you enjoyed the shortness of this post - I doubt many of the others will be this short 😂
Tagged peeps below!
@theladyyavilee @mistmarauder @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @mandzuking17 @spotsandsocks @loveyou2thecore @rogerzsteven @wanderingwomanwondering @oneawkwardcookie @leothil @copyninjabuckley @shammers86 @crazyfangirlallert @missmagooglie @katyobsesses @radiation-run @gayandbifiremenofmine @bi-moonlight @crazyaboutotps @princesschez75 @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @sherlocking-out-loud @evanbuckleysarms @satashiiwrites
#911 abc#costume meta#911 costume meta#911 season 7#season 7 costume meta#kym costume meta#kym colour theory#911 costumes#7x02#costume theory#sorry this is so much later than I'd planned it to be!#Thank you wardrobe team
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Hello Anika! I've noticed that another CN otome game "Lovebrush Chronicle" is being localized in English. What are your thoughts on the story, and is there a ML in the game similar to Victor?
I want to hear your thought because I think you have a good eye on judging a story ❤️ Sorry if this ask seems to be out of nowhere!
hello!!! thank you haha~ ಡ ͜ ಡ yes, the game’s original name is 时空中的绘旅人, also known as For All Time. It’s one of the 4 big CN otoges (the other three: Light and Night, Love and Producer/ MLQC, and Tears of Themis).
idk why they had to change the name smh but then again i can see why too LOL, but if you’re gonna change the character names, change for all of them why change just two?? especially since Emerald’s name is explained precisely so aksjsjs i’m so salty rn lmao
uh about the storyline, i had to try hard to not be lured into yet another game lmao (eyeing L&N akshdhd), so i haven’t actually played the game personally after CBT LOL nor do i keep up with its contents that much, so my knowledge regarding the story and the characters isn’t deep and is limited haha. also, since the premise begins in the AU world + with some other factors, i kinda lost my interest to even begin with LOL.
here’s a brief introduction for you though—
the game’s setting is the AU world ahah, and it also has personal routes. it has battle systems for leveling up your profile / raising cards. i heard it can be pretty grindy, but since i haven’t continued playing it, i can’t comment on that :>
✦ The Heroine:
she is an art student / comic artist in the modern world, but one day she gets sucked into a different AU world while watching her friend’s performance. (she’s so pretty tho u.u)
✦ Ai Yin/ Ayn:
19 years old, goes to the same school as the heroine and a pianist in the modern world. He’s a prince in the AU world, focused on his revenge.
✦ Lu Chen/ Alkaid:
20 years old, a transfer student, the heroine’s senior in a different study (Astronomy), photographer. In the AU world, he’s a mage/ high level priest.
✦ Lu Xia/ Rorschach (re-named as Lars for EN):
27 years old, the heir of a wealthy family, CEO, flirty af. In the AU world, he’s an aggressive and headstrong king.
(if you’re into the “CEO trope”, he could be your pick LOL. but if you’re looking for similarities that actually matter— then aside from just the CEO title and maybe that body lmfao, Victor and him share no other similarities hahaha)
✦ Si Lan/ Clarence:
22 years old, goes to the same school as the heroine and is the student president. He is the head highest priest/ mage in the AU world.
✦ Ye Xuan/ Emerald (re-named as Cael for EN):
An art instructor, took the heroine under his wings, gentle in nature sus lmao. In the AU world, he is the silver knight and leading the revolution.
—
Over all, from what I’ve seen, the story is pretty good, has the intrigue elements for sure. Also plus point, in every AU/ arch you get a common part and then you can choose your love interest to progress for the rest of the story. what it does here is that unlike Lovepro/MLQC + Light and Night main story, where the story itself is very character-driven, you need to shut your brain and consider the MC that specific love interest’s heroine for the allocated segment- or else given the extreme lengths she goes for them/ the said borderline intimacy certainly don’t cut for “just friends” tag LOL. So, if you’re someone who self-inserts (consciously or not) and perhaps is a little uncomfortable with that kind of storytelling, For All Time/ Lovebrush Chronicles is certainly one you can give a try.
For me personally, the writing pattern didn’t seem like my cup of tea + I prefer the storytelling pattern of Lovepro and L&N (singular main story + parallel dates) haha. But hey, we all have different tastes, so be sure to give it a chance if you’re interested. Who knows, you could end up with completely different viewpoints than me! (*´∀｀*)
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I definately see your point in regards to the politics of The Promise and the Korra side of things at large. On another topic, though, how could Mako have been improved upon as a character because I always thought he was the least interesting character in all of the Avatar universe? Maybe instead of just making him a bookkeeper make him a full on former Triad member?
awww no i kind of love mako tbh. my bland little saltine cracker. i think we need to make room in our hearts for more dull autistic utterly swagless men whose idea of a good time is simply doing the daily crossword while eating plain cornflakes (no milk). but real talk mako’s character definitely had room for improvement. not because he’s boring, but because all the actually interesting aspects of his character were largely relegated to subtext, and he was instead given boring ass subplots like “stupid love triangle,” “being a cop,” “having to babysit an annoying twink,” etc. so it’s not that his backstory needs improvement, but rather that if those largely subtextual elements of his character were actually teased out and explored in meaningful ways, he would’ve been much more interesting to watch, because his purpose in the story would actually have some fucking thematic depth.
in a better show, mako’s backstory, arc, and general narrative presence would’ve served to illustrate how the neoliberal economy of republic city detrimentally affects the socioeconomically disadvantaged. in the ba sing se arc, bolin sees the lower ring and is like “eww gross POVERTY!!!! no wonder dad left.” like my guy you were living on the street as a child forced to exploit your labor for gutter scraps. why is poverty all of a sudden an issue to you (you can claim he’s just in deep denial and/or quite literally an idiot, but still. lmfao). in a superior show, mako and bolin’s presence would implicitly prompt the viewer to ask, why does the presence of a nuclear family structure necessitate security, and why does its absence collapse any sort of social safety net? why were mako and bolin forced to live on the streets once they were orphaned? how does living in abject poverty in one’s formative years psychologically affect their relationship to wealth, power, security, and success? (mako and bolin only tangentially cover some of these questions in their arcs, most notably in mako’s decision to date asami over korra, and in bolin’s obtuse quest for fame.) furthermore, what parallels versus juxtapositions can be drawn from asami’s own complex experiences navigating wealth, paternal abuse, and systems of control as they directly pertain to the beneficiaries of these capitalist structures? in what ways can asami and mako&bolin bridge these gaps across opposite ends of the class hierarchy, and in what ways are these chasms fundamentally untraversable?
i feel like the main failing of lok was that it actually presented some really interesting concepts, but it seemed like most of it was purely by accident and the show had no actual interest in focalizing or even addressing the compelling subtext hidden between bland and/or frustrating scenes oversaturated with obnoxious characters. like mako and asami are ostensibly main characters, but we never actually get satisfying meat to chew on regarding their inner lives and characters arcs, despite them being two of the most compelling characters in the show just based off of premise and lingering subtextual allusions to more interesting themes than were actually addressed in the show itself. so like asami, who i adore mostly for what remains unspoken (her abusive relationship to her father, her ethical contentions with her own capital, her latent homoerotic feelings for korra, etc.), mako is also compelling me for reasons largely unaddressed outside of the occasional “oh well you’re traumatized from all that time you spent taking care of your brother who is only somewhat younger than you as a small child and selling yourself to criminal organizations to have enough to eat week by week, which probably informs your decisions somewhat now that you are technically an adult (he’s like. 18???? also???) so that’s cool i guess. but also what the fuck you’re so sick and twisted for being attracted to two gorgeous powerful women at the same time, you should go to JAIL!!!!!” and then they do. actually send him to jail. -_-
#mysticarcadehologram-blog#asks#lok crit#sometimes i remember how poorly written this show was despite all its potential and im just like wtf all over again#like both on a dialogue and structural basis. scene by scene season by season. this was a mess 😭#but mako is my silly little guy i love him <3333333#mako#bolin#asami#i don’t even rly address bolin outside of his proximity to mako bc besides the pilot where he is charming and cute and has a brain.#bolin does not interest me at all bc i cannot stand the dumb comic relief archetype#ppl just hate mako bc he fumbled two of the gorgeoust bitches in the world#but like. you’d fumble them too. be honest
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Fate in Project SEKAI - 1/?
VBS
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1. An and Kohane
Right from the main story we're introduced to the idea that An and Kohane's first meeting was simply fate. Kohane was just a bypasser overhearing An's singing, hearing An talk about her dreams. It's this that makes Kohane reflect on herself, how she's never been passionate and never had anything she wanted to throw herself into. This girl is everything she isn't and everything she would like to be.
They don't even meet formally, but An's profession of her dream and Kohane's longing for one is what causes their SEKAI to manifest. We know from MEIKO that it's been around for a long time, but it wasn't until Kohane saw An that it revealed itself to its owners. But that could've been anyone. Anyone could've been inspired by An, or Akito and Toya, since they were involved in its creation too. Heck we could've had Kotaro who outright stated was inspired by Akito. But no, it had to be Kohane. Kohane had something she wanted to change about herself, and meeting An is the only way this could happen.
An also needed a partner, and Kohane was the perfect partner. An grew up talented surrounded by talented people. She never had any problems, she'd always been a step above everyone else. Kohane is a total beginner, far, far out of her comfort zone. They compliment each other. Kohane learns from An how to sing, how to be confident, all about her dreams and aspirations. She learns what it's like to be passionate. An learns what it means to rely on someone, what it means to wholly trust someone. A beginner is not to be protected, a beginner is to be taught. She teaches Kohane all these things, and learns what it's like to struggle too. She experiences a sense of weakness for the first time, the fear that someone will surpass her. She's not jealous, she's happy for Kohane, but she's insecure that Kohane will become too good for her, that she'll fall behind and lose the person she loves and trusts more than anyone else. It's these insecurities that push her to become even better, to improve further. She may be naturally talented but that doesn't mean you can't improve.
Kohane's fes card further touches on the idea of An being everything she wanted to be, by literally making her become An. All this time she thought she had to become An, not realising that what she truly needed was to stay being herself. Kohane wanted to change, but to change yourself doesn't mean to become someone else entirely. Kohane is still Kohane. She's still the shy girl who was too scared to do anything, but she left that girl in the past the second she chose to return to An in the main story. It's this idea of a rebirth that is touched on a lot more later on in Nagi and Akito's arcs, and VBS' arc as a whole.
2. Akito and Toya
Was Akito and Toya's meeting just a coincidence, or was it fate? I'll discuss the overlaps between coincidences and fate in this game later, but for now we'll say that yes, Akito and Toya's meeting was also fate. In fact, it's rather similar to An and Kohane's - a parallel, if you will. Not quite the same but not wholly different.
Akito had been fully devoted to soccer for his entire childhood. He was talented, the best player on the team. He put so much time and energy into it. And then he lost, and gave up. Bringing back that idea of rebirth. Akito's passion for soccer burnt out, he was done with it, and not going back. Sure he was good, but he had nothing left in him to care about it anymore. Seeing that concert relit that passion. Made him rediscover himself. Maybe he wasn't made for soccer, but made for music. Music was an opportunity to reinvent himself, much like it was for Kohane.
Toya came from a musical family. Surrounded by professional musicians, tied to the fate of music from birth. His family expected nothing less of him than to follow in their footprints, a fate pushed onto him regardless of whether he wanted it or not. It wasn't right for him and it hurt, his parents hurt him trying to make him into something he wasn't. He may be talented and experienced, but he was willing to run away from it all. The lyrics to RAD DOGS say as much. Classical music was never his real fate, his real fate lied with street music. Even then, street music was just something he chose because it was so different from the path chosen for him. It was an unknown route that he didn't know how to navigate, but nonetheless, he grew to love it. Fate cannot be chosen, so maybe Toya's spontaneous choice was leading him in the right direction.
Akito happened to meet Toya on the street one day, just like how Kohane first encountered An. Akito, who had refused to work with so many people before, immediately chose Toya on his own accord. He recognised Toya's talent, that Toya was new and inexperienced despite all that, and that Toya was someone who needed a guide in this unknown world. Akito and Toya are two sides of the same coin. Akito is bold and brash and two-faced, Toya is calm and reserved and honest. Akito has no background or talent in music, Toya has all of that. Even their colours are complete opposites. But at the end of it all, both of them chose this path as a way to reinvent themselves. Relight a fire that had burnt out within themselves, allow it to burn brighter than before. Relight, restart, reborn. It's all the same. They're one in the same despite all their differences. They compliment each other and it's what allows them to work so well together, to trust and love each other more than anyone else. Aun no Beats' title is derived from the term Aun no Kokyuu/Aun Breathing, when two people act in perfect harmony to the point of breathing the same, being able to understand each other without words. There's a reason they and no one else was chosen to cover that song.
3. Bird lore + Arata and Souma
The Walk on and on event essentially confirms that the meetings of the two pairs were indeed fate, and that they're soulmates. A word that so fully describes exactly what they are. They complete each other, understand each other and trust each other so, so deeply. Kohane would not be who she is now without An, An would not be who she is now without Kohane. The same applies to Akito and Toya, their meeting is essential to who they are now, they wouldn't have navigated this far without standing shoulder to shoulder, back to back. The best way to describe these feelings, these actions, the way they act and the way they complete each other, two halves of a whole, two sides of the same coin, two parts of the same story, would be love. Platonic or romantic, the text supports both. Kohane and An will keep working hard to become the best possible partner for each other. Akito and Toya are still learning too, how to become even better than the best partner anyone could ask for.
The cards for that event contain a few references to the idea of soulmates two. First, the costumes. Toya and Kohane's costumes for the event have a single wing on the back. Their first recolours change the accent colour to their partner's image colour and flip the side of the wing. This alludes to the mythical Hiyoku bird. A bird with only one wing that will not be able to fly until it meets its other half. Akito and Toya would never have been able to fly, to get as far as they have, if it weren't for that chance meeting on the street. The same applies to An and Kohane, if Kohane hadn't run into An she never would've changed, and An never would've had a partner quite like Kohane. The cards also feature crows, a bird that, notably, mates for life. Toya explicitly states in the event that he wants to stay right beside Akito forever. It's a promise, it's not quite fate but it's the closest a person can get to it with their own actions. Toya is never going to leave Akito's side, and in return, Akito will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him. We see this demonstrated in Toya's card, with Akito literally having broken Toya's cage to reach him, and continue to sit beside him.
KAITO's card is particularly interesting, as it suggests that Akito and Toya, and An and Kohane are not the only fated partners on Vivid Street. KAITO's costume notably already has two wings, a completed whole, only one of them is damaged. Whilst not confirmed, it's highly likely that this is meant to represent Arata and Souma. After all, Souma was an important character in Walk on and on, as was his relationship with Arata. Souma and Arata's relationship has been compared to Akito and Toya's multiple times. Both of them wholly care for and love their partners, as outright stated by KAITO in THE POWER OF UNITY. For Toya, Akito is incredibly important to him. Akito taught him to love music again, Akito introduced him to a whole new world that he only entered out of spite but now is devoted to with his entirety. He has nothing but gratitude for Akito, much like how Souma has nothing but gratitude for Arata. Both of them want to give something back, through the medium both they and their partners love and understand more than anything.
Souma's accident may have made him unable to continue to stand by Arata's side, but Arata will continue to carry the dream that once rested on both their shoulders. It's more complicated for Arata though, who is still clinging to the grief of losing a partner who always stood beside him, a wall placed between them against his will, a wing torn from his shoulder. Dreams can't be carried alone, which is why he can't truly ever carry Souma's dream, nor claim it as his own. He's so caught up in his feelings that he can't realise that he wants this too, that it isn't just for Souma. It's in his honour, the memory of a dream that can't be achieved anymore. Arata's inability to realise this brings him so much pain because he loves Souma, so much, and it crushes him to think that he's betrayed him, in a sense. But once again, they truly are two people who complete each other. Souma wouldn't have reached the heights he did reach if Arata wasn't there beside him, and Arata would not still be on this path if it weren't for Souma leading him along for the first part of the journey.
4. Nagi and RAD WEEKEND
If there's one thing known about fate, it's that fate isn't kind to everyone. Fate was cruel to Nagi, it took her life from her. Her dreams were to be left unfulfilled, half complete. She had no choice in the matter, her story was coming to a close, before she could bring it to a proper conclusion. However, even if her fire burnt out, she still had the time to light a fire in a new generation. Her story will never see a proper end, but she can give her story to a new generation, and inspire them to write their own, one that can be truly completed.
Nagi held RAD WEEKEND as a send-off to herself, one last performance that she could put everything that she could into since she wouldn't have another chance. It was also a chance to create a legacy for herself. Whilst she herself would be gone, her impact would be remembered, be seen by many and inspire them to reach for their dreams, or perhaps give them a new dream. As she looks out to the audience whilst putting her legacy and dreams into the world, she sees An and Akito in the audience. While they wouldn't know it for years, Nagi knows, in that moment, mere days before her death, that these are the children she's inspiring, the ones who will remember, the ones who she's lighting a fire for, a fire that will never burn out. It's fate that Akito was there, it's fate that Nagi saw both him and An, and chose to entrust her life's work to them. Without Nagi, there is no Vivid BAD SQUAD. Without Nagi, An and Akito would not be so passionate, for there is no RAD WEEKEND to be passionate about. Akito wouldn't have chosen Toya as the one to run toward his dreams with, because there would be no dream to run towards. Kohane wouldn't have seen that passionate girl on the street and wished she could be just like her, wish she could be more than herself. And without that, there would never be a Vivid BAD SQUAD, never be a SEKAI, never be an Arata who learnt that he's not alone, or a Kotaro who learnt that he's not as talentless and useless as he believes.
Without Nagi, there's nothing. Her fate was not to die before her story was finished, because she finished her story. Her fate was to pass that story on, allow it to be rewritten and adapted by the ones she inspired with it, allow it to continue on. Nagi had more of an impact than she will ever know, but she knew that it's what she wanted, she knew who she was telling her story to, who she hoped would take what she gave them and run and burn brighter than she ever did. For Vivid BAD SQUAD, for Arata and Souma, for Kotaro, and for Tatsuya, Nagi is what guided them to their fate. Even moreso, she may have created it.
#project sekai#mine#vivid bad squad#rambles#sorry the last part is a bit short. i typed this directly into a discord server over the last 1.5 hours#also its 11:30. pm.#i don't wanna clog tags but for the sake of my blogs organisation:#azusawa kohane#shiraishi an#shinonome akito#aoyagi toya#tono arata#miyata souma#kotaki nagi#and for the fun of it#anhane#akitoya#arasou
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It’s wild to me that the storyboards for Watching and Dreaming depict Odalia taking Camila’s place during this scene, and at a notable distance from the kids here, no less…
It really makes me wonder if the original plan was for Odalia to use the light glyph to awaken the kids from their puppet states, hence the setup of her being in the Archives as the Collector’s servant. She would’ve helped the kids save the people of the Demon Realm, perhaps realizing that her way of life was simply unsustainable, and that she contributed to Belos possessing the Boiling Isles as both knowing bystander and supporter.
They’d ultimately succeed, but Odalia being at a distance from the kids implies that they don’t ever forgive her; They won’t go out of their way to kill Odalia, nor keep her from improving as a person. But they don’t owe her personal forgiveness, which I appreciate. We may still have some variation of this scene where Amity reunites with Alador;
Odalia may or may not be salty, but it still reminds the viewer that even after all that, Amity rightfully doesn’t forgive Odalia, and chooses Alador; While Odalia is visibly upset, but can’t do anything about this but just maintain distance and accept it (Hence why she looks so awkward and closed-off, compared to Camila rejoicing with the kids in the final product).
That makes me wonder if we would’ve seen her in the epilogue, with the group shot depicting Odalia notably isolated from the rest of her family, instead besides Tibbles or something like that, as redeemed capitalists (maybe we should put her at the top left). Her redemption IS accepted, but not by her family members, who still maintain a distance;
Odalia improving herself could also be a way to emphasize one of the themes of the finale; That people can and should be allowed to change, but also they must choose to do so for themselves. Having Odalia be a contrast to Belos would’ve further hammered in that idea; They’re both detested by the fandom as abusive, controlling parents who mold their kids into the image of someone else, are complicit in the same genocide (to varying degrees), represent a particular real-world social ill, etc. Both claim to act on behalf of their families, but it’s clear they’re actually just self-interested.
These parallels highlight that the main difference between these two, why Belos is killed unmourned while Odalia has hopes for a brighter future, is that Odalia actually chose to change. It’s Restorative VS Retributive Justice taken to its natural conclusion; The fact that Odalia is much younger, and thus has turned down far less chances to turn back, also contributes to why she’s actually willing to change, as she hasn’t doubled down the same way Belos did, while still being guilty of some heinous things (Note that Blight Industries, as an arms manufacturer, always got its wealth off of the expectation that others will be hurt and even killed; It’s blood money).
It may also add to the Collector’s story; They’ve failed to redeem Belos, so it’d be easy to believe that their compassion is an inherent mistake, as is giving others a chance, the agency to decide for themselves, etc. So when Luz reassures the Collector that they DID do good… Well, they end up going to the Archives to prevent it from collapsing. And THAT leads to the Collector potentially seeing Odalia, maybe being wary after what happened with Belos (Odalia and Belos are both adults who sought to exploit the Collector for their own ends)…
But the Collector doesn’t let Belos ruin their compassion and accepts Odalia’s change, even if they personally may not forgive her (They have less of a past with Odalia than the other kids, so it’s not as unlikely). Just as Gus felt like his kindness was taken advantage of, only to be reminded afterwards that it’s still worth it in the end when Hunter does reciprocate, we could’ve gotten something like that with the Collector and Odalia.
And on another note, I also wonder if this was the writers’ way of addressing criticisms regarding how Odalia was handled in Clouds on the Horizon, by providing a sympathetic side to her character as compensation; We’re reminded in the episode right after that Eda still remembers her as a stand-offish friend and not an Evil Child, instead of the writers doubling down by excluding Odalia from that flashback. Eda thinks she’s about to die here, but the memory of who Odalia once was is included to comfort her alongside other childhood companions, reminding us she wasn’t always like this and isn’t pure evil (not without working to become that at least).
But by the end of the day, it seems the writers opted to exchange Odalia’s role for Camila having more of a story in the finale, and tbh… I think that’s the right call, I agree with them there. This is the series finale to a show that’s ultimately about Luz, our main protagonist, and it’s why the finale places particular emphasis on Luz, and her relationship with her fellow main protagonists Eda and King. If they did take the Odalia route, I think we still would’ve seen Camila reunite with Luz at the Owl House, meet Eda and King, etc. But…
Camila is Luz’s mother, and their relationship is the inciting, beginning incident of the series. To see it all start because Camila was worried for her daughter, only to finally encounter a worst-case scenario with Luz despite everything she did to improve… and emphasizing her reaction to it, how Camila handles herself, picks herself up because as much as it hurts, she’s got other kids to look after? Just as Camila picked herself up after Manny’s death for Luz’s sake? Or kept herself strong in Yesterday’s Lie for Vee? Good stuff.
It wraps up Camila’s storyline more nicely, as someone whom we began the series with Luz; Camila is more important than Odalia, so I don’t blame the writers at all for prioritizing her. Odalia having a redemption of sorts likely would’ve felt too rushed, and while she contributes to the narrative of Belos, the Collector, and Amity, Camila contributes to Luz’s story and thus takes precedent, especially at this point in the story.
Especially since some have criticized TOH’s handling of characters of color; The crew has shown themselves responsive to these points, hence Luz and Camila’s hair changing in S3. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the criticism of white characters being prioritized over PoC stuck, and contributed to them having Odalia get shafted for Camila, rather than the other way around. It’s not perfect (an ideal situation in terms of budget and/or writing would’ve had both), but it does show a willingness to listen and actually respond to criticism, which I appreciate.
So in the end, the kids are awakened from their puppet states, not by a conscious Odalia who isn’t transformed and stumbles across the light glyph, but because like Camila, Amity is able to muster enough emotional will over her love of Luz to barely nudge her finger... just enough to tap the light glyph and activate it, freeing herself! The kids go out of their way to free Camila for help, and we get to reap the rewards of Camila’s development in how she copes with her daughter’s death, when fear for Luz was what incited the series and led to a less-than-ideal handling of the situation.
Camila gets to guide the kids with glyphs like her daughter does, showing an engagement with the isles after being apprehensive in the previous episode; And a connection to Luz, who has the Titan’s magic and is powering these spells… Camila is unwittingly calling upon her daughter for help and Luz is answering! And when it’s done, Camila gets to stand by the kids and not at a distance, because they love and accept her for having always been a good mother to them.
#the owl house#odalia blight#camila noceda#emperor belos#philip wittebane#the owl house collector#luz noceda#parallels#foils#analysis#speculation#meta
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wait why is lucky believed to be her victim /gen
this post by ryuseiired is very good! please go read it
kotokos t2 music video, notably, is also the only one who extends past her t1 mv "murder" (with mikoto as an exception- because i genuinely have no idea what to make of his t2 mv in terms of murder) to a curious amount- with an interesting focus on lucky. all of the other prisoner's t2 mvs are focused on what happened before/what caused the murder- if lucky was her victim, then this would make kotokos t2 mv align with the rest of the prisoners' t2 mvs.
kotoko, fascinatingly, is also the only prisoner thats been to court for her "murder"- at least that we know of. if milgrams purpose is to judge criminals outside the judicial court of law- is that not redundant? why have none of the other prisoners already been to court? why would kotoko be an outlier to this? unless, of course, kotoko isnt, and her actual "murder" is lucky, who she hasn't been to court for.
kotoko also just parallels or mirrors a lot of the prisoners who have "child murder" on their hands. haruka. shidou. fuuta kajiyama. mikoto in a way not because of his victim but because "john" has the motifs of someone who's been "newly born"- and soon he will "disappear". this argument has less substance though because kotoko literally parallels or mirrors every single prisoner in milgram in some way or another. you could even argue she mirrors yuno- both yuno and kotoko have come to hate a different "side" of themselves. and yuno. uhhhh. well. she doesnt have that baby anymore. heart <3
theres also the new anniversary art!
if kotokos victim was the man she killed- why is she holding the bouquet, which is meant to represent the prisoners victims in some way or another- hidden by her side? should it not be closer to how amanes is to show complete MALICE disrespect? should it not be on the ground beneath her feet if its the criminal she murdered whom she so despises? kotoko is still holding it carelessly, its petals are still going to shed or the flowers will fall- but shes still holding it. she still cares for the bouquet in some capacity. just not as properly as she should. its also worth noting that while haruka's and amane's bouquets have shed, kotoko's still hasnt despite her holding it like that. knives ( @tmasckotoko) also pointed out the absolutely devastating concept of lucky and kotoko "holding hands" bc it slightly looks like thats what she could be doing with the bouquet symbolism. maybe kotoko doesnt even notice shes holding the bouquet dangerously- to mirror her inattentiveness to what leaving lucky behind would do in the end.
youll see people arguing that kotoko DIRECTLY murdered lucky too- which i just completely disagree with. not only does it get rid of one of the main supporting arguments of kotokos murder being "indirect", but kotoko just. wouldnt? do that? her entire thing in harrow is saving children or avenging their deaths. why would she directly kill lucky. in milgram kotoko isnt even capable of hurting a child despite how much she insists she is- she fails to beat up amane post trial 1, and now she's made a deal with haruka to hurt neither him nor muu. (funnily enough though, haruka possibly IS going to indirectly die bc of her encouragement of his plan. MUCH LIKE SOMEONE ELSE YOU KNEW, KOTOKO, WHO WAS DEFINED AS "WEAK" AND ALSO WAS STILL A MINOR?). you can argue that she tried to punch es back in mikotos t1 vd i guess, but she did that with the prior knowledge that itd likely be stopped before it would ever reach them. she also warned es, albeit not very um. succinctly. i just. cant see kotoko hurting lucky directly in any capacity.
oh yeah! theres also the story of jacques roulet- which is the clothing brand that kotoko wears. jacques roulet was a werewolf who was sent to a "madhouse" for eating a child. 👍
#HOPE I COVERED MOST OF THE “LUCKY IS KOTOKOS TRUE VICTIM” THEORY BASES. ANYONE WHO SEES THIS CAN FEEL FREE TO ADD ON#my brain ran out of juice i dont know anything but the word “also”#milgram#kotoko yuzuriha#lucky milgram#milgram analysis#milgram theory#asks#main tagged wooo!!! i feel ive said a lot here
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Thedas: Not a Middle Ages Fantasy But an Ahistorical, Pre-Industrial, Mega Fauna Fantasy
Part 1: Mega Fauna
The long and the short of it? Thedas is an ahistorical world with magic, two moons, giant fauna - giants, dragons, giant bears, giant arachnids, and has some "ancient" and recent technology that would reach as late as the 1800-1900s in our timeline - such as bunsen burners, smokeless coal, table saw, thresher, heliography, and theodolite. Nothing about Thedas is a 1:1 equivalent for Earth and never has been, we know from the devs that it wasn't the intention either. From a fantasy perspective it is a blend of your typical fantasy stories with adventure, dragons, magic, elves and dwarves, varying mythology, and culture ending events; mixed with a venture into a "what if" ahistorical history.
In the case of Dragon Age, Gaider mentions it was a "what if our own history had magic and elves and dwarves?" and "how might Christianity be different if, instead of Jesus, it had been founded by Joan of Ark?" and subverting tropes of fantasy while still being recognizable: elves being brought low vs aloof and immortal; dwarves bring political schemers vs stouthearted Scotsmen; mages who were feared for good reason.
These were the basic foundations going into Dragon Age, and the spirit of those things is evident through out the series. While there are clear moments of parallels, allegories, and themes of the modern world, our world; I think that, for better or worse, the series has kept to the spirit of those foundations. Keeping things recognizable while exploring the world they've crafted, that grows as the team grows.
Its the spirit of that foundation that really lends to the idea of Thedas being a mega flora and fauna world.
Disclaimer and Considerations:
Take all of this with a grain of salt, whether you take it or leave it. Aside from the actual lore mentioned (with sources next to it) all of this is estimations and based off of known art standards or "canon" as the term is called.
Size is a hard thing to nail down in Dragon Age, the scaling and modeling between the games - main and all additional third party installment - are inconsistent at best largely due to limitations and scope of the game. Such limitations we see reflected in Bull not being 8' and instead is 6'9, the fact that the nightmare demon was scaled down because of scope. Then there are the cinematic scenes, they aren't reliable as they often have models float, sunk into the ground, or given camera angles that force perspectives.
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Concept art is a touch more reliable in the idea of the intention but isn't any more hard fact due to the question of if the intention was carried through or not due to tech limitations or design choices.
In consideration of concept art I want to clarify a principal used in art that I will be referencing. Traditionally when drawing characters, artists will use proportional canons. Which is when one uses the height of the character’s head as a unit, to have the proportions of the body match natural ratios. A good write up of this concept is linked here and here.
Content warning for everyone, there will be mentions and/or depictions of the following:
Multi-eyed creatures
Scorpions
Spiders
This post also includes images from the following:
The Missing comic
Dragon Age Absolution
Part 1a: Does Thedas Actually Have Mega Fauna?
Yes, they do. Now the first thought might be the obvious dragons, giants, wyverns, titans, and some magical creatures. But there are some creatures of which we have actual measurable sizes for.
I have the more "concrete" fauna separated into two categories: known sizes and comparable sizes. Known is as stated in lore, if we're given fixed numbers at any point, while comparable sizes are for creatures who we either have vague descriptions or equated to something we know the sizes for.
Comparable sizes are also separated from known sizes as they either have variations, or I am unsure of the lore for them still holds; as with anything dao, game guides, and ttrpg on this blog, these are treated and considered as canon unless clear contradictions are available.
Known Sizes
Giant spiders:
Their scale isn't measured by how high they stand on the ground or by body length but from leg to leg. Or rather that is what you would expect for them to be measured by, but it is hard to say for sure. I run with the leg to leg measurement for the provided size in canon; where they are/can be 12' / 3.65m.
[Codex]
Looking at extracted game models (which aren't reliable for in-game models) the giant spider stands at 3' 11.28" / 1.2m and measures 5' 4.2" / 1.63m leg to leg.
Griffons:
Their length is 12' / 3.65m or larger with even larger wingspans. Males can weigh over 1,000 lbs / 453.59kg while females are a little less.
[Last Flight ch. 2 p. 31]
For context of how big both of these are length wise, on average: Javan rhinos are 12'5 / 3.8m in length, Indian rhinos are between 10.8’-12.5’ / 3.3-3.8m in length, African forest elephants are between 7.22’-12.13’ / 2.2-3.7m in length, African Bush elephants are 10’-16.5’ / 3-5m in length, thresher sharks can be 10.5’-20’ / 3.2-6.1m long, female great white sharks have an overall length of 15’-21’ / 4.57-6.4 m; males 11’-13’ / 3.35-3.96 m. Most crocodiles exceed that with an average of 13-14' / 3.96-4.26m.
If you're like me and that just is a jumble of words, below are the size comparison to a 6' / 1.83m male figure, the scuba diver is roughly the same length as well. I had to edit the horizontal figures to compare lengths but scale wise they are still 6' / 1.83m. I also spliced together multiple images so they would be easier to see (and tumblr has a 30 image limit).
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[Image Sources from left to right, top to bottom:
Rhinos: Javan Rhino, Indian Rhino
Elephants: African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant
Crocodiles: American Crocodile, Mugger Crocodile
Sharks: Thresher Shark, Great White Shark]
Comparable Sizes
Mabari:
Stated as being as tall and as wide as dwarves*; going off the dwarf heights from Inquisition game models would put them at a range of 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02cm.** This is unclear if they mean from the head or shoulder, which typically you would measure quadrupeds from the shoulder. Something to note however, the mabari extracted models from Inquisition measure at 3' 4.6" / 1.03m at the shoulder but 4' 2" / 1.27m at the head.
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This is also roughly echoed in the concept art, where the shoulder height lines up with the shoulder height of the extracted model from Inquisition, however is closer to the dwarf height range when measuring from the top of the head.
Either way mabari are considered giant breeds when looking at dogs. Regardless of if they are the height of a dwarf 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02cm or the height shown in the extracted model or concept art of 3' 4.6" / 1.03m at the shoulder but 4' 2" / 1.27m at the head. The largest dog in the real world was a great dane at 3' 5.18" / 1.046m.***
*[Dragon Age Tabletop (da ttrpg), Blood in Ferelden]
**[Source]
***[Source]
Deepstalkers:
There is a bit of a variant with their sizing scale across all entries. From being able to curl up to be the size of boulders or large rocks.* To The Calling describes them as follows
The “stalagmite” unfolded, revealing a serpentine creature with a long and wormlike neck that ended in a maw full of sharp teeth. Its mottled skin was almost perfectly camouflaged to match the stone around it.
He noticed where the creature’s limbs folded up under its carapace, where it tucked its long neck under its body. Hidden in plain sight, the disguise was almost perfect.
Meanwhile the Missing comic shows them as being much larger than Harding, a dwarf. The ttrpg also describes them as "small reptilian creatures". There also seems to be sizes difference noted between each type of deepstalker: deepstalker, leader, and matriarch.
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[Image Sources: BioWare Promo Material, Dragon Age Wiki, and The Missing Comic #1]
Additional measurements include the odd 2' 6.3" / .77m from the extracted model from Inquisition which doesn't line up with the in-game sizing as they're proportionally much larger when next to a dwarf. Then when looking at the concept art scaling from the red dev book shared by Mark Darrah, they stand nearly 6' / 1.83m.
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So there is a stark range of size difference as well as really any consistency when it comes to the bipedal, raptor-like, predators.
*Note the range for what is a large rock and what is a boulder is pretty vague.
**This is based on various screenshots as pictured above. Comparing them to Shale, a human character, dwarves, and an elf.
*** [World of Thedas (WoT) vol. 1 p. 163, Origins game guide, da ttrpg, The Calling novel, and The Missing Comic]
Dragonlings:
Specifically when they are newly hatched are the size of a deer. At the shoulder they'd be 2'8 - 3' / 81 - 91cm. Their length could be from 3'1 - 7'2 / 95 - 220cm.
[Dragonling Codex]
*Note the ttrpg does denote that they are the size of a young deer, which would be about 1 1/2 years old. This is distinctly different from a fawn and they are the same size height wise as a mature deer. It is simply a difference in muscle mass.
Here is a helpful comparison of a white tail deer, one of the more common deer:
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[Image Source]
Below is concept art from Tom Rhodes that I have cropped for a much clearer view. The shoulder height of the dragonling reaches roughly the same height as deer above.
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[Image Source]
Part 1b
Sizing from Concept art and Development
Here, I want to look at the concept art of creatures, while acknowledging that they don't always end up on the same scale in game - due to a variety of technical reasons. As we see with the fact that spiders are not 12' / 3.65m in game nor are they close to that.
But with that in mind, we can at least glean the intention if not what might be more reflective of the lore. As we know, not all of da lore is game engine/mechanic friendly and thus there is merit in seeing if we can measure through comparison of in dev work. Especially thanks to the human comparison in some of them.
One piece of such concept art that suggests mega fauna is the design guide for da4 that was teased to us by Mark Darrah in 2016 and in the BioWare: Secrets and Stories From 25 Years of Game Development (B25) p. 274.
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Using this, we can tell what might have been the intended -- again if it is not reflected in game -- size for the animals in Thedas. However, I will note for the sake of clarity that this isn't perfect reference; as some of the scaling seems to be questionable/warping. This is after all, an image of a picture in a book. I would be thrilled to see if we ever get to see a flat image of this.
But what we can see when we clean it up, and line up everything while cross referencing other concept art; the scaling seems to work out something like this with the human figure in the center being the "hero" proportions/ideals that would make his height 6'2 / 1.88m.
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Great Bear
Some of the concept art that we can use for comparisons are pieces such as the concept art for the Great Bear and Quillback (development name dragon bear and vulture hyena):
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Going off the stock hero height for female it is 5'6 - 5'7.5 / 1.67 - 1.71m and for males it is 6' - 6'2 / 1.83 - 1.88m. That would make a great bear roughly 10'11 - 11'2 / 3.34 - 3.42m in this concept art. However in the red book, the scaling suggest it is around 14' / 4.26m. Which is an example of how the book as reference might either be unreliable or the new updated intention for the scaling/design.
Regardless of which numbers you favor, when you look at those scales in contrast to our two largest modern bears:
Kodiak Bear: 3'4 - 5' / 1.02 - 1.52m at the shoulder, 6'5 - 9' / 1.96 - 2.74m in length, and 9' - 10' / 2.75 - 3.05m standing upright
Polar Bear: 3'7 - 5'3 / 1.09 - 1.6 m (male) or 2’8 - 3’11 / .81-1.19 m (female) at the shoulder, 7’10 - 9’10 / 2.4-3 m length, and 8’ - 10’ / 2.5 - 3.05 m standing upright
Note: I have edited together the sourced images for clearer scaling.
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[Image Sources:
Bears: Kodiak Bear, Polar Bear]
Additionally when looking at the tarot cards, which also tend to echo concept art more than the final game we see this massive and dramatic height difference for great bears.
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Another varying size reference we have from concept art is this piece by Tom Rhodes comparing the great bear to the normal bear/brown bear. This is in direct conflict with the scale illustrated in the dev book, though this could simply be due to the stage of development this was created in as it looks to be a draw over of a game model when looking at the great bear.
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[Image Source]
Nightmare Demon
The Nightmare demon, or "Blinky" as fans call it, or "Smilely" as Varric calls it. This is however a demon so it's appearance and size can change due to influences outside of its control, I want to acknowledge that. This one was something I wasn't expecting to make a comparison with, as we know that not only was the final version of this demon scaled well as it seems that part of it was cut off in the dev book. But I found this concept art from Heroes of Dragon Age (HoDA) and I believe it roughly matches up with the dev book in terms of scale. It might be scaling larger however, I cannot say with any certainty. And when comparing it to the game model in DAI, this is actually a little smaller in comparison. The extracted game model of the Nightmare demon is 93.47' / 28.49m, while in comparison this concept art implies that it is 54.5' / 16.61m when you measure the silhouette which we can estimate to be 6'2.
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[Image Source]
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You can see how much they sized down the nightmare demon for HoDA (which is understandable given the constraints of a mobile game), especially when you scale them down to show the actual difference. Which is funny considering the nightmare demon is greatly scaled down from the original concept.
Phoenix
Another piece we have, is concept art for the phoenix. Unlike with the hero figure from before, we are estimating Orisino's height based on the height of elven game models. This would put Orisinao at 5'9 - 6' / 1.75 - 1.83m for an elven male.
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[Image Source]
This height reference is echoed and reinforced when we look at the dev book from B25 and Mark Darrah. When you bring the phoenix over to line it up with the hero character in the center, it puts the shoulder a phoenix is roughly 6'2. Implying that, at least for this art, Oresino is within that 5'9-6' / 1.75-1.83m range as his height is lower than the shoulder.
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As you can see the extracted game model is not comparable due to the fact it, like the bears are not at all the same size as their in-game models. They are being scaled up a great deal to what we see in game. The extracted model height for the phoenix is 2' 7.4" / 0.8m, which is much shorter than their in-game counter part that shows it to be around the height of the human/elf character if not a little taller.
Quillback
Shown in the concept art with the great bear, we do have scalable concept art with the quillback and we are able to see that it does line up with the scaling for the dev book. It is also roughly the same size as the extracted game model. It's shoulder height being 4' 10.6" / 1.49m. The quillback also seems to be one of the few creatures where their in game counter part matches up with their model and concept art.
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Part 1 Conclusion
As we can see with all the comparable or confirmed sizing of these creatures in Thedas, most are predators and scavengers, fairly large ones at that. So much so, it would dictate a high oxygen content in the atmosphere, plenty of prey to fuel animals of this size, and plenty of land area to allow for the biodiversity that we see. Even down to the subterranean level as well.
We know that gravity also works differently in Thedas, to a degree it is requires as to allow creatures the size of dragons and griffons fly, and giants roam the surface. But also to allow dwarves ranging from 4'9-5'3 / 144.78-160.02 cm to live 2-4 miles / 3.21-6.43 km below sea level + the distance from the actual surface. To give context, the deepest cave we've explored on earth is the Veryovkia cave at 1.37 miles / 2.12 km deep and the entrance to the cave is 1.41 miles / 2.28 km above sea level. Meaning the deepest cave doesn't even go down to sea level.
But with all that said, I'm only wrapping up here as I'm running out of image allowance for this post. I'll continue this in the next part, and if you've read this far, thank you.
Wanna support this blog? You can check out my ko-fi.
#dragon age#cw spiders#cw scorpions#dragon age meta#fauna of thedas#mega fauna thedas#dragon age the missing#da the missing#dragon age absolution#dai#da absolution#dragon age inquisition#heroes of dragon age#HoDA#concept art#long post#I think aside from my food and map posts this might be my longest post yet#I'm only allowed 30 images per post which I feel is unfair. Give me 32 or 40#This has been sitting in my drafts since February. Mostly finished but I just couldn't tell if it was easy to follow lol#I think about the mega fauna in Thedas a lot.#there will be a part 2 because I had to cut this short... yeah this is short.
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writing down my overall thoughts on the live action
first of all, i walked into my step dad watching it of his own free will - and then me and my entire family sat down to watch it. both my step dad and mom had never seen the cartoon in their life, so this was a first time viewing for them. they enjoyed it. my mom even asked where season 2 was. so i think the live action served its main purpose - get new people who haven't watched or wouldn't have watched the cartoon into the franchise. they did it! yippee.
anyways, my own thoughts have an inherent bias due to having seen and loved the cartoon. i believe my parents when they say that from their perspective, it holds up on its own. obviously, i don't think it was ever going to be better than the cartoon, but wanted to write my opinions what i liked, changes i enjoyed and changes i didn't, etc.
putting it under a read more because this sucker is long:
i don't know anything about film making - set design, props, fashion, cgi, etc. nothing particularly stood out to me in a way that ruined the show, and i only really pay attention to it when it serves the story. so i'm just not going to comment on it for the most part. most of this is about writing choices i liked or disliked. anyways here we go.
the good:
aang was a highlight for me. i know some people have problems with moving his backstory to the very beginning of the story, but i liked it. it immediately made me get in aang's shoes and feel his connection with his people, his home, and gyatso - and made it very easy to connect with his grief when he woke up from the iceberg. live action really emphasizes the last airbender part of the title throughout, and how aang feels isolated in his duty as the avatar, as the last airbender preserving his culture, and by being from another world - lost in time.
i liked how he sought out his past lives so often. really makes him feel like a child who doesn't know what he's doing and had the rug pulled out from under him by losing gyatso too soon. he's looking for adult guidance, and kyoshi, roku, and kuruk are all there telling aang THEIR version of how to be the avatar. feels like good set up for later when aang gets to define HIS version of the avatar, and how he wants to bring peace to the world. we already see it with their versions of the avatar feeding into aang's feelings of guilt and self-isolation - that he needs to do things on his own. it gets concluded with katara and sokka declaring him family, and they won't leave no matter what.
in that nature: adding more emphasis on katara's grief as well, since it was APPARENTLY not enough for people watching the cartoon and called her whiny for mentioning it. in general, it feels weird that katara's flashback to her backstory happened in season 3 of the cartoon when there was a whole episode dedicated to aang and zuko's backstory all the way in season 1, another one for zuko's backstory in season 2, and then bato of the water tribe elaborated on sokka being left by hakoda. glad to get katara backstory earlier. love you katara <3
and from that: sokka and katara's conflict being about if she should waterbend. feels very natural and something they would fight over. it is a vital aspect to their culture, but also if word gets out there is a waterbender in the village, there could be another raid.
aang stealing zuko's notebook is another highlight. it is both such a petty kid thing to steal and be upset about someone reading your diary, but also it actually serves a purpose in giving aang a guide for his avatar journey. the show sacrificed paralleling aang and zuko's backstories like the storm, but they still intertwine aang and zuko's story through this notebook and the connection aang makes with zuko through it. very sweet.
in that note: the set design adding little things such as those little statues in zuko's room. feels like it really was lived in by someone obsessed with finding the avatar for 3 years. i really liked details like that they put throughout the show
suki extrapolation with her mother and her conflict of being duty-bound to her village but wanting to see the world, and how this relates to sokka. made me genuinely invested in their relationship in a way i wasn't from the cartoon. i also loved the actress' portrayal of suki, she's so awkward and i love it. need to see more of her.
iroh in season 1 of the cartoon feels less like his own fleshed out character and more of a comedic relief expansion of zuko's b plot. he's made to make zuko's slice of the show more fit for a fun kids show by giving him someone to talk to and be funny with. he's a fun tea-loving uncle, but it's hard to parse what he really feels until later. live action iroh keeps that fun tea-loving aspect, but he has his own baggage and its GREAT. i think i genuinely enjoyed live action iroh more than the cartoon. he has so much more growing to do. could talk about this version of iroh (and his relationship with zuko) forever. i need season 2 just for him.
iroh and aang's prison arc together.
making zuko's crew have issues with him earlier and making them 41st division was nice. i really liked that change.
secret tunnel with familial love between katara and sokka was so cute. enjoyed it.
the ???:
azula and ozai's addition is a 50/50 to me. i think the sick power plays ozai is doing between his two children are genuinely interesting. the change in how ozai doles out praise and the dynamics between azula and zuko is also interesting and i enjoyed it. but i also find their screen time unnecessary. could be used to further the dynamic between the main protagonists, or they could be saved for season 2 or 3. did like how azula used zhao to thwart zuko and it fucked zuko up immensely in the head. very nice. also not sure how i feel about azula being good at archery, feels like getting good at a nonbending discipline isn't something that meshes well with her character for me, but that's a nitpick.
combining plotlines such as jet and the mechanist in omashu + the change with bumi was... fine? it served its purpose. liked some aspects and didn't like others.
the spirit world stuff was really cool and i enjoyed how koh preys on people lost in the fog. very interesting concepts that got us to be able to experience katara and sokka's backstory first hand. felt immersive to me. but also wtf, wan shi tong? katara and sokka being gone from the plot for so long? come backkkkkk! COME BACK! DO WE HAVE TIME FOR YOU TO BE IN SPIRIT JAIL WHEN I HAVEN"T SEEN YOU GUYS INTERACT ENOUGH? i did like yue being in the spirit world and interacting with sokka. that was cute as hell.
northern water tribe and yuekka had parts i liked and parts i didn't. they kept the sexism and arranged marriage but also yue opted out? feels detrimental to yue and sokka's relationship and how they connect to each other out of their sense of duty. did really like hahn being nice, it would have been really interesting to see how yue felt stifled with an arranged marriage even if hahn was perfect. also liked yue being able to waterbend and the little scene with yue and sokka making dessert, so cute. yue freezing sokka to the ground before sacrificing herself.... didn't like that. wish they let sokka let her go, understanding it was her choice.
katara in the nwt as well. katara fighting master pakku and losing, but everyone watching thought she was SO COOL. loved the guy asking how she did the ice disks and she has to teach him. but confused on the fact that pakku doesn't take her as a student, and we don't see her being taught but people still refer to her as a master. i'm going to assume she learned waterbending by learning from her fanclub and also teaching them her moves.
why did they almost kill momo?
the bad:
everyone and their mother has said the exposition is bad so i won't hammer it home too much. this isn't actually much of a problem for me because it was actually necessary to get the point home to my mom who was watching it for the first time. i was also told that screen test audiences asked for the exposition to be added in the first episode after production, so i don't have much to say there.
aang's decision to leave home not being running away but due to the fact that he was stepping out to get a breather. this felt like a weird change to me, since the rest of the show hammers in about aang running away from his problems and his duties in a way the cartoon doesn't. would have felt WAY more heartwrenching to see the temples under attack while aang runs away from being the avatar and it would have hit harder when gyatso tells aang to let go of that guilt and pain... that it wasn't his fault. it was harder to feel the root of aang's guilt when i know that he didn't even plan to leave for very long. alas!
continuing from that point about aang's attribute of 'running away': lack of episodic plotlines. everyone and their mother has also hammered home about the lack of them from cartoon. i don't actually hate the change, but i do think it does some disservice to aang's character that they didn't adjust for. i'm being told that aang runs away, but i haven't been shown aang doing so. i've been seeing aang do his duty as the avatar and research it every episode. give me a reason to believe why this is a character flaw that aang needs to face.
similarly, i think this does a detriment to katara's role in book 1. since aang is more focused on what he needs to do as the avatar, katara becomes more his partner in finding out more about what it means to be the avatar instead of pushing him to be more motivated into doing so. (ex: 'we need to continue on our journey and not stay on kyoshi island' or 'we need to help haru in this village')
aang, katara, and sokka get separate plotlines so much that they don't feel like a solid dynamic. again, detriment of the lack of the smaller episodic plots. does make more sense that katara says aang is family at the end of season 1 instead of the beginning for this reason, though.
katara feels like one of the weakest aspects of the show to me. katara doesn't get the narration. katara isn't the first thing when aang gets out of the ice. and katara's rage just feels lost. i think a simple script or direction change in ep 1-2 to make katara's actress play her with more of that rage during her arguments with sokka would've worked wonders. katara has this feeling of anger at injustice that motivates her throughout the cartoon and i don't feel it here. also miss some of her sass - katara should've hit aang in the head with an acorn.
sokka's weird engineer arc? he's a warrior. why are you saying it's okay to not be a warrior when he is - what is up with setting up sokka as a disappointment to hakoda? HELLO? DOES ANYONE HEAR ME? i'm confused where they're going with this, please tell me that sokka has misinterpreted and created that memory due to insecurity. this is where my bias is totally coming in. this worked fine for my parents who hadn't ever seen it. BUT WHERE ARE THEY HEADING WITH THIS?
kinda wish information about zuko's situation was dropped more subtly throughout instead of zuko being like "my father banished me and i need the avatar to get back" like episode 1. like ok give me a moment to just be like "ugh this zuko kid is a fucking BITCH" before i have to feel for him, damn.
also zuko going straight to barbecuing feels weird to his character when they're also trying to tell us that zuko's capable of kindness and also has a strict honor code? zuko is against using bounty hunters in a way he's not in the cartoon. he talks down on the terrorism in omashu since its not 'honorable', but he also was about to burn katara who was down on the ground. of course, realistically if you're throwing fire around, you are going to burn people. but there was a suspension of disbelief in the animated version that isn't in the live action. zuko does things such as immediately resorting to fire instead of hand to hand in his fight with sokka. in the live action, i'd expect zuko to use MORE hand to hand in comparison to fire, not less. plus the fact they took out moments such as zuko not burning zhao in the agni kai or holding his hand out to save him during the north. weird dissonance at points with his character for me.
#cal.ibrations#i wrote an essay but . yeah.#might add or change my mind about some of this idk but for the most part these are what stuck out. YIPPEE!#i love hearing other ppls thoughts and reading what people say so i thought id put mine out there heehee
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I finished Rise of the Red Blade this morning and I think I genuinely liked it, to the point that I started mentally composing essays about the main character's journey and the parallels she had with other Star Wars characters and how so much of this book supported everything I've been saying about the dark side and what it does to people, as well as unreliable narrators, and even things where I thought they might be swerving into unfair critical territory on the part of the narrative wound up ultimately being almost delivered to me on a silver platter for how I was fucking right.
But I don't think I would recommend it and would even anti-rec it to fellow Jedi fans who have had their nerves scraped raw, unless you are into sharp-edged female characters as much as I am.
This book is for all the fans who want a hot mess of a female character who is allowed to be cruel and mean and wrong and all up in her head and unreliable and have moments of absolute yearning that made my heart ache for her and moments of awesome and that she gets to fail and be consumed by the dark and her story is worth telling. If I can love Anakin Skywalker through his descent into the dark, I can love Iskat Akaris through her descent into the same place.
This is a book about what it's like to choose the dark side, to believe she's right and that she's free and that she'll get everything she wants--except it's all just kind of nothing in the end. She believes so strongly that the Jedi wronged her, that they never cared about her, that their beliefs were empty, but she says this deep in the dark side and everything we can see outside of her perspective shows that they were trying to help her, she just isn't allowed to go around embracing anger and violence.
And it's a book about how mental illness makes it hard to see things clearly. As someone who has struggled with it for my entire life, who only really began to make progress once I accepted that my brain lies to me when it tells me that my friends and family find me to be a burden and would hate me if they knew the real me--ohhhh, do I see a lot of myself in Iskat Akaris.
And it's a book about how it doesn't half-ass that descent. She gets to be genuinely cruel. She gets to be genuinely whole-hearted about her beliefs in the dark side have set her free and is good. She gets to be genuinely a giant ball of uncontrolled emotional thorns that she uses to hurt herself as much as other people. This is a book that's not afraid of making its main character unlikeable and, through that, making her beloved to me.
If you're not into a book with sharp edges and hissing lies about the Jedi, then skip this one, just don't even read this review, because it's not going to change your mind. But if you're like me and love drama and love when a narrative doesn't actually spell things out for you, but provides all the context you need if you actually watch what the Jedi say and do, not what Iskat says they say and do, it delivers a story that I think supports my view of the Jedi pretty well.
This is a story about choosing the dark and all the darkness that comes with that. It's not nice, it's not gentle. I mean, it's still a Star Wars book, but if you like awful women getting to actually be awful in ways that you can sympathize with, the ways that male characters so often get to be, then I genuinely enjoyed this book for that.
#lumi.txt#star wars#novels#novels: rise of the red blade#<--blacklist that if you're not into this kind of book
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